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jtdumallard wrote:My house has been on and off the market for about a year. Recently I sank about 2500 into new ceramic tile floors in the bath rooms and kitches and counter-tops in the kitchen. When i started all of this updating i took it off the market completely and just recently place a For Sale By Owner by in my yard. The wife was wanting to hurry up and sell so i put it back on the market with a different agency than i previously had it listed with. I signed papers on wednesday afternoon and on thursday I had a lady call in responce to the By Owner sign still in my yard. She wanted to come see it and I immediattly told my realtor to wait and put it own the market and she said ok. I didnt tell her that I had a lady very interested. Well yesterday the lady shows up with an approval from the bank and earnest money.
Now heres my question. Since it hasnt gone on the market and the realtor didnt do anything to sell the house, is she due commision, legally? She never listed it on her website, the MLS, or even put a sign in my yard which would lay claim to the property as being on the market. Can I just call her up and tell her I sold it by owner? I dont have a copy of the contract i signed with her, thats why im asking if we have any realtors that may have gone through similar situations. I want to do the right thing but im hard pressed to turn loose of commision for something ive done all the work on.

What does the contract say? No need to weasel out of anything. It is either yours or theirs. Either way, learn and move on. Don't try to justify what you think is right against the contract. The contract is what controls.

Damn_It_Boy wrote:Good thing you aren't in the home building business, or you would be broke........If you have been successful selling FSBO, then you are in the minority. Or.......you have sold them to cheap.

I've sold 4 by owner with an average of 24 days on the market.
I'm sure luck has been on my side a time or 3, but there are certain several things a home seller can do to improve their chances. The biggest mistake most make is pricing too high. I have always stayed within the comp range. I never set it high with intentions of coming down. To me, that's a waste of time.
*set your price
*have all documentation ready before planting the sign
*make sure your home is clean & organized
*be personable, straight forward & honest
*be patient
*remember, it only takes one person that wants your house
*pray for God to send that person to you!

I used to want to be a builder. good thing I'm not. Broke is not good!
Seriously though, I do feel very fortunate to have this FSBO record. Have not made a killing on any of them, but have made some.

realtor said we were gonna pretend that I never signed the contract and she was gonna tear it up. I believe I would hug her neck right now if she was in front of me. Plus she is pretty good looking.

jtdumallard wrote:realtor said we were gonna pretend that I never signed the contract and she was gonna tear it up. I believe I would hug her neck right now if she was in front of me. Plus she is pretty good looking.

I would buy her a nice gift card for a big THANK YOU..

In today's market I'm sure she didn't really want to deal with selling your house. It's a friggin nightmare for listing agents right now. I guarantee you she'll make a pretty penny putting you in a house with all the buyer-agent bonuses out there right now. Sometimes they are as much as $10,000 ON TOP of the 3% they get in regular commission. Builders are desperate and will do whatever it takes to entice agents to show their houses.

what wink said & i would definately maike sure she represents you in the purchase of your next home.

she most certainly will, garunteed!!! Esjay, what kind of documents did you get from your buyers when you were sellling your houses. Ive already got earnest money and an approval letter from her bank. Do i need to have a contract drawn up before closing. I guess what im asking is what is my next step. Thanks in advance.

Joel

Just try to keep up with who is doing her closing and present whats needed, basically they run the title and you wait on a check pray that it comes in a timely fashion.

Jtdumallard if the listing agreement was signed before you got a contract on the house then they could come after the full 5 or 6 percent depending on what you listed it for. Any good Realtor should at least knock off 3% of it since technically they did not sell it. However it is not up to the realtor it is up to their broker to make the decision. I just had a deal where the seller's had their house under contract and everything was good to go, and then the seller's decided they didn't want to sell which was a bad mistake. The buyer and buyer's agent said that if they didn't sell the house they were going to sue them and the seller's didn't have a choice but to sell or either it was going to end up costing them around 15k to keep the house. You just got caught in a bad timing situation and it happens more than you would think but with the way that today's market is and some brokers are hurting for money you can't ever tell what that broker will do.

Lilwhitelie, I would talk to their realtor for sure just so there are no surprises down the road and all commissions are negotiable but 3% is the normal rate but if you tell them 2.5% they may do it but just remember that they have the buyer.

Realtor's sometime's get bad names and there are some bad one's out there just like in every other profession but a good realtor will save you a lot of headache and could possibly save you some money in the buying and selling process.

Dutch Dog wrote:In today's market I'm sure she didn't really want to deal with selling your house. It's a friggin nightmare for listing agents right now. I guarantee you she'll make a pretty penny putting you in a house with all the buyer-agent bonuses out there right now. Sometimes they are as much as $10,000 ON TOP of the 3% they get in regular commission. Builders are desperate and will do whatever it takes to entice agents to show their houses.

I have been a realtor for 7 year's and never seen a $3,000 bonus much less one for 10k. People really over estimate what realtor's really make and under estimate how hard they work to get a deal to the table and get it closed.

I have forms for contracts, contract addendums, disclosures, ect...
basically most the forms a realtor uses. give me your e-mail address
& i'll be glad to send them to you.

jtdumallard wrote:she most certainly will, garunteed!!! Esjay, what kind of documents did you get from your buyers when you were sellling your houses. Ive already got earnest money and an approval letter from her bank. Do i need to have a contract drawn up before closing. I guess what im asking is what is my next step. Thanks in advance.

Joel

Dutch Dog wrote:In today's market I'm sure she didn't really want to deal with selling your house. It's a friggin nightmare for listing agents right now. I guarantee you she'll make a pretty penny putting you in a house with all the buyer-agent bonuses out there right now. Sometimes they are as much as $10,000 ON TOP of the 3% they get in regular commission. Builders are desperate and will do whatever it takes to entice agents to show their houses.

Ha......ha........you crazy man........not around here. I've only been in the business 13 years, so WTF do I know?

cwink wrote:

jtdumallard wrote:realtor said we were gonna pretend that I never signed the contract and she was gonna tear it up. I believe I would hug her neck right now if she was in front of me. Plus she is pretty good looking.

I would buy her a nice gift card for a big THANK YOU..

Take her to lunch(with wife if ya have too!) and dicuss what you are looking for in the next house and thank her for doing what she did. She knows you will use her services in the future!

jtdumallard wrote:she most certainly will, garunteed!!! Esjay, what kind of documents did you get from your buyers when you were sellling your houses. Ive already got earnest money and an approval letter from her bank. Do i need to have a contract drawn up before closing. I guess what im asking is what is my next step. Thanks in advance.

Joel

Next step call a lawyer, you are going to have to decide who will pay for what expense (closing costs, etc), and then get all the stuff together for the bank/mortgage company. If you have any questions feel free to call.

You are legally bound to pay commission. Maybe she will lower her commission since you are working with her on a new house. Tell her if she does, you will sign a buyer's agency agreement. This is different from the working with a Real Estate Broker form. This will bound you to use her and if you buy something, she is entitled to a commission, even if you buy a FSBO. She may be hesitant to show you things since you are trying to get out of commission of your house.