Okay, I’m new to this. We’re selling our home, and our listing agent just emailed us a list of stuff to do. It attaches the listing agreement.
You might have seen in the news that the standard 6% realtor fee is now history. The realtor is asking for 5%. I’d like to see that lowered even a bit further, to 4% if possible, but I’d settle for 4.5%.
So do I mark up the listing agreement to line out their requested fee, pencil in 4%, initial the change, and then send it back? Our home is “turnkey ready”, and doesn’t need staging, repairs, or cleaning. I’m hoping to use that advantage to help me bargain.
Who has experience as a negotiator and can give me some pointers?
I’m in the process of selling my house and was happy with the 5% fee. If you negotiate a lower fee with your agent, they are likely not to do everything possible to sell your house, like put an ad in the local newspaper, which can help attract buyers. If you’re okay with it, that’s fine, but since I was selling a $2M house in the dead-of-winter, I needed all the support from the agency I could get, and the 5% fee made everyone happy.
BTW, my house sold in 2.5 months with three feet of snow on the ground most of that time. I learned there aren’t a lot of buyers looking at houses in winter since nobody wants to move in the snow and nobody wants to trade in their 2.5% mortgage for a 5.5% mortgage.
To answer your question more directly, yes, you can just cross out the fee listed in the contract and put in another fee and sign it but don’t expect your agent to roll over without a long discussion regarding why you refuse to pay the going rate.
As far as negotiating goes, you can ask for a lower fee, but if the agent isn’t starved for clients, there is no reason to expect them to capitulate.
If you’re going to ask for a lower fee, tell the agent what services you won’t be requiring. Don’t want staging? Say so. Don’t need repairs? That’s really up to the inspector to decide, but you can guarantee to pay for the repairs instead of haggling through them.
Also, let the agent know whether you’ll be flexible on price to get a quick sale, or you want a hard negotiator and full price. The harder you want them to fight for you, the higher the commission they’ll want.
What I am unclear on with the new rule mentioned in the OP is does the listing agent need to share some of their fee with the buyer’s agent? Or is that off the table now and 100% goes to the listing agent?
Isn’t it always up to the owner? Not sure how the agent negotiates for you. They get an offer, they show the offer to you, you say yes or no. Rinse and repeat until an agreement is reached (or the buyer walks away).
There are some agents who prefer a quick sale and moving on to the next listing, and others who think the extra commission is worth the extra time and effort. The quick sale specialists may be more flexible on commission if the seller is more flexible on price.
I see lots of listings with the phrase “motivated seller.” I don’t see many with the phrase “firm price.”
Before red lining the listing agreement, if it’s not already provided, I’d speak to the agent and ask for a net sheet that outlines your anticipated closing costs. Then take it from there to negotiate commissions. If your house is in ready to list condition the listing agents job is easy. Basically vetting buyers and agents and showing the house. You shoul have wiggle room on commissions don’t waver they’ll accept it otherwise the deals off.you really have to play hardball to get what you want. IMHO.
I’ve emailed the realtor asking for a .5% reduction in fee. They’ve responded that they cover all the marketing costs which will be about $1,800, but they don’t counteroffer. I’m reading that 5% is about the going rate in hot area in California right now, so I’m not sure I want to continue haggling. Everything is going to be stressful enough without that.
What’s involved with marketing? Professional photos, drone shots, boosted Facebook advertising ? I dont subscribe to any newspaper but do they still advertise in the RE sections?
My daughter and SIL are currently house shopping in the Ithaca, NY area. Houses are selling quickly. My daughter has put in bids on several but was outbid on each, so far. The most recent looked great. They put in a bid $40,000 over the listed price and were beaten by two other buyers!
She met a couple whose son is going to be starting at Cornell in the fall. They are buying a home for cash that he will live in for 4 years, at which time they will likely be selling the home.
Based on the responses to this thread I started, my wife and I have been working with a real estate agent to get my FIL’s house sellable. Part of that is doing some repairs while my FIL is still living in the house. My wife wants to spends a bunch of money for a new roof and paint, the agent said don’t do that. He said he can price the house at an amount that if the potential buyer wants these things included in the purchase, we can make a minimal deduction in the price and let them take care of those things. Both tend to be items that are high on the personalization list.
Back to the OP’s question, the agent also stated that with the hot market in this area, part of the purchase agreement will include the buyer paying both the buyer’s and seller’s fees. I was surprised by this, when my wife and I bought our house 9 years ago, we negotiated having the seller pay both fees. This likely happened because our offer on the house was $12,500 over the asking price.
A lot of this will depend on your location. My brother lives in the Charlotte area and sold his house after his first open house for 20k over asking. It’s a newer house with a pool and needed no repairs. In my opinion, he wasted about 40k in realtor fees that he could have kept for himself doing an FSBO and some advertising. It sold to someone in his neighborhood who was renting and wanted to buy.
If you’re in a similar situation, be wiser with your money.