I had an attorney do some title work for me when we bought our place. He billed $800. How long does it take to do the paperwork? I bought my first house FSBO, I didnt have an agent either, The seller paid $500 to a broker he knew that did our paperwork, I dont remember it taking very long. Im sure he could have done the sales paperwork in less time than he spent on the title work. $800 is a hell of a lot less than 6% of a couple hundred thousand dollars.

I would not use one and have sold 2 homes without the fee a Real Estate agents charge one was in 1998 and the other was 2012.

Win/win especially in today's market, word travels fast if you put a home FSBO.
No need for an agent, unless of course you cannot be at the showings...but a lot of buyers have no choice but to be more flexible due to demand.

If you paid an attorney to draft forms or do any work for you in property that you bought, then you over paid. Realtors get paid by the seller, the buyer should never pay a realtor.

I kept wondering when you would get on here and chime in.

6% these days is BS. Homes sell so fast & @ such a high price that even 3% is overboard. A couple years ago I found a builder, worked out 90% of the process of him building for me & then told my realtor to finish it up. He came back & said he's not paying her 6% fee. I talked to her & she decided to do it for 1%. She stood to make $2,850 for about 3 hours worth of work. Hell of a deal for her!
With everything online now (MLS), realtors are getting away w/murder. When I buy a home I look online & find a few I want. Call the realtor to set a few showings for me. She spends a few hours showing me then turns in a couple offers. <10 hours of actual work & they make 10's of 1,000's of dollars.
I'm about to sell my house & I will not pay more than $5K for a realtor to sell it. No way in hell will I pay them ~$26K for <2 solid days work. F that!
I've bought & sold 5 of my personal homes in the last 15 years & none of them have taken much effort to buy or sell. A damn [censored] house rat can do it!

If you're paying 30-50% to your broker; you need a new broker.

You’re still paying 3% to buyers agent.

I’ve been trying to understand why it’s so complicated to buy and real estate? I think they make it complicated to justify all the fees.

Trust me, I’ve shopped around an I have it pretty good. I don’t pay a desk fee that I’ll never use, I don’t pay a percentage of office supplies I’ll never use, I don't pay a royalty fee every year, but lots of people do because they want the name brand recognition of KW or Ebby or Century 21 or others.

You're thinking title companies. What a racquet!

Agents and brokers and lawyers can all be necessary at some point. Ever have an offer to buy a house accepted by a person (daughter) who listed a house they don't own? And when the actual owner (father of the daughter, who didn't even know his house was for sale!) got involved things didn't get better as it wasn't in his name but a trust of his which he didn't have. An absolute mess. But, with help from smart people I got it for my originally accepted offer. Though the process was a nightmare. The kicker - the house was only two years old. Daughter moved in when construction was complete, lived there one year and moved out. It sat empty for almost about eight months before she listed it. I could go on but that's the nuts and bolts.

I personally will not use a real estate agent if I am given the choice. I have purchased two homes and bought some property. The easiest one I’ve ever done was for sale by owner. I negotiated the price with the owner, met him at a title company where we both signed the papers at the same time. Easiest transaction I’ve ever had. The two times I have dealt with a real estate agent were much more difficult than they had to be. Closing on the house kept getting delayed due to one real estate agent, and another time the real estate agent was just difficult to deal with. There’s 6% commission is a total joke. No, they are not necessary today.

I retired, gave my realtor the keys and moved out of my home to my ranch. My realtor hired a deep cleaner and a carpet cleaner and put it on the MLS. It showed 16 times and it sold for 11 grand over the asking price which was highly inflated to begin with. My realtor and a mobile closer drove to my ranch 70 miles from DFW and it was funded in 5 hours. If a person wants to mess with the complications of a FSBO and the chances of epic fail between the contract and closing dates, then have at it and good luck to you. I don't have time for silly crap like that.

Its proven that most FSBO's sell for less than properties that are listed with an Agent. That is a proven fact. Most homeowners don't have access to the same comps and information that Agents have and with home sales, most FSBO's leave money on the table, oftentimes more than enough to cover the cost of the Selling Agents commission.

The Average homeowner is not savvy enough to perform a sale at the same level of performance as a seasoned Agent. Some certainly can, most can't. A Person who has sold 2-3 homes themselves is not seasoned, a good agent can sell that in a Week. The dealing with showings, inspections, negotiations, etc.....all fall on the Sellers shoulders and that is where a lot of the value of the Agent lies.

As far as commission splits, they are always negotiable but remember, you get what you pay for.

Yep. FSBO folks think they can win, but they don't know anything about the market, how to get the most money for a property, all the horrible things that can go wrong in a real estate transaction and how to prevent them from occurring. They remind me of people who represent themselves in court on a criminal case to save money. That typically doesn't work out real well either.

I can guanratee you it wasn’t the Realtor’s that were delaying the transactions, they are just the ones that have to deal with passing along the news and completing the necessary paper work to keep the contract legal. When it’s getting close to closing date, it’s 75% of the time the lender. Title companies usually have their work done within a week or 2 after receiving the contract, unless there are clouds on the title they have to clear.

These people say they'll do ~95% of what a real estate agent does, including MLS listings & showing services, for $1,295.
https://www.flatfeegroup.com/Texas/

Anybody ever use one of these flat rate fee companies before?

When you have good agents in your corner I see is as a benefit. I see plenty of dumb agents too.

There are dumb in every profession.....dumb cops, dumb attorneys, dumb doctors, dumb engineers, dumb teachers, dumb painters, dumb electricians.....you get the point

There is a reason you don’t see more of them. And that’s not 95% of what a Realtor does, they are doing maybe 5%

I also like how they advertise that it will be listed on Zillow, Realtor, Trullia. etc. that costs nothing and is simply a click of the button to allow syndicated companies to take your listing off MLS and post it to their site.

I am an appraiser so you hate me from the word go. I get it. I see it all and call it like I see it. It is what it is.

Most real estate agents wash out after 2-3 years, just like insurance sales agents and new car salesmen. They sell all their family and friends and then run out of business. Mine has been doing it for 18 years which is why I chose her.

I don’t hate appraisers. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship I have with appraisers.

I really don’t either, there’s only 2, Josh and the [censored] that appraised my house

Last fall on my most recent purchase, my realtor saved me $62,500 from a price I had already verbally agreed to with the seller - true fact. This is in one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. I coulda made it all work well with the price I had verbally agreed to. Working a whole lots better now.

Choose them wisely. Realtors should know the market and perform a service. I despise dealing with tire kickers.

Lots of rocket surgeons on here. Too many will try to shave off dollars here and there becoming ignorantly willing to do themselves greater financial harm.


Edit - I work. I do not fix my own vehicles. I spend a lot of time & attention on my avocation which allows me little access to being a jack of other and most certainly of all trades. Some of yous can do it, but you may be better equipped than myself or just have more expendable time.

I just saw a TV commercial advertising a 2% commission. I'd prefer that Cathy would sell mine after I expire.

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