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Essex502
03-01-2004, 12:30 PM
Question to all of you folks...what is the prevailing commision for selling a home these days? We are selling my father-in-law's house as he is moving into an assisted living facility. The one agent we talked to wanted 4% commision if the house sold with 30 days, 4-1/2% if sold in 31 - 60 days and 5% if it takes over 60 days to sell. This seems "fishy" to me. Wouldn't there be a conflict of interest where the agent wants to delay the sale to earn more commision where we want to sell quickly? I know there must be marketing costs associated with any sale and the longer the house is on the market I would presume the higher the costs would be, i.e. multiple viewings, multiple ads, etc.
Any thoughts out there? I know we won't sign a contract with any agent for longer than 90 days but what else sould we watch out for? The house is in SoCal and priced in the $400K range.

Mandelon
03-01-2004, 12:39 PM
It sounds like he is giving you a break on the costs if it sells quickly, not trying to hose you if it takes longer.
Around here 6% is standard, although many will do it for 5%, and sometimes 4.5%if they double end the transaction.
Talk to a couple of agents to get the price they think it ought to sell for. Make sure they are from separate offices.

totenhosen
03-01-2004, 12:45 PM
If listed at the right price there is no reason you won't get reasonable offers within the first 30 days. Especially with today's market.

Essex502
03-01-2004, 12:47 PM
One of the things that surprised me when I got the details from my father-in-law was the agent that he talked to showed up with only a couple of 2 year old "comps". We have an appointment set for this coming weekend to meet the agent and look over the contract.

totenhosen
03-01-2004, 12:50 PM
Originally posted by Essex502
One of the things that surprised me when I got the details from my father-in-law was the agent that he talked to showed up with only a couple of 2 year old "comps". We have an appointment set for this coming weekend to meet the agent and look over the contract.
Give me the zip code, address and other related info and I'll get you some more recent comps.

LHC Kirby
03-01-2004, 01:06 PM
Interview at LEAST 3 realtors - anyone who has a flexible % built in their contract I would be concerned with. And I would not sign for more than 60 days. 30 would be best. If the Realtor is a flake, at least he is gone in 30 days. If he is good, in the market as it is now....... the house will be gone in 30 days. RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH - Go look at houses ON THE MARKET right now....look at your competition. Good Luck:)

Steamin' Rice
03-01-2004, 01:36 PM
As far as I know, the standard commision is 3% for the selling agent and 3% for the buying agent...... You should be able to get recent comps fairly easily.
Use websites like www.realtor.com to try to get an idea of what similar homes in the area are being listed for, keeping in mind that sometimes the listings on realtor.com are 1-2 months old, so the current prices might be slightly higher than what you find there.

j-rod
03-01-2004, 01:37 PM
Originally posted by Essex502
Question to all of you folks...what is the prevailing commision for selling a home these days? We are selling my father-in-law's house as he is moving into an assisted living facility. The one agent we talked to wanted 4% commision if the house sold with 30 days, 4-1/2% if sold in 31 - 60 days and 5% if it takes over 60 days to sell. This seems "fishy" to me. Wouldn't there be a conflict of interest where the agent wants to delay the sale to earn more commision where we want to sell quickly? I know there must be marketing costs associated with any sale and the longer the house is on the market I would presume the higher the costs would be, i.e. multiple viewings, multiple ads, etc.
Any thoughts out there? I know we won't sign a contract with any agent for longer than 90 days but what else sould we watch out for? The house is in SoCal and priced in the $400K range.
the house should have no problems selling, and I wouldn't be suprised if went over your asking price, most real esate agent
charge a flat 3% commission or 6% if they list the house and sell the house.

al cole'holic
03-01-2004, 01:59 PM
.

Outnumbered
03-01-2004, 02:11 PM
The house will sell itself in this market. If you have no experience selling or buying a house of your own then list it thru a discount broker like Help-u-sell or better yet find a forum member to give you a good deal. If you have some experience, sell it yourself.
You should't have to pay high commissions in this market. The costs are minimal for the agent unless it is a very unique property that will require some special marketing or special attention.
I sold my home myself for $10k over what I was asking. The escrow company handles all of the legwork and its pretty easy.
OL

Caribbean Jet
03-01-2004, 02:13 PM
I just sold my house and the realtor that I had worked it like this. If he sold the listing it would cost me 3% and if someone else sold it he would take 1.5% for him and give the other realtor 3% for a total of 4.5%. The guy was great and only showed the house when I wanted it showed.

SPECTRABRENT
03-01-2004, 02:20 PM
Essex,
Maybe I can help you, where is the house?
Brent

al cole'holic
03-01-2004, 02:28 PM
Originally posted by Essex502
Question to all of you folks...what is the prevailing commision for selling a home these days? We are selling my father-in-law's house as he is moving into an assisted living facility. The one agent we talked to wanted 4% commision if the house sold with 30 days, 4-1/2% if sold in 31 - 60 days and 5% if it takes over 60 days to sell. This seems "fishy" to me. Wouldn't there be a conflict of interest where the agent wants to delay the sale to earn more commision where we want to sell quickly? I know there must be marketing costs associated with any sale and the longer the house is on the market I would presume the higher the costs would be, i.e. multiple viewings, multiple ads, etc.
Any thoughts out there? I know we won't sign a contract with any agent for longer than 90 days but what else sould we watch out for? The house is in SoCal and priced in the $400K range.
..the time line comish thing is kinda retarded, regardless of how long the place stays on the market.

AzDon
03-01-2004, 02:36 PM
Originally posted by Essex502
One of the things that surprised me when I got the details from my father-in-law was the agent that he talked to showed up with only a couple of 2 year old "comps". We have an appointment set for this coming weekend to meet the agent and look over the contract.
If an owner was encouraged to list at a price based on 2-yr-old comps around here, the house would sell in one day for half it's value. If the guy doesn't have current comps, I'd tell him to get lost!

flat broke
03-01-2004, 02:41 PM
Ditto what Don said.
In this market, there is no need to give your money to a hack realtor. If the guy's initial presentation was 2 yrs old, tell him to pound sand and find someone else. (trust me there are plenty of choices) If it's in CA, give SpectraBrent a call.
Chris

Ivan Dan
03-01-2004, 03:10 PM
Essex 502 Check your PM's. I would love to help out in any way possible just let me know.
www.DanKaatz.com

DEEZ NUTTS
03-01-2004, 03:41 PM
For Sale By Owner!! Start that way with a sign from HomeDepot. Burns my ass when a house sells within hours or a couple of days and the realtor gets paid big for driving the sign over to the house. The title company will do all the paperwork anyhow. See what kind of response you get before getting a realtor.

lovemyultra
03-01-2004, 05:10 PM
you can call my wife she will help you over the phone and answer your questions right over the phone for nothing she say people like this are making the entire industry look bad Her name is Julie her cell is 661 810 0901

BIGTYME
03-01-2004, 07:06 PM
You get what you pay for!!! Help-u-fail is merely people who could not hack it selling homes for full price so they have to discount all to hell to build value in the clients eyes.
Getting an offer on a home is not the hard part. The part that takes skill is negotiating a contract, follow up, keeping your client out of court, arranging the proper inspections, etc. That is what seperates the boys from the men.
When buyers see For Sale By Owner they think " we can get a good deal, this guy won't know any better"
A $10 sign may have worked for a very minor percentage of people, studies show that for sale by owners sell for 10% less than homes listed by realtors.
Scott
REALTOR, San Diego

SPECTRABRENT
03-01-2004, 07:24 PM
A good realtor is worth his or her weight in gold. Bigtyme is right about Help-u-sell type brokers. You might as well sell it yourself.
Brent

al cole'holic
03-01-2004, 07:44 PM
Originally posted by DEEZ NUTTS
For Sale By Owner!! Start that way with a sign from HomeDepot. Burns my ass when a house sells within hours or a couple of days and the realtor gets paid big for driving the sign over to the house. The title company will do all the paperwork anyhow. See what kind of response you get before getting a realtor.
Why do you think the house sells within hours or a couple of days bud??
Anyhow a good agent will most likely look at the amount the seller was going to put the house up for and add on a little bit more to cover the cost and make the seller a tad bit happier. Agents are there to make sure both sides are happy in a transaction and to bring out any issues that may arise also...example, how would you like to buy a house with no agent involved and find out 2 months later that the property has sub-t termites that the seller didn't tell you about?? Guess what you would be...SOL :D

looky_lou
03-01-2004, 07:58 PM
I agree with the talk to 3 realtors. This what I did and I think I made the best deal and everything went real smooth.
I had a price in mind to start with based on my own market research of $329,000.00.
Realtor # 1 spent an afternoon do research and comps. Recomendation was $319,000.00. 6% commission.
Realtor # 2 spent a couple of days doing reasearch and comps. Recomendation $339,000.00. Was willing to reduce commission to 5%. This was my original choice of realtor had I just went to one.
Realtor # 3 spent a couple of days doing research and comps. This realtor actually went out and looked at the comps inside and out. Recomendation $355,000.00. This realtor would not come down from 6%. Her reasoning was that some realtors would not show the property because of the reduced commission.
We decided to go with realtor # 3 at 6%, but we set the price at $349,000.00 ($20,000.00 more than I would have set it at had I sold it By Owner. The realtor had a brokers open house 3 days after listing. The house sold that afternoon for full asking price.
Although the commission was high, I was happy to pay it. Most of the realtors work took place over the next month cordinating everything. I am glad it sold in one day. I would have felt worse if I had to wait 90 days for a sale just to get more work out of the realtor.
Just my 2 cents.

al cole'holic
03-01-2004, 08:03 PM
Originally posted by looky_lou
I agree with the talk to 3 realtors. This what I did and I think I made the best deal and everything went real smooth.
I had a price in mind to start with based on my own market research of $329,000.00.
Realtor # 1 spent an afternoon do research and comps. Recomendation was $319,000.00. 6% commission.
Realtor # 2 spent a couple of days doing reasearch and comps. Recomendation $339,000.00. Was willing to reduce commission to 5%. This was my original choice of realtor had I just went to one.
Realtor # 3 spent a couple of days doing research and comps. This realtor actually went out and looked at the comps inside and out. Recomendation $355,000.00. This realtor would not come down from 6%. Her reasoning was that some realtors would not show the property because of the reduced commission.
We decided to go with realtor # 3 at 6%, but we set the price at $349,000.00 ($20,000.00 more than I would have set it at had I sold it By Owner. The realtor had a brokers open house 3 days after listing. The house sold that afternoon for full asking price.
Although the commission was high, I was happy to pay it. Most of the realtors work took place over the next month cordinating everything. I am glad it sold in one day. I would have felt worse if I had to wait 90 days for a sale just to get more work out of the realtor.
Just my 2 cents.
..sounds great for ya Lou!
Ok, now down to business...do you only sell retail or what?? :D

DEEZ NUTTS
03-01-2004, 08:18 PM
Yes houses do sell in hours from time to time. No house on my street has been on the market for more than 2 months. I know areas react differently, but it happens.
I'm saying give it a try. O.K. so a realtor sells your house for 20k more than you thought you could get, but what do you end up paying them? 6% on 350,000k=21k Sweet deal.
al cole'holic, do you buy boats with out driving them or taking a good hard look??? Lots of home inspectors out there.
If one does not have the time to deal with the sale and B.S. that goes with it then get a realtor.

RJ Nordic
03-01-2004, 09:35 PM
If your property is in OC then your prospective agent is way off base using that old of comps.
All the houses in our tract are selling at full price or more.
The longest one was on the market was 2 weeks. When you think you have set a price, add 5 - 10k, wiggle room and don't be surprised if you get it.
There are pitfalls to FISBOs (for sale by owner) LEGAL The escrow company is suppose to be nutrual so they may not be of much assistance in keeping you out of trouble or in the written contract from the potential buyer.
I have purchased homes from owners and they have worked out fine, but unless you have a lot of time to do the followup and stay on the phone for hours sometimes, get assistance use your agent
Cut the deal with 2% to the listing agent and 3% to the selling agent
:D

looky_lou
03-01-2004, 10:29 PM
Originally posted by al cole'holic
..sounds great for ya Lou!
Ok, now down to business...do you only sell retail or what?? :D
On what? Houses or Bikinis?

Essex502
03-02-2004, 06:55 AM
Thanks for all the recommendations! Some of the particulars I left out...
House is a manufactured home that is located in Acton which is kinda' the sticks. Putting a "For Sale" sign is not an option as neither my wife nor myself are available to do much in the way of showing it. Also, it's not like Acton is a big town as it is a very rural area where horses are ridden in the streets. Some of the members here have sent me comps already and thanks to you both for doing so! I have an appointment to sit down with the agent that my father-in-law spoke with (turns out to be a friend of his and my late mother-in-law's who is local in Acton) on Saturday and I'll evaluate what she has to present to use. All of your info is very handy in preparation for the meeting. Thanks again!

flat broke
03-02-2004, 09:01 AM
Essex.
DEFINITELY get an agent that knows his/her shit. Manufactured housing is getting harder and harder to get financed. The fact that the home isn't a stick built will disqualifiy a lot of buyers that would have been able to make an offer.
Asside from the financing being tougher, there are a couple more follow-up items that a knowledgable Realtor will be able to assist the inspector and all other parties with.
Since the property is in a less popluation dense area, its all the more reason to stay away from a FSBO or Help You Sell situation. You'll probably need to take advantage of some of the Realtor's marketing base.
Chris

al cole'holic
03-02-2004, 09:30 AM
Originally posted by looky_lou
On what? Houses or Bikinis?
Bikini's of course :D

BUSTI
03-02-2004, 11:11 AM
Looky Lou,
as a broker who has had a many of heated exchanges on these boards related to RE commissions...I appreciate your post! It has always been my assertion and practice that a great realtor that is worth his stuff can actually create added value for the average homeowner. You defintely get what you pay for. i almost never list properties with discount commissions! And I always can get a better top cash selling price for my listing custoners because we do our homework and list the property at the highest level price all the while trying to provide the other agents in the market am incentive to shiow my clients home FIRST!
Do your homework and good luck. And remember the amount of disclosures and liability a seller has is so great any body selling real estate with out the best realtor they can find is just a lawsuit waiting to happen! You get what you pay for! Your home is for many people the most important.

SoCalOffshore
03-02-2004, 11:46 AM
i totally agree with you regarding the benefit of a truely professional realtor, not one who just got into the business cuz he/she thought they could make more money than working at a retail store. Although, i think the fee structure is quite dated and needs to be completely overhauled. When I first became a financial advisor and CFP some 18 years ago, I was paid by commissions as high as 8.5% for securities sales. Now, I am fee only and charge only 1% annually or less dependent upon portfolio size. Accordingly, it shouldn't cost $50,000 or $60,000 to sell a million dollar home or half that for a half a million dollar home. Also, I have a real estate broker who works for me to assist our clients. Good luck selling!

al cole'holic
03-02-2004, 11:59 AM
Originally posted by SoCalOffshore
i totally agree with you regarding the benefit of a truely professional realtor, not one who just got into the business cuz he/she thought they could make more money than working at a retail store. Although, i think the fee structure is quite dated and needs to be completely overhauled. When I first became a financial advisor and CFP some 18 years ago, I was paid by commissions as high as 8.5% for securities sales. Now, I am fee only and charge only 1% annually or less dependent upon portfolio size. Accordingly, it shouldn't cost $50,000 or $60,000 to sell a million dollar home or half that for a half a million dollar home. Also, I have a real estate broker who works for me to assist our clients. Good luck selling!
If one had a million + $ in bonds is it really worth it to pay you $10k a year in "maintain" fees? ;) :D

looky_lou
03-02-2004, 02:23 PM
Originally posted by al cole'holic
Bikini's of course :D
I don't, but the company I sell for does do wholesale. It is a graduated discount that increases as the $ amount of the order goes up. The max is 50% off with a $2000.00 order I believe.
Contact Joan at info[at]the-bikini.com
Tell her Lou from Havasu sent ya.

SoCalOffshore
03-02-2004, 02:35 PM
Originally posted by al cole'holic
If one had a million + $ in bonds is it really worth it to pay you $10k a year in "maintain" fees? ;) :D
One should never pay anything to maintain, but to improve, manage and adjust it is well worth it at twice the price. :D Most people have no idea how to manage a bond portfolio.

al cole'holic
03-02-2004, 03:41 PM
Originally posted by SoCalOffshore
One should never pay anything to maintain, but to improve, manage and adjust it is well worth it at twice the price. :D Most people have no idea how to manage a bond portfolio.
...see how it feels when someone says you shouldn't be making the $ you make in your business :D

BIGTYME
03-02-2004, 05:01 PM
good point alco, actually, GREAT point!