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The first thing I have to say is this - this did not happen to me, but I am curious as to everyones thougts on the matter.
A friend of mine years ago was buying a home, had a realtor and she took them to plenty of homes over the course of over a year. In my area anything between 200-300k is a pretty good upscale home, especially at the time they were looking. At one point, they put an offer in on a home and it was accepted and then they backed out, b/c after thinking it over, decided the loan would eat up too much in monthly payments.
Now, they then found a fsbo and bought it. I asked them did you give your realtor any money or a token for all her work over at "least" the one year of work she did for you? No, she said, the woman wanted to, but her husband said they just didnt have the money.
They said they just adored her and everything she did with them over a very very long period of time.
No - no contract was ever signed stating that she was solely their buyers rep, we really do not utilize them here and this post isn't about that anyway.
Knowing how much time she put in with them, do you find this reasonable or unreasonable on the part of the buyers? I find it extrememly unreasonable or rude. My friend even said, that if that agent heard their name today, she would probably wince...
I have another friend that went through the same thing, that couple did give their agent some compensation - now that shows some class!
Please understand I am not talking about someone who sends you out a few emails here and there. I am talking about someone taking probably hundreds of hours of her time over at least a year, showing homes, talking to the potential buyers, havingthe buyers back out of deal once....
Curious as to your thoughts? What would be the right thing to do and why?
Is there really any question? That was a terrible way to treat their agent who had put in so much time on their behalf. They should have paid her commission themselves or negotiated it with the FSBO sellers.
Is there really any question? That was a terrible way to treat their agent who had put in so much time on their behalf. They should have paid her commission themselves or negotiated it with the FSBO sellers.
Well to me their is no question involved, and I do not know if they even tried to negotiate with the seller on behalf of the agent for a commission. It was family and I didn't want to get into a heated debate on the matter, I am sure they understood my pov. While I understand that commission on a 250k home would be a bit of a stretch, I do think throwing 1k her way would have been considerate. I kinda lost a little bit of respect for these folks.
No contract no payola. If they would have bought the 1st house this realtor showed them would she have given the commision back?
That makes no sense at all. If they decided on the first house she showed them she would have still done the work for them, so she deserves to get paid.
Legally they owed her nothing, I totally agree with you. And if she was the agent on the home they did purchase she would have gotten a lot more money out of the deal than the 1k I would have given to her for her time, patience and everything else she did for me.
I think the thought did come up about some compensation, But the fact is the husband said they did not have enough to give any thing to the RE, So I would take his word for it rather than call him a Liar. Which is what you are debating in your head. Are you sure your a friend?
I would argue that some states have "Implied Representation" so you don't have to have anything in writing showing representation, so the agent could have gone after the buyers for pay, but know that's not an option in every state.
I agree that the buyers showed absolutely no class. Not even a gift card to a nice restaurant? Who cares if they didn't have the money, it's called rolling it into the sales price and paying an invoice at closing, just like "regular" commissions are paid.
Since we don't know the story from both sides and you might not have gotten the whole story either...
The agent should have known that without a contract there is no business deal, although if it happened as you described the seller and the buyer could agreed to give some of the money to the agent...but after all the realtor is suposed to be the professional in this deal and should have known this...so IMO the realtor either might have been handeling her/his first client or maybe not even a licensed realtor....or just had a big heart
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
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If I found a FSBO on my own, and there was no buyer's agreement signed, and the house was priced accordingingly to reflect no commission (meaning the seller's are passing the savings on to me), I would have no problem purchasing the house. Yes, I would feel badly for the agent, and perhaps at least try to give them a compensation of value they wouldn't have to share with their broker (i.e. high value gift card). But the fact is the agent didn't find them the home and that's a very shady area.
This reminds me of a story of a friend of mine who hired an agent after my friend had found the house they wanted to buy because they were told they needed representation. My friend was very adept and diligent in preparing the contract and taking care of all the negotiation, inspections, loan issues and other matters through closing, and the agent basically was available if needed.
At closing, the agent accepted a full commission!!
Oh and then there was the one where the agent worked up the contract but then basically wasn't involved in anything else through closing. THAT agent accepted full commission too!!!
Can you believe it?! Now tell me, did those agents show any class?
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