I've been passively willing to sell my house (on Craigslist) for a month or so. Gotten a few inquiries but nothing serious. Been looking around at homes and went to one open house about a month ago. We really liked the house and have been following it. We decided to ramp up the efforts to get our place ready to market. Had two brief conversations just this past week with the realtor from the open house that we attended to talk about it. Told her that we might consider having her list our house in the near future but that we had "friends" who are realtors... yadda yadda yadda. She is going to call in the AM (Saturday) to talk about getting the listing. My invitation to call and discuss. A couple of hours ago a guy from OHIO calls me WRT the ad on my house. He started work here in NC a month ago-- leaving his family back home. He has a contract on his house so he is ready to move quickly. We are ready to move quickly. We talked about half an hour and I think this is what he is looking for. He has a realtor because he has been looking at homes in this area for a month. Long story short... he's coming over Monday at lunchtime to look at the house. I have not listed my house yet nor have I agreed to do so. My question is this. Will/can realtors negotiate their commissions? She has hardly done any work to get us as buyers or sellers. She's never shown us a house other than the open house we attended. We never rode around in a car looking at places. We've never even taken her time up in a face to face meeting. The idea of paying her 3% to do some paperwork sticks in my craw. That being said, I wouldn't mind paying her something for her assistance in making things go smoothly quickly on the sale of our house. My buyer has a contract on his house and we are ready to go, so we might be closing in a few weeks if all goes well. How low can/should I go in negotiating a commission downward. If I list with her and this guy buys, she will have literally done nothing until closing to earn that money. What is fair? Any realtors out there.....
If you already have a buyer and, between the two of you, you've already negotiated a price that you think is fair, then you don't need a realtor. You need a real estate attorney to draw up a contract for you, and then a title company will do everything else. Realtors put your house on HAR.com, stage it, show it, help you figure out the right price, and draw the contract, but nothing else - the title company does most of the nuts & bolts things that most consumers attribute to realtors. So if you don't need to put your house on HAR.com, stage it, or show it, and you know what price you can get for it, the only thing a realtor could help with is drawing the contract, 90% of which is promulgated language. I'm a real estate attorney who owns a title company. I can tell you from experience that most realtors just look good and talk smooth, but incorrectly fill-out out their contracts all of the time. You'd be better off paying me do to it instead. I would charge anywhere from $225 to $450, depending upon the time spent. After that (assuming your house has no title problems), it's just the regular closing costs but without the agent's 6%.
We just sold our house last week and are situated at my parents lake house until we find us a house in Kingwood. Our realtor is giving us a 1% break on her commission, however, my in-laws have sold/bought with this realtor several times in the past. Having said that, I do kind of agree with FJ's sentiment. If you can swing the sell w/out a realtor you should do it.
Giddyup Im sure Ive ask you this before but where in NC are you? My family lives in the Rocky Mount/Greenville area and my inlaws (who have lived in Houston for 60 years) just moved to Nashville.
The thought of listing a house on Craigslist and then entering into a deal with someone from there would scare the hell out of me. I would be VERY cautious. And I would never hire the same Realtor that is representing the sellers of a house I plan to buy. Honestly it sounds like you're somewhat naive to this process and setting yourself up to get screwed. Good luck.
We live in Oak Ridge when is between Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Did your brother ever get his house situation righted?
Not sure why you would say that. Craigslist is not just for perverts. The guy who contacted me has a realtor. The fact that he has a realtor is what got me going down this track of thought because he has USED his realtor. S/he has shown him properties over the last month or so. He has been looking in my community but not seen what he wants. Based on our conversation, we have what he wants: a workshop space for him, a garage for his wife, a "suite" for a mother-in-law and 1.8 acres on which to garden and give his kids some room to play. He's an engineer who works for Volvo. He has a contract on his house. He misses his family being with him-- to the point of finding a place to rent so they can be reunited. His closing is in mid-July. We are ready to sell. The house we want is unoccupied as the owners have transferred to a new job in Tennessee. This is setting up as a perfect solution for everyone. The realtor in question is THE top realtor in the local office of a large national firm. I wonder if she is his realtor? :grin: I haven't used a realtor in over 15 years and that was just to market and sell my house when I re-married and we had decided to live in my wife-to-be's home. That house was empty. She showed it and sold it and sent me a check... so it was a very straight-forward process. I'm not naive, just sensitive about being fair and not insulting someone. Research.
Have you done any binding paperwork with this flaky real estate agent? I would go with Furious Jam if you have a buyer and no binding deals with the agent. Commissions are absolutely negotiable. The 'standard' rate is 3% per agent on each side. That doesn't mean you have to agree to pay anything. You can put in the contract that the buyer pays the commission. It's all negotiable. As for 'staging' the house (I lol'd a bit), I've never seen an agent lift a finger or mention cleaning up a home to show to other people.
She's not a flaky agent. She'd done nothing because she's been asked to do nothing but we were on the verge of listing the house with her. I'm not sure what is LOL about getting a house in tip-top shape to attract buyers. I would think that agents would turn down listings if homes needed to be prepped but the owner wouldn't do the necessary work. The agent spends their own time and money marketing and showing the home, so they want it in "move-in" condition. I have since spoken with the realtor and she says that I can sign a listing agreement with her and list this guy as an EXEMPTION. We are going to talk after Monday...
