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We are selling our house and it has been on the market for about 3 weeks or so. We have had plenty of people come through but no offers. We were close on 2 of them but it didn't work out.
My question is this, I would like to cancel out of our agreement and list it for sale by owner. I want to do this so I can lower the price about 8,000. I will NOT do this unless I don't have to lose fees to our realtor, hence the need to opt out of the contract.
Is there some sort of procedure for doing this? I know that if someone who has seen it already buys it we owe our realtor commision.
All listing agreements are different so you'll have to read your listing agreement and look for the cancelation clause. Also look for a paragraph that starts something like "Broker fee is due in the following circumstances". Those paragraphs should spell out exactly how you cancel the contract and what you are still obligated to.
Canceling after only 3 weeks on the market to go FSBO seems a bit rash to me. Especially if your agent is working diligently and has already gotten many showings. I know in the contracts we use there is a definate out if you wanted to as long as you pay for the marketing costs we already spent. You are still obligated to pay the broker fee if you sell to anyone that inquired about the house during the listing period, for up to 3-6 months. If you list with another realtor however this doesn't apply.
That being said, agreements usually place complete discretion on cancellation with the broker. You can be held to the contract until it's agreed upon termination date.
It sounds like you are getting a lot of action on your home already and your agent is doing their job very well. Price usually is the issue but it's still finding that one person who wants to buy it. It's in the numbers. I find my overpriced properties don't get shown. You're getting good exposure, it doesn't sound like price is the issue.
I don't understand why you would want to pull the plug now.
It sounds like you are getting a lot of action on your home already and your agent is doing their job very well. Price usually is the issue but it's still finding that one person who wants to buy it. It's in the numbers. I find my overpriced properties don't get shown. You're getting good exposure, it doesn't sound like price is the issue.
I don't understand why you would want to pull the plug now.
The reason I would want to pull the plug is that the 2 times it hasn't worked out, if we had just been around $8,000 to 10,000 lower, it would have gone.
I honestly think if we dropped the price $8,000 it would be gone in a week or 2. I can't do that though and then lose another 6% on top of the 8,000 it would be dropped.
We lost out on a sale on Tuesday to a house that was $10,000 less than ours but not as nice, not as big and less land. I know this because we knew the showing agent and she had already told us that we were right at the top of these people's price range. That $8,000 I want to drop it is what made the difference.
If it's an "exclusive right to sell" they will probably get the commission regardless of who sells it. The advice on looking at your contract is great advice. You could shoot yourself in both feet by trying to cancel now. If you cancel, and do your own sale, and still have to pay the full commission to the selling agent...well you still lose the money, but you lose the professional marketer and adviser. In addition, you mentioned "6%" as something you could save. Keep in mind the "only" reason those people were brought to your house by buying agents, is because there is a commission for those buying agents. An agent who only gets paid based on the set commission from the seller, will not take their clients to a house which has no buyer's agent commission. They would get paid zero...so who in their right mind would give up a paycheck to sell your house.
Another thing to consider... if you're that close to the threshold, and you are having some interest, it doesn't sound like your in that bad of a situation. You're getting a lot of interest and walk through in an extremely short amount of time. Most houses don't sell in the first month these days, unless there well under market value.
I think GregTraub brings up a good point too... Is it worth that extra $8k not to sell? Also, just lowering your price now doesn't mean you will get those buyers back... there could be people out there who will buy it at your price.
Another thing to mention is once you go FSBO and treat you current agent that way if you don't sell it you will pay heck getting another good agent for fear you will do the same to them. Also, you run the risk of agents not showing your house once it's a FSBO.
After going through 10 houses so far I can tell you once you start the lowering game it doesn't stop. Lowering your price at this point is shooting yourself in the foot IMO as you are getting a lot of traffic at the current price, you just need the right person. I know it's frustrating, been there done that but 3 weeks isn't long at all. Just look at it this way, now there is less competition to deal with.
Stay the course IMO and good luck!
Remember, you will always be 8k above what someone wants to pay!!!
....Lowering your price at this point is shooting yourself in the foot IMO as you are getting a lot of traffic at the current price,
He makes a good point about something I hadn't considered. If they are coming to look at your house, it's within their price range, and they are interested. I know I never bothered to go visit a house that was "overpriced" in my mind when I was looking at houses from my agent.
We are selling our house and it has been on the market for about 3 weeks or so. We have had plenty of people come through but no offers. We were close on 2 of them but it didn't work out.
My question is this, I would like to cancel out of our agreement and list it for sale by owner. I want to do this so I can lower the price about 8,000. I will NOT do this unless I don't have to lose fees to our realtor, hence the need to opt out of the contract.
Is there some sort of procedure for doing this? I know that if someone who has seen it already buys it we owe our realtor commision.
Thanks for the help.
bls5555 I have questions for you though....how did you not have any offers but were close on 2 of them? If you were close obviously you were entertaining offers.
Call me a cynical realtor but it seems the realtor generated the traffic and now you want to cut him out. The fact that you say lose fees to a realtor says it all.
You do not value a brokerage relationship so why list in the first place?
Call me a cynical realtor but it seems the realtor generated the traffic and now you want to cut him out. The fact that you say lose fees to a realtor says it all.
You do not value a brokerage relationship so why list in the first place?
Realtor generated traffic? Do you mean sticking it on the MLS and letting other agents show it? Haha, I can do that on iggyshouse.com.
Not trying to insult all realtors because there are many that do help out buyers, but why does it seem like every realtor thinks that nobody else can do the exact same thing they do? Newsflash but I haven't looked at a single house I haven't found for myself on the internet and my selling agent hasn't shown this house 1 single time. Now explain to me why I am losing 6%?
What brokerage relationship are you talking about? The part where I sign the contract at the beginning, sign it at the end, give away 6% and never see the realtor after that or in between? Sounds like a one sided relationship to me.
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