Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I wrote 5-6 offers for kids who kept getting blown out. So it goes.
On the next one, they had battle fatigue.
We wrote an offer for $250,000.
They said, "Should we go $260,000 to be stronger?"
Me: "No. Don't do that. We're good."
Got the contract.
2.4% buyers agent commission.
$6,000 for me. After LOTS of chasing and kissing frogs.
Saved them $10,000 in one stroke. Did I earn my money?
Let's see how it might have gone:
Example 1.
Listing agent and unrepresented buyer:
"$260,000? Let me talk to the sellers.
.....
.....
Sellers say, 'Yes, that will get it done.'"
$10,000 pissed away, but the listing agent gets $500 or $600 of that $10,000.
Example 2.
Dual Agent:
"$260,000? Yes, that would be stronger. Should I write it up?"
Example 3. How I did it.
$250,000. Keep the $10,000.
Which one is more appealing to the average buyer who is stretching their budget?
"Monty! Monty! Monty! I'll take Door #3!"
The housing market is driven by people who need help. Great people with many other creditable skill sets and laudable personal attributes. It was generally an honor to be chosen to serve them.
I’ve used a real estate attorney in lieu of a buyer’s agent. Works just as well in most (not all!) cases and saves a load of cash.
RM
How exactly did you go about that? What did the process entail?
I will likely go this route as well. My company offers fantastic group legal benefits, so I may likely be able to do this for free (other than the measly $180 yearly premium of course). In all likelihood my wife and I may sell the house and purchase another going this route.
Why pay a "realtor" $20,000+ on a home that's going to sell in the $370,000-380,000 range? $20,000 is a lot of money for doing what most people perceive as very little real work.
What is the value that real estate agents even offer? A lot of people are questioning how the guild operates.
Idea: Can't we all just sell our properties at the courthouse where the transaction is recorded anyway and call it a day?
2.4% buyers agent commission.
$6,000 for me. After LOTS of chasing and kissing frogs.
Saved them $10,000 in one stroke. Did I earn my money?
Hey Mike....$10,000 divided by 30 years equals a drop in the bucket. Barely worth fighting over.
By the time 2053 rolls around we'll all be paying the bank a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich. Average wages will be over $200/hr. and the national debt will be in the quadrillions.
How exactly did you go about that? What did the process entail?
I will likely go this route as well. My company offers fantastic group legal benefits, so I may likely be able to do this for free (other than the measly $180 yearly premium of course). In all likelihood my wife and I may sell the house and purchase another going this route.
Why pay a "realtor" $20,000+ on a home that's going to sell in the $370,000-380,000 range? $20,000 is a lot of money for doing what most people perceive as very little real work.
What is the value that real estate agents even offer? A lot of people are questioning how the guild operates.
Idea: Can't we all just sell our properties at the courthouse where the transaction is recorded anyway and call it a day?
LOLOLOLOLOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by RayHammer
Hey Mike....$10,000 divided by 30 years equals a drop in the bucket. Barely worth fighting over.
By the time 2053 rolls around we'll all be paying the bank a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich. Average wages will be over $200/hr. and the national debt will be in the quadrillions.
The cool thing:
There was no fight over $10,000.
It was never on the table for the sellers to see.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
10,345 posts, read 8,559,492 times
Reputation: 16679
Quote:
Originally Posted by johngolf
No agent makes any money until the property is sold so any agent in the deal will push to make a sale happen. It is the nature of the beast.
While the first part is true, I don’t think any good agent would do the second part. One sale commission gets ruined by bad reviews by an unhappy buyer.
A good agent is thinking long game. There’s always another deal down the road.
If agents were paid by the hour, we'd be accused of trying to delay deals or keep looking at more and more houses.
I work to close deals because THAT'S WHAT THE CLIENT WANTS TOO! Is this not important to the parties in the deal? It seems obvious to me. The transaction is, and will always be, their idea. This is their dream, their goal. And I work to keep it together until the MOMENT the client no longer wants the deal, then I work to get them out of it.
I don't talk people into buying homes, or selling homes. I DO tell them things I see about both the properties and the deals, both positive and negative, so they can decide. This idea that agents even try to make people buy houses they don't want, or sell houses they don't want to sell, is la la land.
Now I'm weighing these 2 concepts against one another:
Here's my thought process:
The listing agent is not my ally. Even if I make that agent my representative in order to give them the full commission, they are still not my ally. And they could be my adversary. I cannot assume the agent will be ethical. (Thank you Silverfall for coming up with a way to make me see that adversary part.) This has given me a reason not to go for dual agency as a buyer.
BUT if I do make the listing agent my agent (dual agency), I'm basically taking away the seller's representation according to Mike's statement (they'd be "unable to offer advice and counsel to the seller.") I never expected that's really how it would work. My reason for doing the dual agent route as a buyer has been as a way to get the seller's agent to want me to be the one who gets the house, and to nudge their seller in my direction. I didn't realize there's another reason to do the dual agent thing: the listing agent is not my ally, and if I make them my agent, now they're not really the ally of the seller either. So it's a more even playing field in theory. Both parties are functionally unrepresented and we can just use the agent as a neutral intermediary with a more direct line of communication than if an additional agent was involved.
But then I go back to Silverfall's lesson: don't assume the agent will be ethical. So even if there's some ethics rule that says dual agents are not supposed to advise the seller, I can't assume they'll follow that rule.
You would need to read how each state defines "dual agency." Here we call it disclosed limited agency and it encompasses separate agents that work at the same brokerage as well as the same agent representing both sides. The first isn't of particular concern as many brokerages have hundreds of agents that have never met each other. The second option is where things can become problematic.
In Oregon, you can't do anything detrimental to either side if you represent both parties. Loyalty and confidentiality are problematic and you can expect that the agent will likely favor one side over the other.
I've represented both sides once in 20 years when one of my investors wanted to purchase a property from another one of my investors. It is less of an issue for savvy people because you need less guidance. It isn't good for the typical buyer and seller.
The unrepresented buyers who have written offers on my listings were all attorneys or mortgage professionals.
That must be satisfying to own it after 3 previous attempts and to get it for half the asking price. Were your prior attempts to buy the lot with or without that buyer's agent? (By the way that is so funny someone referred to a pond as a hole full of rainwater hahaha!)
All 3 attempts were with the same agent. He also sold my previous house and is a cool guy. We knew the sellers were stubborn, but they finally ran up on facts and some family matters that made a half-price offer a good deal. TBH, since they had bought the lot at a foreclosure auction, they actually still made money on it. I knew exactly what they paid.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
