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Our last agent did give up some of her commission to make the deal work, though we did not ask her to do so.
And if that had been my agent, I would have my house sold for $304 instead of the $260. deal I have now. How many years could I put my daughter through college with that $44K? I am not getting from the realtor's feedback here that they would have reduced their commission to make the deal like your realtor so graciously did without being asked!!! Nice to hear there are good realtors out there. Just haven't experienced them myself.
So, why did you agree in the first place to pay it, if you do not think that the work involved is worth the price? Why didn't you say that up front and decline to hire an agent to represent you and (at least on our listing agreements, it's spelled out) offer a co-broke to a buyer's agent? As you very well know (since you're doing it now and, go figure, having problems with the buyer's agent and want to cut them out of the picture now that they've brought you a buyer - anything sound familiar here?), FSBO is and was an option.
The problem here is you deciding after the fact that you were owed whatever part of the commission you had agreed up front to pay (I'm pretty sure no one held your hand and wrote your signature with it on the listing agreement).
It seems to me that you were quite happy to pay that commission out before your agent marketed your property and brought a buyer in for you, and once they have done all the work, dont want to pay.
I cant argue for either side, simply because i have reduced my commission to make a sale stick. However, this completely depends on my relationship with my client. If they have been extremely hard work, unrealistic and made my job 100 X harder than it really needed to be, then no i wouldnt lower my commission, If however, like the clients i have done this for in the past have been a pleasure to work for, very realistic then i am happy to do this for them.
Now i dont know you and i can only commment based on the responses you have made on this thread, but based on the attitude you have portrayed on here, i would never reduce my commission for a client like you. I think what makes it even more ridiculous, is that you just expect the agents to do it. You wouldnt go to a doctor and once they have started working on you then expect them to reduce their prices....lol its ridiculous. I think it says alot about you, based on the fact that you allowed a deal to fall apart for the sake of a couple of thousand dollars. Without knowing your property we cant say whether it was over priced or not but in this market you should have expected to be low balled. If your realtor didnt explain that to you then that is an issue ,but it does seem to me you expect to have the work done and then not pay the full amount. You wouldnt be saying that was acceptable if it happened to you in your profession.
Total commission would have been $15,200 (5%) and needed to drop the commission to $13,680 (4.5%) to make the deal. Of course the buyer is expected to EAT the loss 100% ($26,520.) to make the deal but God forbid the 4 realtors should have to kick in only $380. each instead. So sorry to expect that! WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!
No, it was spoken like someone who is in business for themself and has owned other businesses.
So there were 4 Realtors involved now?
Bottom line is you signed a contract with the listing Realtor. If you were not comfortable paying 5% then you should have searched for a Realtor that would have accepted less.
It seems to me that you were quite happy to pay that commission out before your agent marketed your property and brought a buyer in for you, and once they have done all the work, dont want to pay.
I cant argue for either side, simply because i have reduced my commission to make a sale stick. However, this completely depends on my relationship with my client. If they have been extremely hard work, unrealistic and made my job 100 X harder than it really needed to be, then no i wouldnt lower my commission, If however, like the clients i have done this for in the past have been a pleasure to work for, very realistic then i am happy to do this for them.
Now i dont know you and i can only commment based on the responses you have made on this thread, but based on the attitude you have portrayed on here, i would never reduce my commission for a client like you. I think what makes it even more ridiculous, is that you just expect the agents to do it. You wouldnt go to a doctor and once they have started working on you then expect them to reduce their prices....lol its ridiculous. I think it says alot about you, based on the fact that you allowed a deal to fall apart for the sake of a couple of thousand dollars. Without knowing your property we cant say whether it was over priced or not but in this market you should have expected to be low balled. If your realtor didnt explain that to you then that is an issue ,but it does seem to me you expect to have the work done and then not pay the full amount. You wouldnt be saying that was acceptable if it happened to you in your profession.
The realtor was my BEST friend! AND it was only the second potential buyer to see the house AND (I know you are not going to believe this but it's true) my friend the agent was out of town and I showed the house to the people that made the offer!!!! The house wasn't on the market long enough for the realtors to spend time or money on the listing so I don't think asking them to kick in .5% was asking TOO much.
What's even more ridiculous is you make assumptions about me in my business when you have no clue how much I go above and beyond for my clients for a whole lot less money than $16,450.
Pay a realtor over $15K commission but the realtor won't sell the house at the listing price that the realtor has told is what the house is worth. If the house doesn't sell at that price, than the homeowner can reduce their price down $25K . The realtor will loose $1,250 from their original $16,450. commission but the homeowner looses $25K. That doesn't seem fair and just to me. If all realtors had your attitude, where is their incentive to sell the house at the listing price or more?
You can't loose what you don't have. The listing price is not liquid in pocket cash. The $ you receive from the sale is. If the Realtor sells it for 10k more who gets to keep it? That style of commission schedule is illegal in many states. If I show a seller 3 #'s on a CMA they nearly always want to go with the highest one. Once we discuss the risks of doing that they usually come down to earth, but if they don't should it come out of my pocket? Unfortunately some agents do come in too high on a sellers CMA.
Our office usually gets cooperating agents to also give CMA's prior to listing as to get a wider scope of opinions. More than once I have gotten the sellers more than asking price -- it's not that often, but in a hot market with increasing values it's not so rare -- and if one of us leaves for the weekend we have a backup agent take over.
I feel bad that your best friend and agent had you show your own property. That is not why you hired your agent.
and honestly that could have affected your bottom $ if the buyer was good at reading people.
No, it was spoken like someone who is in business for themself and has owned other businesses.
So there were 4 Realtors involved now?
Bottom line is you signed a contract with the listing Realtor. If you were not comfortable paying 5% then you should have searched for a Realtor that would have accepted less.
Well I am going to show you just how stupid I am. After the deal fell through, 2 months later my contract ran out. My best friend the agent, begged me to relist. I said only at 4% which to me was the same as saying no because they wouldn't go down .5% to make a deal so surely they won't go down 1% to relist. They did!!!! I really didn't even want to relist with them but I said I would so I did. You don't even want to know the rest of the story .....
The realtor was my BEST friend! AND it was only the second potential buyer to see the house AND (I know you are not going to believe this but it's true) my friend the agent was out of town and I showed the house to the people that made the offer!!!! The house wasn't on the market long enough for the realtors to spend time or money on the listing so I don't think asking them to kick in .5% was asking TOO much.
What's even more ridiculous is you make assumptions about me in my business when you have no clue how much I go above and beyond for my clients for a whole lot less money than $16,450.
What does your friend normally charge for commission?
You say there were 4 realtors, why didn't one of them show the house since obviously the potential buyer had an agent?
Did you open the door for them and give them a tour?
What does your friend normally charge for commission?
You say there were 4 realtors, why didn't one of them show the house since obviously the potential buyer had an agent?
Did you open the door for them and give them a tour?
I was wondering about that. Ordinarily, the LAST thing that's wanted is for the seller to be there at the showing, for several reasons: (1) they might slip and say something they shouldn't that wouldn't serve them well in negotiations, (2) they might slip and say something that would put the buyer off that particular house, (3) they might annoy the buyer and give the house a bad taste to that particular buyer, (4) most buyers don't feel comfortable having the owner there when they look at a house, as they feel they can't speak freely with their agent or between themselves and they don't feel comfortable giving the house a really thorough lookover.
If there was a buyer's agent (and clearly there was), why wouldn't they be the ones showing the house?
Even with the FSBO's that I've shown (and I've been the buyer's agent for a few FSBO's, I have no prejudice against them even if I am going to be doing more work than I otherwise would have), the sellers have absented themselves while we were showing, even if only to sit in their car across the street.
No, it was spoken like someone who is in business for themself and has owned other businesses.
So there were 4 Realtors involved now?
Bottom line is you signed a contract with the listing Realtor. If you were not comfortable paying 5% then you should have searched for a Realtor that would have accepted less.
No, it was spoken like someone who is in business for themself
Well we finally agree on something
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