 Posted 10/24/2006 2:40:14 PM
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I started selling my house as a FSBO and then I did switch because I was not able to get any solid leads. I even tried a best bidder sale (auction type sale) in which I had about 100 people come to the open house and the highest bid I got was $175,000. The humor behind this is I would have taken $185,000 for it as a FSBO, but no one wanted to go that high.
I then turned to a realtor and got $199,000 for it. Again the humor behind it is that I still got what I wanted at $185,000 after commissions and closing costs, but the buyer got an additional $14,000 on his mortgage in which he will have to pay with interest.
Realtors want you as the buyer to believe that the seller pays their commissions, but it is you as the buyer that pays there commissions. Unfortunately what I have found in my years of experience is that most buyers do not trust a FSBO but will trust their local realtor. The local realtor has to get more money for your house in order to cover their commission. So when they sell you on realtors getting you more money for your home, just let them know they have to if they want to get paid. Also to me if I was the buyer I do not think paying in this example an extra $14,000 for a realtor is worth it.
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Posted 10/24/2006 2:40:31 PM
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I ended up switching to a realtor when FSBO and an auction didn't work.
1) The agent got the full 6% commission split between him and another agent. If you are going to use an agent in today's market give the full 6%. Because of today's market most agents will not even show your place if they don't have the full 6% commission.
2) Since you have to give the full commission if you want a better shot to sell your house DO NOT GIVE AN EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SELL contract to any agent. You should only give an exclusive agency contract. This still gives you the right to sell your property on your own without having to pay a commission. You may however have to interview a few agents before you get one that does it.
3) You should not have to be locked into more than a 90 day listing. Even in today's market anyone good will tell you what to price your home at to sell it fast and that agent should be able to sell it within that 90 days.
They will try to get you to sign a 180 day contract. DO NOT DO IT. If you are dissatisfied with their service you want to be able to move on. If they insist tell them you will only sign such a contract if there is an unconditional cancelation clause after the 90 days.
4) Get everything in writing and do let them tell you that they will cancel the contract if you are not satisfied. Also there are flat fee MLS listing services in which you can list that way. My personal advice is not to go that route. Find a realtor and do the above. It gives a realtor more motivation to sell your house. I did it and got 2 houses sold in 3 weeks!
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Posted 10/24/2006 2:40:41 PM
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If you are going to use a realtor always raise the stakes (unless you are pricing your home as a realtor would already). You need to make sure that you still get the price you want after commissions and closing costs. However keep in mind that I as an investor, that does this full time, find a good percentage of FSBOs overpriced.
You must do a CMA (comparable market analysis) on your property to price it right to sell. Use your local realtor to do it. They will do it for free even if you FSBO it because there statistics show that 85% of FSBOs end up with a realtor.
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Posted 12/16/2006 1:25:53 AM
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Wow! I don't even know where to start! You are totally giving people wrong information about Realtors. If you really think that the buyer is paying for the commission, you really need to think about that one first. If your home sold for $199K, then I am sure it was probably appraised at no less than that. Therefore, your home was worth at least $199K. Any amount you take from that, YOU are paying. Just because an agent's commission is involved, it doesn't mean that you are not paying it. The buyer is just financing (or purchasing) the amount of the home with or without the commission. The buyer will do the same when it's time for them to sell the same home.
I would also like to address your list of nonsense.
1) You state that agents will not even show your home if they don't have a full 6% commission! Where do you get this information from? The majority of the time, agents DON'T get the full commission of 6%. It is usually about 3%. So what you are saying doesn't make any sense at all.
2) You tell people not to sign an Exclusive Right to Sell contract with any agent, just in case you sell it on your own. Why would an agent spend their money to market your home if they knew that you could end up selling from under them and then they would be out of a commission? If anything, that would DE-MOTIVATE any agent! I wouldn't put any money into advertising my seller's home if I knew he could sell it without me.
3) You then state that you shouldn't lock into a listing contract for more than 90 days. In my area (Las Vegas), the average days on market right now for homes is about 4-5 months. The home will sell faster at a lower price of course. It is not guaranteed to sell within 90 days though! Again, if I listed a home for only 90 days (which I don't) then why would I pour my money into marketing it, when it's possible it won't sell within precisely 90 days? Another DE-MOTIVATING factor for an agent to work hard. You also tell people to make sure the agent tells you that he will release you from contract unconditionally if it doesn't work out between the seller and the agent. Why? The broker will usually just assign a different agent to the listing if there's any issues. Many brokers will not release a client unless it's conditional either.
Everything you said gives a Realtor no motivation to sell the home. It would be a huge waste of time for everyone. For great service, allow the Realtor to do what they need to do in order to sell the home properly. They do represent the seller and the majority do look out for the seller's best interest.
Len-
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Posted 2/14/2007 5:49:16 PM
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After several months, we decided to hire a Realtor that we have known. We did have 2 other Realtors come to hear what they offered, just to make a comparison before going with the Realtor we knew.
We paid her agency 5% commission.
I kept the house on your site even though we hired a Realtor & in the past week & a half we've had 3 calls from people who saw it on your site!
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Posted 4/12/2007 5:21:45 PM
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[b]Sorry Thomas K…I must agree with Agent 007. It appears you were terribly misinformed about how the real estate process works. Attempting to sell your home yourself is a huge undertaking for a FSBO. Real estate agents represent their clients in a similar manner as an attorney does, with the exception that they are representing their clients in a real estate capacity. I don’t know where you got your commission information from, but you are way off on that score. This just shows what a misconception the public has on what a real estate agent really does for a Seller.
Some Sellers think they can sell their home just by doing open houses and slapping a sign on the front lawn. What they don’t realize is the huge amount of time that goes into pricing and marketing a property to sell successfully. There is a tremendous amount of research that is done to establish a fair market price on a property to reach a price that will satisfy a Seller and at the same time, attract buyers to obtain an offer. Pricing data can be calculated in a number of different ways using different computer programs (used by real estate professionals) and including many different types of data which is not readily available to the public. Too often, Seller’s are quick to determine what their home is worth simply by what the house down the street sold for 6 months ago - different location - different style home - different featuers - entirely different house altogether. It would be nice if it were that easy, but…..WRONG!
Let me tell you what a good real estate agent does to earn their commission…A real estate agent takes on a great deal of responsibility and liability for a Seller and their property. A real estate agent has to have the knowledge and acquired skills to successfully sell a home in any market. Some agents offer and assist Sellers with staging and design concepts to make a property more appealing to buyers, while orchestrating and maintaining a showing schedule of the property, creating and organizing a strategic marketing plan, take elaborate photo shoots of inside and outside the home to obtain a flattering composition of the property, signage, coordinating and hosting open houses and broker tours (sometimes “catered” tours at the expense of the real estate agent), advertisement of the property on the internet, newspapers, flyers, postcards, MLS, real estate brochures/newspapers, monitoring market prices, and monitor pricing of competitive properties on the market (again, information not readily available to the public). A real estate agent is the “point of contact” person working days, nights, weekends and holidays – 7 days a week straight, who manages communication of the details of the property to prospective buyers. A good real estate agent will keep their Seller informed on the current market prices, provide “buyer feedback” after showings and open houses, and keep the Seller informed on a regular basis. When an offer is presented, a real estate agent will offer guidance and their expertise to help the Seller make the most informed decision – and the real estate agent will help the Seller to determine the best strategy to obtain the best deal possible. Eventually, when an offer has been accepted, the real estate agent will coordinate faxes, emails, and all applicable paperwork between the seller, buyer, broker agent, lender (if applicable), and attorneys (if applicable), followed by recordkeeping of an extensive amount of paperwork. The "average" closing process is approximately a 6-8 weeks or longer (depending on where you live). Not to forget the real estate agent’s expenses such as materials, gas, telephone charges, photocoping, faxing, marketing, advertising, listing expenses, lockbox expenses and other miscellanous expenses that a real estate professional incurs – all of which is paid for “up front”. There are many other details a real estate agent manages up through to closing.
A real estate agent must troubleshoot and offer resolution when those last minute snags and problems crop up along the way. A real estate agent will offer direction and guidance on every aspect of the transaction to bring it to a successful close. Many instances, a real estate agent must split the commission proceeds with the buyer agent and then a portion goes to their own company. A Listing Agent only gets a portion of the pie – and then take taxes out of the final amount. Some homes, depending on condition, location, pricing, and other factors can take months to sell. Real estate agents must wait until the property is sold to get paid. What is a real estate agent left with when a property doesn’t sell after all that time and money? The real estate agent takes a huge loss. Keep in mind, some Sellers can be very difficult to work with and create unnecessary hurdles which can slow down the process of getting their property sold!
I have described more generally the amount of work that goes into selling a property all of which is managed by a real estate agent. Not all agents work the same and like any profession, some real estate professionals are better than others. But I know one thing…I earn every dollar of my commission and I can tell you this, all my clients, Buyers and Sellers, are delighted to have me represent them. I haven’t had a client yet, complain about paying me my commission!! They do so…happily.
Signed...Agent 99
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Posted 4/21/2007 11:41:44 PM
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You are very lucky to have sold your 2 houses in just 3 weeks. Must be nice.
I am currently on my 3rd agent and my house has been on the market for 15 months now with no buyer in sight! Have had lots of lookers who did not buy. There have been very few showings......where are those buyers that buy in the spring.
I am very disappointed and depressed that my house has not sold by now. Yes...it is priced right...actually it's priced too low. Just thought I'd put my 2 cents in here.
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Posted 4/22/2007 7:35:26 PM
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sandra where are you located?
some of the things you should really look at when choosing an agent to sell your home are:
1. REALTOR (WITH THE LITTLE "R" AFTER IT) - this means they're a member of Board of Realtors.
2. CMA - the comparative market analysis should be a focused one.
3. Avoid the agent who promises you the world and gives you the notion that he/she is telling you what you want to hear, RATHER THAN, what you need to hear. this is a tough point, because most owners don't want to hear that their house, their pride and joy is worth X amount less than what they think it's worth. if you want to choose the right agent, choose the one that takes a hard line and holds his/her own when presenting you a CMA.
4. They should be super nice at every turn. when you call, when you meet them, whenever - the agent should always be trying to identify with your feelings and helping you to see the LOGIC and REALITY of the situation WITHOUT hurting your feelings and in a way that HELPS you.
5. The agent's presentation should be balanced. If they're the "best thing since sliced bread" - maybe they are - but in their presentation - they MUST HAVE FACTS, STATISTICS THAT BACK IT UP!
best of luck to you all with regards to selling your home!
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Posted 8/25/2007 9:38:48 AM
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| Agent 007 - You said just right! Except, there are different kinds of agents: 1)Excellent 2)Good 3)Average 4)Fair 5)Starving, short timers
Marvin Shelley, Broker
Wesy Fork AR
(479)879-2989
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Posted 11/19/2007 4:06:29 PM
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Any good agent will tell their buyer that if the FSBO does not pay the agreed % as indicated in their buyer's agreement then they have 3 options, the buyer pays the commission, you ask the seller, you don't see the house. This should have be spoken of before a search for a home even begins.
Stacey
Century 21 Alliance
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