Selling/buying a house is no different than selling or buying any other commodity. You have to go into the transaction knowing what your price is and be willing to walk away/turn people down. I agree that in some cases real estate agents have value, but the majority of what they do is easily provided by others at little to no cost, such as title companies.
When we bought the house we are currently living there was minimal back and forth. The market was lousy (3rd quarter of 2011) and the property had been on the market nearly a year with no takers. The seller bought it as a flip, but got caught by the market and was now upside down on the house. He was angry. It had started out listed over $200k. It was now down to $189k. We offered $180k. Seller’s agent told us she was afraid to present the offer because she knew the seller would be angry about it. We told her, “Too bad.” Legally she had no choice but to present it, and we knew this. We also told her there would be no response to a counter offer. It was “Take it or leave it”. We had cash in hand and could close in 10 days or less. So now it’s down to, “How badly do you want to be able to walk away from this place?” for the seller. She calls our attorney up about two hours before the offer expires. “The seller isn’t going to accept - “ He cuts her off. “No conditions, no terms, or no deal. Sorry. And we wants a contingency that the home will appraise at or above the selling price.” “OK, we can do that.” So we get an accepted offer at our offer price. A couple of days later, the appraiser gives our mortgage broker his report. They call our attorney, who calls me. “Hey, guess what? You’ve got instant equity!” The home appraised $10k above our offer. We released the contingency. Our attorney calls the seller’s agent and releases the contingency. A couple hours later, he gets a nasty phone call from the seller, who wants to see the appraisal. Nope, not going to happen unless he pays for it, since we had to pay for the appraiser. He starts to threaten that he’s going to walk away. Our attorney suggests that it would cost him far more in litigation than the home is worth if he chose to go down that path, and we’ve got nothing else to do so we’re more than happy to pursue the matter if necessary. He hangs up. We have a walk through the property for a final inspection scheduled the day before the closing. The seller refuses and says the alarm is set and if we enter the house (there’s a lockbox on it) he will press charges for trespassing. We get a walk through the day of the closing a few hours prior. The place is in good shape so we’re fine with closing. Seller and his wife are at closing but won’t come in the room with everyone else, so the title company puts them in a little office down the hall and shuttles the paperwork back and forth. Whatever. I always say you forget what a PITA selling/buying a house is until you do it again…. Dan > On Jun 4, 2016, at 12:08 AM, Craig via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > On Fri, 3 Jun 2016 21:41:24 -0500 "Kaleb C. Striplin via Mercedes" > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > >> Holy crap, what is the commission rate on listings there? Its usually >> 6% here. > > Commission rate here is 3%/3%. We had the house listed on Zillow for > $364,500. > > The first agent who brought someone by started her presentation by > saying, "You're not going to be happy about this." She ended up > presenting an offer for $310,000 from some people who needed to move in > quickly so they could get set up to foster children. The things she > related they said just didn't make sense, so we hesitated. Then the > husband of the couple who wanted to buy it contacted me directly. His > contacts put us off even more. We finally told him we did not want to > sell to him. > > The second couple who wanted to buy our house found it by the sign I had > put out in front. They were a Chinese couple who came through the house > three times with her parents, who spoke no English. The four of them > walked through the house jabbering to each other in Chinese. One time, > the husband asked me what was the lowest price I would take. I told him > if they didn't use a real estate agent, I would require $330,000. If they > used an agent, I would require $340,000. > > Their agent brought their offer over for $310,000, with a 3% commission, > plus the gross receipts tax on top of that. We said no. > > The couple came over again, this time to present their sob story and > plead with us to sell it to them for their price. The wife said she was a > light sleeper and the forced-air heat system made too much noise, so they > would have to change it to a hydronic system, which would cost more than > $25,000. She really tried to put a guilt trip on us. Note, though, that > the house is built on a slab. We again said, "NO!" > > A few months later, an older couple stopped by to inquire about the > house. When I showed them around the house, the husband remarked how > quiet the heating system was. They lived down the mesa about a mile from > us and were scouting for their daughter and son-in-law. The son-in-law > was possibly going to get a job offer from the Lab, thus needing to move > from Texas, and they were scouting for them. The older couple were quite > taken with the house and the remodel I had done and said they would tell > their son-in-law and daughter about it. > > A while later I got a call from the daughter. She said her husband had > gotten the job offer and that the Lab wanted him there quickly, so he was > going to come look at houses the next weekend. > > He was brought to our house by his mother-in-law. As I was showing him > around the house and the 0.6 acre yard, the mother-in-law sat at the > dining room table and talked with Shirley. She told Shirley her > son-in-law had another house to look at, but that she was going to push > ours. > > A couple of days later, I got a call from the son-in-law. He wanted to > come over and talk with me about making an offer. When he came over, we > discussed whether he should use an agent, since it was his first time > buying a house. I told him we had done it many times and that the title > company was the center of the transaction. He agreed to not use an agent > and offered $335,550. Shirley and I accepted. > > The next day, he and I met at the lobby of the local bank and walked into > the title company's office. Motioning to him, I told the lady there, > "This young man wants to buy my house." She responded, "And you're here > because you don't know what to do ..." I replied, "Yes, it's not like we > do this every day." She said, "Well, we do do this every day and we will > help you through the process." > > She was true to her word. She got us a contract form and, with her > guidance, he and I worked through each item of it, haggling about who > would pay what and coming to agreement. > > It was such a pleasure working directly with the buyer! At one point in > the process, he remarked that it was a pleasure working directly with the > seller. For example, he and his family arrived in Los Alamos about a week > before closing (staying at her parent's house). He was having some cars > shipped from Texas to Los Alamos and called up to ask if he could have > them put out of the way at the back of our lot before closing. I said, > "Sure, no problem." I found out they were not going to move into the house > until two days after closing, so I asked him if we could stay until then. > He said, "Sure, no problem." Can you imagine the difficulty of getting > those things done with going through two agents? > > Anyway, that's how it went ... > > > Craig > > > > >> On 6/3/2016 9:37 PM, Craig via Mercedes wrote: >>> On Fri, 3 Jun 2016 20:49:16 -0400 Dan Penoff via Mercedes >>> <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: >>> >>>> This is also why, for many years, we have often forgone the use of a >>>> realtor and used a good real estate attorney and a home inspection >>>> company, along with doing our due diligence. >>> We sold our house in Los Alamos without a realtor involved in the >>> transaction and netted $25k more than selling to those buyers realtors >>> brought by. > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
