Sold my house in 7 days...

[NoMoMoney]

I'm amazed. I had to sell my house to go to grad school this fall. I talked to several Realtors (4) and was unimpressed with them all. 2 were owners of their offices for big name franchises.

I decided to list myself paying someone to put me on MLS. I took the 12K that I was saving by not paying commission to a listing agent and dropped my price by it. Had 2 written offers and a third verbal one the first week. Accepted one on Friday and have the inspection this week.

I still had to pay the buyer's agent 2% and about 1K in listing and legal fees from my side of things. 7 days, not bad, probably means I could of asked for more $! Oh well, quick sale and a closing day that I wanted.

I'm in Boston area, so the market is doing OK. Not good, but I don't think bad. Average house is on the market for 60 days or so.

 

[Agentbolt]

Congrats, man.

 

[KK]

why would you have to pay the buyers agent? it's not your agent.

 

[Krazy4Real]

There is always a certain % of commission that is split between the buying and selling agent. Since he didn't have a selling agent he got to keep that portion.

 

[Dualist]

Congratulations, glad that you pulled it off.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real
There is always a certain % of commission that is split between the buying and selling agent. Since he didn't have a selling agent he got to keep that portion.

why would he have to pay an agent though, he's not using one? the buyer should be the one paying.

 

[Chunkee]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real
There is always a certain % of commission that is split between the buying and selling agent. Since he didn't have a selling agent he got to keep that portion.

why would he have to pay an agent though, he's not using one? the buyer should be the one paying.

This is correct

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: KK
why would you have to pay the buyers agent? it's not your agent.

The money for both agents comes out of the price of the house from the seller. It basically just never gets to the seller.

You list art $200k, buyer pays $200k. Listing agents gets 4%, buying agent gets 2%, seller gets 94%. Percentages probably vary by location...

Not sure if only one uses a Realtor and the other doesn't like this case. I'd think it'd be something written into the offer.

 

[iRONic]

I now dub thee SumMoMoney.

 

[smack Down]

Unless you agreed to when listing the house on the MLS you have no duty to pay the buyers agent.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I'm not exactly sure how it works, but if the buying agent isn't going to make money off the deal it's going to limit the exposure the home gets. They're in it to make money after all.

 

[NoMoMoney]

I could of had the buyer pay for the commission, but if I had 0% no Realtor would of shown the house in the first place. Even at 2% some Realtors were pains.

Basically when you use a Realtor to look for houses they control things. If you don't go looking up housing on an MLS web page yourself then some Relators won't even tell them about the house. I had people come to the open house and say, my realtor never told me about this place, but it matches perfectly what I wanted. One made an offer so I asked him why, and he said, it was listed at 2% commission, I'd rather sell them a house with 2.5% commission.

 

[Atheus]

Good for you, most estate agents are leeches.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: NoMoMoney
I could of had the buyer pay for the commission, but if I had 0% no Realtor would of shown the house in the first place. Even at 2% some Realtors were pains.

Basically when you use a Realtor to look for houses they control things. If you don't go looking up housing on an MLS web page yourself then some Relators won't even tell them about the house. I had people come to the open house and say, my realtor never told me about this place, but it matches perfectly what I wanted. One made an offer so I asked him why, and he said, it was listed at 2% commission, I'd rather sell them a house with 2.5% commission.

It is a violation of the realtor's ethical rules to not show all the houses. But when have you ever meet an ethical salesperson.

 

[NoMoMoney]

You preset what commission you want to pay when you list on MLS. here in MA you can set it at anything, even 0%. With that said, I choose 2% because that is the low end of "average". Listing at 0% you may as well not list on MLS and just use the paper to advertise. After talking to people I was even considering going to 2.5% if I didn't make a deal since I got several comments. Hey, 2.0% is much better then 4% or 5% (standard around here). And I didn't have an extra middleman trying to get me to close so he could make a quick buck.

I would say you can start calling me SomeMoMoney, but since grad school is very expensive and I won't be working... well, I could change my name to NegativeMoney for the next 2 years! Although from June 20 (closing) to July 15 (first semester bill) I'll have lots of money in the bank. Actually, I won't have to take out loans until the second year, so overall not too bad.

 

[NoMoMoney]

Originally posted by: smack Down
It is a violation of the realtor's ethical rules to not show all the houses. But when have you ever meet an ethical salesperson.

I interviewed 4 Realtors... I'd say 3 of them were probably borderline unethical. Not showing the house I don't think they would do if a client pointed it out, but not telling their client about the house is probably a gray area for them. Well, it was a little too big (or stove was electric instead of gas). They would find an excuse not to point it out!

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: NoMoMoney

Originally posted by: smack Down
It is a violation of the realtor's ethical rules to not show all the houses. But when have you ever meet an ethical salesperson.

I interviewed 4 Realtors... I'd say 3 of them were probably borderline unethical. Not showing the house I don't think they would do if a client pointed it out, but not telling their client about the house is probably a gray area for them. Well, it was a little too big (or stove was electric instead of gas). They would find an excuse not to point it out!

I wouldn't plan on the Realtors ever enforcing the rules because if they did it would mean an end to their commission scheme which is a major ripe off. By having the seller pay the buyers agent it means the buyer has no reason not to use an agent.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: NoMoMoney

Originally posted by: smack Down
It is a violation of the realtor's ethical rules to not show all the houses. But when have you ever meet an ethical salesperson.

I interviewed 4 Realtors... I'd say 3 of them were probably borderline unethical. Not showing the house I don't think they would do if a client pointed it out, but not telling their client about the house is probably a gray area for them. Well, it was a little too big (or stove was electric instead of gas). They would find an excuse not to point it out!

I wouldn't plan on the Realtors ever enforcing the rules because if they did it would mean an end to their commission scheme which is a major ripe off. By having the seller pay the buyers agent it means the buyer has no reason not to use an agent.

The commission scheme is a ripoff. Hell, when I was buying, I found most of the homes I wanted to view. My realtor rarely came up with a house. Of course, he made several thousand when we finally decided on a house.

 

[jadinolf]

My hat is off to you.There are homes in my neighborhood that have been on the market for well over a year.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: jadinolf
My hat is off to you.There are homes in my neighborhood that have been on the market for well over a year.

The only reason a home takes a long time to sale is that the price is to high or the house is different, like a light house or something.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: Kelemvor

Originally posted by: KK
why would you have to pay the buyers agent? it's not your agent.

The money for both agents comes out of the price of the house from the seller. It basically just never gets to the seller.

You list art $200k, buyer pays $200k. Listing agents gets 4%, buying agent gets 2%, seller gets 94%. Percentages probably vary by location...

Not sure if only one uses a Realtor and the other doesn't like this case. I'd think it'd be something written into the offer.

Not exactly. when I had a buyer agent, my paperwork said if the seller agent didn't agree to split I'd have to cover the full cost. Since seller and buyer agents can easily be in the other position at the next deal, generally they have no qualms about splitting cost. On a FSBO its gonna be up to the seller to say no.

 

[jiggahertz]

If you took the money you would have paid the agent and dropped the price by that amount, then you're pretty much doing their work for free. Would have been smarter to drop it by maybe half of their commission. Otherwise, what's the point? The buyer gets the money instead of the Realtor.

 

[deejayshakur]

pics?

nah, we won't ban you otherwise.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: KK
why would you have to pay the buyers agent? it's not your agent.

yeah wtf

 

[richardycc]

you took the $12k off, so you ended up taking the same amount of money, on top of that you had to pay the buyer's agent??? you could've used an agent and had him do all the work for you for more money, and why didn't you? if thats not stupid, I dont know what is.