I think you are missing the point. It is not about falling in or out of escrow. It is how much work do you want the person to do for you? Are you expecting the agent to run comps for you? If you want a history of the home, has it been sold or listed before, if so how much, how many times? Is the current seller in distress? How many homes in the neighborhood have sold? How much background grunt work do you expect the agent to do for you? Alot or none? Do you want opinions on repairs, on inspections, on roofs, on foundations?
Or do you want a guy to open a door with the keycard and let you in a home.
There is a big difference right?
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You said you think you will see 12 homes. That is good; I have had clients who purchased after seeing a few homes and others who I showed over 30 homes. You kind of see what I am saying? Even in escrow I have had escrows that are smooth and others that required inspections by 6 or 7 different professionals, lots of handholding and alot of work.
The decision to work with the agents set methodology is best so you are making a wise choice by doing that.
As UR posted you need to make very very sure it is all done properly. If this agent is familar with doing this stuff then he should have a set methodology. Don’t assume you will get a check out of escrow. My recommendation would be for your agent to ask the sellers to rebate you the amount (of what the commission rebate will be) directly (in escrow) for non recurring and recurring closing costs. That amount will equal the rebate and your agent at the same time will reduce his commission by sending notifying the listing agent of a reduction in the coop commission (using the proper CAR forms). If you do this correctly you will get your commission, the agent will get his reduced commission, and the money will go towards your closing costs. As UR said, that way the sellers are notified and aware of it.
