Yet another real estate question...

Factual Questions
21

That I don’t know.

Hmmm… Maybe I can convince my agent to join the boards. He could do a “Ask the Real Estate Agent Guy” thread.

Since you mentioned that you did not sign anything when you went to go see the house the first time, I believe that the selling agent should have no reason to say you belong to her. So maybe you should go and sign up with another agent (tell them the story first I guess). No need to worry about “dual agent”, and also if this house falls through, you’ll have an agent for all future houses you look at.

BTW - I never said “Congradulations and Good Luck!”

22

BTW- you can try homepricecheck.com & find sales prices & appraisal prices for homes in your area since 1984, free too…you have to register though.

23

Thank you, handy. I knew about that site. The problem is that their data ends in 2002. I would need data for the past six months to make a decent CMA.

Zev Steinhardt

24

Another possibility: drive-by appraisals. These are pretty informal, and residential real estate appraisers will sometimes do these for people who are just interested in a home. Around here, the cost is typically between $150 and $250. The report should include all of the comparables the appraiser used.

As someone else mentioned, you can almost do all of the work yourself and get just about as good results as the real estate agents will get. I mentioned http://www.uspdr.com in another thread you started about this same sort of thing, and you will probably find any comparable sale a realtor would use on that site. It doesn’t appear to have photographs, but you can always just drive around and look at the homes that have sold.

You can also use uspdr.com to find out what the local assessor has valued the property at, on the off-chance that the market values assessors in your neck of the woods place on real estate have any bearing on reality…

Also, you mentioned worries of the accuracy of CMAs done by seller’s agents… personally, I don’t trust them at all, no matter who does them, but I’m a real estate appraiser :smiley:

25

Thanks. I saw the site, and while it does have a wealth of information, one problem is does have is that many of the property details (bedrooms, etc.) that make the property have the price it does are not on that site, making it hard to do a CMA.

Zev Steinhardt

26

Really? The random comps I’m pulling up all have the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, basement area, year of construction, heating/air info, exterior wall covering, etc. In cases where not all of the data is there or there’s something specific you need to know, you might try the website of the county assessor in question (I have no idea where in NY you’re talking about), since that’s where the info is coming from in the first place. The assessor pretty much always has the info available, since he needs it to appraise the real estate.

27

It’s not unheard of to have dual agents. When we listed our first house we sold to one (our agent also brought our buyer).

I’m just the suspicious sort and prefer my agents, like my lawyers, to have nothing on their minds but my own interest.

And zev, unless something truly odd is going on the buyer NEVER pays the commission. It always comes out of the money paid to the seller (I suppose in a sense you ARE paying it…but it’s a part of the mortgage and you’re not out of pocket suddenly).

28

That being said, would the agent be PO’ed if I suddenly showed up with a buyer’s agent?

Zev Steinhardt

29

Might well be. If you’re buying a $200,000 house the seller’s agent is looking at $12,000 in commission. Cut that in half and the agent is losing $6,000. That’s a pretty hefty hit.

I don’t know what you’re looking to pay so it might be more or less depending.

But do what you think is best and damn to the consequences. If the agent is at all professional he/she won’t hold it against you if you do.

30

I’ve sold RE for a couple years & would seriously doubt you would offend the listing agent by letting them know that you plan on getting an agent to write a contract on their listing.

They want to sell their listing & should be quite pleased with that, trust me.

Having representation is key.

-JC

31

Zev,

Assuming you’re buying in the New York area, I can give you an idea how it works here. (Just to be clear, let me give my cover my butt speech: I am not your lawyer; this is general information not specific legal advice; if you really want to know what’s what, talk to your own lawyer or other professional, not some random yahoo posting on a message board, etc.)

In New York City and the surrounding counties, the broker’s commission is paid entirely by the seller. Typically the total commission is 6%, but this can be changed by agreement between the seller and the broker(s).

Typically, the seller will enter into an “exclusive” agreement with a broker to list the property. The listing broker will then place ads and do everything else necessary to list the house.

Most commonly, buyers will be assisted by a broker in their search. If the buyer has a broker, and a deal is reached, the two brokers will split the commission (50/50 in New York City).

The listing broker for the property expects this split, and if there is no broker to split the commission, it is a major bonus for the listing broker. Sometimes where a buyer comes in with no broker, the buyer can negotiate to lower the purchase price a few percent and take it out of the broker’s “extra” commission, but this isn’t all that common.

(The above relates to traditional broker’s fee schedules, and not “discount” services like Yhd Foxtons, which I don’t really understand, but I believe that will increase the fee to the seller if the buyer comes in with a broker.)

In short, there is really little down-side for you to use a broker a buyer in New York, and having the market information that a broker can give you can be very helpful.

E-mail me if you have more specific questions.