Buyer's Realtor Sales Commission

[icemann427]

I have a house to sell and I am wondering if I increased the Buyer's Agent's sales commission from the normal 3% to 4% would I get increased showings? My realtor says she doesn't think so. I would like some opinions from the brain trust. Thanks

[Jim Bremner]

Talk with a few agents. If I could make 33% more on a deal I would show the poo out of it. What kind of value of home are we talking ? Maybe additional advertising it might be the way to go

Facebook ads?

My son had a starter home for sale I told him to print business cards with the house and walk grocery store and other local lots placing the cards on cars. He wanted the house to sell quick to buy a better home.

[look 171]

I don't think so because everything is on the MLS and everyone will see it. Its up to your agent on how well they can close the deal. maybe you will have to give a little on the price for a quick sale?

[sammyg2]

I would never ever commit to 3% buyer's commission, much less 4%. But that's just me.

Is this in an area with slow sales or is the price a tad "optimistic?"

[Rusty Heap]

for sale by owner..........run craiglist for free.


All a realtor does, is get two parties to agree on a price.


I've done FSBO before. Legalities are only through Escrow and Title Co.


easy

[URY914]

All the showings are on Zillow now. RA just schedules the walk thru. It should be 2%.

[Tobra]

If you go FSBO the realtors will black ball you

[asphaltgambler]

^^^^agree- your property will become ' invisible' online

[Noah930]

Not a realtor, but I don't think giving the buyer's agent another 1% is going to increase foot traffic. A buyer's agent just wants that sale done, to get their commission. They don't care if it's your house, or another. And it's your house and the price that's going to make the deal happen, not whether the agent steers the buyers to your home or not because of another percentage point. You'll get more interested parties by either marketing the property better (that's on your listing agent) or lowering the asking price.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by icemann427

I have a house to sell and I am wondering if I increased the Buyer's Agent's sales commission from the normal 3% to 4% would I get increased showings? My realtor says she doesn't think so. I would like some opinions from the brain trust. Thanks

I tried to do something similar in 2007. I knew the housing market was going to tank and I wanted to sell off my Vacation home in a hurry while the market was still pretty hot in the area.

I offered a $7,500 bonus on top of commission to any agent bringing a buyer to the table in the first 3 months of listing.

The house was priced right and was staged well. No one even tried.

I ended up firing my realtor after 6 months and hiring another one who actually worked, she sold my house in 30 days.

IMHO, offering an increase commission does not work these sort of "professionals" just list and and make sure you find a realtor that actually works and is not collecting listings.

[Noah930]

One thing I never understood about listing agents (not saying the OP is guilty of this, though if he's pining for more traffic through his house, maybe it's true) is how little effort some of them put into selling something worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The time I sold a car on Craigslist, I put more information and pictures in the ad than some of these MLS listings do. And I was selling a $3000 car, not something worth literally hundreds of times more.

People like pictures. What does the MLS listing look like? Are the pictures attractive and numerous (and not repetitious)? Did the listing agent use a professional photographer? If you're still living there, was the house decluttered for the photos? If the property's vacant, was/is it staged?

[Vipergrün]

If it were me I'd list through RedFin, purple bricks, etc and fark the traditional realtor approach. The whole process is nothing but a money grab for very little effort.

[bleucamaro]

If you have that much room in your price, just lower the price by that much.

You will pay less capital gains, (or don't need to stretch as much for a 1031 exchange).

Also, your selling agent should be doing more to getting it marketed better. Better staging, better photography, better curb appeal, get it on the MLS tour, better pricing, etc.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by Tobra

If you go FSBO the realtors will black ball you

Not really. It's usually the FSBO sellers who "black ball" the agents, at least initially. Then reality sets in, as the vast majority of FSBOs that actually sell end up involving at least one agent in the mix. It does usually take longer though, as most FSBO sellers don't have the exposure, reach, or contacts that a (good) RE agent has, and it can take them a while to come to that realization. And of course they exclude themselves from the MLS (and most IDX sites that aggregate MLS listings/info), which is probably the biggest factor. It's like the difference between trying to sell something on eBay vs. the bulletin-board at your local post office/coffee shop. You may get lucky, but the odds are not in your favor. There is a distinct difference between actively "black balling" and simply not going out of their way to seek out FSBO properties for their clients. Conversely, a buyer that is seeking out FSBO properties is less likely to be calling/using a buyer's agent in the first place.

Also, a big reason that many RE agents avoid FSBO deals is that it inevitably turns into a scenario where they are playing both seller's and buyer's agent. While dual-agency is allowed in many locales, it is to be avoided if/whenever possible. It creates an immediate conflict of interest that has to be "waived" by both parties (potential powder-keg in the making). It adds another level of complexity and further opens the door to disputes and/or litigation in an industry that is already one of the most litigious. And, for that extra work, risk, and hassle of representing both sides, the average FSBO seller usually wants to pay a fraction of the industry standard for ONE side. Not to mention, most FSBO sellers are wildly optimistic and/or completely clueless as to their asking prices and/or their specific market.

That said...if you can successfully close an FSBO deal without involving an RE agent, then more power to you (seriously).

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

... most FSBO sellers are wildly optimistic and/or completely clueless as to their asking prices and/or their specific market.

That's what I noticed, too, in our home search a decade ago. FSBOs were usually listed above market value, when instead the math says they should have been listed for a few percent less than market value.

[dad911]

If you're not in a rush put it on Zillow, etc first. Make sure you have really good (Professional) pics, as they will follow the house forever. Internet never forgets.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Noah930

That's what I noticed, too, in our home search a decade ago. FSBOs were usually listed above market value, when instead the math says they should have been listed for a few percent less than market value.

However, you cannot list low on a site like Zillow, then ever think you will can ask more to cover the commission later. Price stats never go away.

[look 171]

When I started playing in real estate, I did try and buy from owner seller and discovered that is a royal PITA dealing with them. Totally unprofessional and they followed me throughout the house explaining what each items are. I really don't care about your compound miter cut on the crown molding. Just leave me alone and work on the deal. Most price their home high anyway. Now, I stop and don't deal with owner / seller. I just assume not look at them to waste my time. I always use an agent, but that's just me.

My agent markets my house well. All our homes sell itself due to the hot market here.

I have a professional company stage it (very important IMO).

She has:

Pro photographer come and take pics of the house.
Make a auto flip through of pics on the site (whatever you call those?)
Short video of the place
Have a general inspection report to proof that the house is sound
List of permits for all work done
I have pics documented in stages throughout the remodel

That usually will have enough info to hook the "Real" buyer. We put it on the market for one week along with two open houses. Dead line for offers is 5pm the Following Monday. Unless the offer is really juicy, seriously buyers will get their bid in.

[Jims5543]

The house I last purchased in Florida. I used a realtor back in the 90 's to find a home to raise my kid (ended up kids) in.

She was a hot mess. Every house she showed us had an offer already on it. We got so frustrated with her incompetence we decided to go FSBO before there was a website.

We literally drove around neighborhoods we liked looking for signs that were FSBO, We found one and we liked the house a lot. We negotiated with the owner and put cash in escrow at a local title company with a promise to close in 30 days. We stole this house. We offered almost 20K under asking price with a Yes or No counter offer. They tried to counter with another price. We thanked them and moved on.

They came back and took our insulting offer and then threw a temper tantrum taking all the appliances (outdated and nasty it was a gift) which we were fine with.

I hate dealing with "professional" Realtors. They are the worst. I deal with them daily 80% of them suck.

Once we needed to contact a realtor for access through a guard gate to survey their listing (my line of work) I called a 9:30 in the morning to get them to call. I woke them up and they had the audacity to tell me that. I hate dealing with realtors and laugh when they call me to ask for a favor (rush a job for them) with the promise they will throw all their work my way.

I fell for it in my early days in this business, now I just tell them I only rush jobs for my day to day clients. In my early days, 100% of the time I have rushed a job for them never to hear from them again. Users, all of them.

[Jims5543]

We decided about 2-3 years ago to sell our current home. We used a realtor to list it, she walked around with her cel phone and snapped crappy pics. She called me and told me a lot came out blurry and she needed to return.

I offered to take them with my Go Pro and Samsung 360 instead. I sent her the photos and she never made a proper for sale page for us.

Despite her incompetence + lack of advertising + our over the top asking price, we set our price about 30K over the market value. We got an offer 2 weeks after listing with her at full price.

We freaked out. We were sure the price would make people walk away and would give us time to shop.

Long story, we back up to train tracks, we instructed realtor to tell everyone up front there are there. You cannot see them, you can kind of hear them, we have impact windows on the back of the house so the sound is minimal. Needless to say the buyers did not know the train tracks were there. There was a media blitz over passenger trains coming to the rails in addition to the already present freight trains. The buyers backed out when they found out they were there.

The realtor said, this is going to be a problem, we said, no it will not, pull the listing. We stayed put. We installed sauna to make us feel better about our choice to stay.