You too can buy without a realtor !!

[SD Realtor]

Hi Daniel

My email is [email protected].

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Once again, I think that the majority of people only have experienced one side of real estate. Lets look at some other real life examples, these are 2 cases that happened to me within the past year.

1 – Showed a couple over 25 homes in Eastlake over a span of 4 months. Went with them 3 times to thier credit union. Introduced them to 5 different mortgage brokers. Encouraged them to wait for at least a year to buy after reviewing thier finances. They didn’t want to wait. Set up a great commission package for them in writing. Well after over 150 hours of work including 4 lowball purchase offers, they ended up buying from a listing agent.

2 – Same situation but this was a young couple looking for a home in Carlsbad. Exact same but a little MORE time involved over 6 months. They ended up going with a mortgage broker to write up the deal.

I guess my point is, there are posts and posts and posts about the unjustified commissions. However there is never any recognition about the hours and hours of free service. I think that for every buyer there is a unique situation and the buyer and Realtor can structure a fair deal. Perhaps the commission rebate can slide with the amount of homes shown or something like that.

Now HONESTLY… Tell me, how many of you potential buyers would pay $150 an hour to look at homes on a Sunday per the Redfin ?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

My answer is no way. I AM a potential buyer. If I was not a Realtor I would look on Realtor.com and get the addresses and do drive bys and visit open houses. I would find a good commission rebate offer and work with that buyers agent.

The other thing about Redfin that I find discouraging is the open admission to ask listing agents to show you the home with NO INTENT to use them to represent you. To me this is not only misleading but it can absolutely lead to problems with procurring cause.

Exeunt – Your comment that your agent is your best friend and then wants nothing to do with you is A PERFECT EXAMPLE of a poor agent. In fact if this were true then no agents would get repeat customers nor would they get referrals. I find it to be quite incorrect, at least in my case and in the case of many other fine Realtors.

Again, there are lots and lots of boneheads out there, no argument there.

As for the tax issues and commission rebates? I am not a CPA, I always tell clients that and I tell them to talk to the tax professional they work with.

SD Realtor

[SDbear]

Nice model. An improvement would be to charge per offer submitted. Similar to retailing the home walk-throughs I as a customer wud like it if someone retails the paper work. If I’m buying a home for say 600k and I submit an offer to a single home that I found and negotiated the price for, I don’t think the broker deserves 6k to 12k (even with redfin model) for the work he does.
Is there anyone who offers such a service?

[SD Realtor]

SD Bear –

Under the circumstances you laid out, why don’t you simply go in unrepresented and hire a real estate attorney? If you found the home, if you negotiated the price, why use a broker at all? If you didn’t ask the Realtor to show any other homes or do a comp analysis or anything else, why use one at all?

SD Realtor

[PerryChase]

I think that there’s no need to get too fixated on whether to use a Realtor or not. If you’re an able buyer, just calculate an all inclusive price you’re willing to pay. Let the agents work it out amoung themselves — kinda like negotiating an out-the-door price on the purchase of a car. You don’t care how they work the sales taxes and registration fees so long as you get your out-the-door price.

I know that real estate is more complicated than buying a car but the same principle applies.

[JJGittes]

SD Realtor

The seller signed up to pay X commission when he listed, right? So I guess the downside to using a lawyer to write the offer for a flat fee is not potentially getting some of the commission in rebate form thats going to be paid anyway. No?

However, I guess you could use the lawyer, submit a lowball, note in the offer that there is no commission to be paid to any buyers agent thus the # is low, and thereby put the screws to the listing agent to cut his client some slack to make the deal happen.

[SD Realtor]

Hi JJG –

Yes when the seller signed the listing agreement the seller agreed to pay the listing agent a certain commission amount. Also there is a section in the listing agreement that addresses paying a commission to the cooperating broker.

So yes if there is no coop broker, (you use a lawyer for instance) I do not see why you could not submit an offer to the seller similar to what I outlined in the previous post. In this case you are not represented. However you still request a credit for closing costs or adjust the asking price in a corresponding manner. Again, realize the closing cost credit is limited to what the lender will be comfortable with. Alternately ask the lawyer to craft a purchase agreement with the appropriate credit for closing costs applied.

Personally, I do not advise anyone to ask the sellers to alter any agreements for commissions they have with thier listing agents. (just my opinion) My advice to buyers is to strike the best deal they can within the parameters of things they can influence including the asking price, and commission thier realtor or fixed fee thier lawyer would/could get based on thier agreement with the lawyer/realtor that represents them.

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