Agreed Jim, late January/early Feb is a great time to list. Personally I think this spring is going to be pretty active as well due to limited inventory of quality.
Treehugger getting an attorney is fine. That probably would constitute enough representation for a cooperating brokerage to work with you and there should be no problem but you need to see if the buyers agent broker will agree to that. Again, it just depends on how risk averse that broker is. Having an attorney simply review a purchase agreement verses representing you may not be enough for the other broker. You are arguing your case to the wrong people, contact the broker and if he is cool with it then you are good to go!
The other point that others brought up is that you may be perhaps limiting your exposure. Really what is most important to you is what you net correct? So if you get a higher sales price that covers the higher commission wouldn’t that suffice? There are no gaurantees but that is the point.
This is not the argument of what good is a listing agent for and why should I pay that commission. I understand that argument and that dovetails into the whole discussion about the entire real estate model and its current faults.
So given that as a starting point, there are simply 2 issues here.
1 – If you feel that there is not a potential to fetch a higher price using the MLS to cover the commission costs then that is fine.
2 – If you have verified with the buyers agent that his brokerage will co-op with you given your representation model, then you are good to go. Seems like a quick call to the buyers broker will answer this question.
