I see no fault in you showing a bid for a Realtor’s assistance. It is easy to see why some (greedy) Realtors would be upset with somebody not blindly paying $17k for what could be 10-20 hours of work. Some Realtors are surely trying to maintain what monopoly power/collusionary practices are in place (standard disclaimer: not all Realtors are bad).
For my parents who were selling their home in PQ by themselves, I know they ran across many difficult Realtors. Most pressed my parents to use them as the listing agent, to which my parents always politely refused. They have just now sold their home (it is in escrow) after being on the market for about 3 months. They received multiple offers over that time period.
My parents did enlist the help of a Realtor to list the house on the MLS. They paid $99 for this, and they ended up using the same Realtor to take care of the paperwork involved in the sale of the home for a nominal fee ($500?). I would highly recommend this agent–Marti Scott–for any “For Sale By Owners” based on my parent’s experience. She was extremely courteous and provided valuable aid.
My guess is that she would also be willing to help buyers at a reduced fee by rebating a piece of the commission. You can check her website here for details: http://homesellersupport.com/index.php . I know for my parents they essentially reduced the price for any buyer without an agent by 2.5%. Any rational seller would do the same as their concern should be the price net of fees and commissions they receive.
Unfortunately, the assumption of rational behavior doesn’t carry as much weight as one would think. One agent represening a buyer who submitted an offer on the house sent a letter questioning my parents ethics because she thought they were using an agent to sell the house. I know with certainity my parents were always totally forthright about not having an agent. The signs saying “For Sale By Owner” in the front and back yard should have been an obvious indication of that fact. In any case, my parents received this letter after sending a counter-offer only $5k above the inital offer.
Why the agent would flip out over my parents representing themseves is beyond me. She would have received about $15k in commission had the deal gone through. In my mind, the agent was doing a disservice to her client because she allowed her partiality (I think she only wanted to work with other agents to keep the monopoly in tact) to get in the way of a deal. In the letter it did not mention that the price was unacceptable. The letter also mentioned how my parents had raised the deposit from $5k to $10k which was a complete blunder on her part as my parents did no such thing–the deposit was still at $5k.
My point to all of this is that if you cannot work the deal for yourself for whatever reason, I recommend using an agent who brings enough value to the table to offset any added costs. I would give Marti Scott a shot as she definitely was an asset in my parent’s dealings.
