Looking for an agent to help me buy in PQ area

[Looking4PQhome]

Looking for an agent willing to give me $5,000 cash of their commision at close of escrow. I’m in the market for a home in the range of 550-600k and looking in the penasquitos area. I’ve already got a place in mind, just need an offer written.
Let me know if you have any interest. [email protected]

[Bugs]

I’m not a realty agent and I don’t play one on TV. If you want to save $5k it seems to me your best bet is to either wait a few months for the prices to drop that far or use a discount broker up front.

Maybe it’s just me, but the only reason I can think of for asking for cash back from a broker is to hide it from your lender. If that’s the case then you are basically soliciting an agent to conspire with you to commit mortgage fraud, and I wouldn’t think Pigginton’s would be a good venue for that.

On the other hand I might be reading this all wrong. If so, I apologize profusely in advance.

[Looking4PQhome]

Bugs,
You are in fact reading it all wrong and your comment is ignorant and insulting.
Its a tough market right now and as SD Realtor said in a previous post, there’s nothing wrong with asking an agent to share a portion of their commision with you.
The only way it would be considered mortgage fraud is if we were adding an extra 5k into a loan amount that would be handed back to me by the mortgage company after close of escrow – in others, a kick-back. If that’s what I was trying to do, then it would be an issue to addresss with my lender, not a realtor.
What I am asking is for a realtor to share $5,000 of a $17,000 commision with me, in exchange for them providing very minimal work, as I am doing all the real footwork myself.

[little lady]

I have read recently on a website(while I was actually looking for information on selling) that this particular company offers a “buyer’s rebate”, although I believe the amount listed was for a flat rate of 1800 dollars. So, I don’t believe it’s illegal. I am not positive, but I believe the web site I was looking at was Ziprealty.

GOOGlE it.

[JJGittes]

Zip or Buysiderealty.com

[JWM in SD]

Ummm, in fact, bugs response was quite civil. I think you need to really consider the forum that you’re posting such a request on. This site is more or less dedicated to discussion on why SD real estate is overvalued. Why aren’t you posting your request on craigslist??

[sdrealtor]

Sounds like a troll to me looking to find a couple agents battle over cutting their commissions. If I’m wrong, check out SD Realtor as I’m sure he’d do it. He will no doubt be around soon to provide his contact info.

[SD Realtor]

Ahhh sdrealtor you always flatter me with your kind remarks. What a nice guy you are.

[barnaby33]

Are you sure you two aren’t married?

Josh

[Bugs]

Well little lady, I’m not a realty agent but I am an appraiser and I can tell you that such a kickback is something that must be disclosed in an appraisal as financial assistance; and yes, it would affect the cash equivalency of your sale price as well as the amount that most lenders would finance. You’re buying a (let’s say) $600k property, but you’re only paying $595,000 after the cash back. In the vast scheme of things it’s not a large amount of money, but it would affect your loan if you’re maxed out on your financing.

I only have 20 years of experience at this and I’ve only NEVER seen such a kickback that didn’t involve keeping the mortgage lender out of the loop – which omission is mortgage fraud and is a felony – so if you find my observations insulting, well, I already apologized in advance for that, didn’t I?

Besides, I already suggested you could negotiate a lower commission up front or wait for the prices to drop, so it’s not like I didn’t offer a constructive suggestion as an alternative. BTW, those alternatives would both have the same effect (if your goal is to save money) without creating a tax headache for your agent or a financing problem with your loan. But the way I read it, you specifically asked about how to get cash back rather than how to save the money, so that’s why I responded in the manner I did.

Sorry.

[dny]

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.

[SD Realtor]

Hey you never know Josh! heheheheh

SD Realtor

[JJGittes]

Bugs, I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. What you call mortgage fraud is being done big time by Buyside right now. Are they being prosecuted?

I can see fraud if the seller was kicking back money to the buyer after the transactions closes. But how is a sharing of commission by the buyer’s agent with his client fraud? The house is worth what it is worth, and the appraiser should be identifying that amount. Why is the sharing of a commission paid pursuant to a listing agreement fraud?

And regarding negotiating a lower commission…huh? The seller identifies the compensation amount when the house is listed. What exactly would the buyer be negotiating, and with whom? A rewrite of the MLS posting?

Anyway, really, I think this whole thing is like a cat chasing its tale. The system and the 6% commission structure has inflated everything by that much, and created the opportunity for all kinds of behind the secenes nonsense for a long time. It has been like an anchor around the neck of the RE marketplace, and its all the worse now with house prices in SD county for decent SFRs between $600k and a mill. However, I have to think with the internet, the wall is starting to crumble, slowly.

[SD Realtor]

JJG –

Bugs main point (and Bugs correct me if I am wrong) is that the lenders decision to make the loan is 100% based on the risk that the lender is willing to take. Thus if the buyer receives ANY assistance that the lender has not been made aware of, then the decision to lend has been compromised and is fraudulent. It didn’t matter if it was a credit from the Seller or a check from the buyers rich uncle.

I really feel yours and Bugs statements are valid. Yours was that the house is worth what it is worth regardless of credits and such. However, as appraisers are the front line troops in real estate wars, it is essential for them to get ALL of the facts about the home when they make the appraisals. If there are credits to the home then Bugs will need to know about them as they may affect his appraisal. Maybe the credit will only cover a fraction of the cost of the repair that needs to be made. So the appraisal should be lower.. See what I am saying? Yes the home is worth what it is worth but for Bugs to appraise it correctly he will need to know about any credits and then assess whether they should affect the appraisal or not. Many times I get calls from appraisers asking me about listings I have sold as they are doing an appraisal for a neighboring property. The first thing they ask about are were there credits and what was the exact nature of those credits.

Now your points are also especially valid about lowering commission (sdrealtor insert your expected backhanded compliment here). The seller identifies the commission and the buyer may request that the buyers agent ask the listing agent to ask the seller to reduce the coop commission and perhaps lower his price. The buyer does not negotiate this, the buyer asks his agent to negotiate this with the listing agent. (Note the buyers agent will be none to happy about that and will most likely balk at this request) The listing agent will then discuss this with the seller. Alternately the buyer may ask the buyers agent to simply take a smaller commission, then ask the buyers agent to request to the listing agent that the seller credit the difference back to the buyer as a non-recurring closing cost. This MUST be made aware to the lender and appraiser so that there is not any fraud going on.

There are appropriate documents for doing all of this, doing it above board so that all parties are aware of this. The end result is that if done correctly, there is no fraud, and buyers save money and Realtors get less commission. (sdrealtor insert obligatory insult here)

SD Realtor

[JJGittes]

Thanks for the thoughtful response. But how is a buyer getting a portion of his agent’s commission different from a RE Broker representing himslef in a purchase and pocketing the whole commission? If it is all about disclosure, I guess yeah, maybe, its wise to have everything above board and disclosed, like even communications/agreements between an agent and his
client…(?)

Also, what if its an all cash deal? Would you still require disclosure to the seller that the buyer will be getting half of the commission? Or is it only necessary when a bank/loan is involved?

Anyway, its all crazy, and frought with conflicts under every stone, and will probably be winding down now that the information monopoly has been busted by the ‘net.

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