I got home to a message on the machine from the agent of the woman who saw the house with her two daughters Friday. The agent wants to negotiate an offer! If you’ll recall, the prospective buyer has lived in her house for 26 years, and is thus a nervous wreck about the whole process. Kelly and I can understand why she would bring in an agent.
We will have to negotiate a commission with the buyer’s agent, which will obviously all be dependent on the offer price. It only occured to me now how we’ve really got the agent over a barrel. If the buyer is so set on this house — which is probable, from what I’ve seen –, what happens if we refuse to pay the buyer’s agent? The agent won’t say “I can’t sell you this house,” would she? The agent was brought on at the very last minute (without our knowledge and prior approval, as well) and will essentially only be gathering the paperwork. It seems to me we’ve got a strong hand in the commission negotiations.
Of course, we’ll treat them fairly. I myself can honestly see her living here. And besides, we’ve got a favor to ask of her. Since we don’t yet have a place to “land,” and she hasn’t yet put her home on the market, we will ask to rent back our home for a month or two until these things play out. That will make her purchase easier by providing money to cover dual mortgages. It will give us time to find a new crib. And, it will give time for the interest rates to go up two more points. (One of these doesn’t thrill us. Can you guess which one?)
Kelly and I will chat with the agent today and see how we can make this work. If it all comes through, it could be the best possible outcome, for us and for our buyer.
Stay tuned.
Why should you have to pay the buyer’s agent? Since the buyer brought in the agent, paying the agent’s fee is her problem, not yours.
As a seller, we’d be stupid not consider any reasonable offer, whether brought directly to us or through an agent. Buyers agents are still useful to us, as most people still live in the dark ages ….er, most people still use agents to find their homes.
Since we are selling it ourselves, we are free to negotiate with the buyer’s agent on whatever commission we think they deserve. Some FSBO sellers flat-out refuse to pay, putting the burden on the buyer. We can deal however we choose to deal.
Since we did not build any “agent bloat” into our asking price, we are sticking to our original number. But since we want to smooth things along, we will pay some comission to the buyer agent, though it won’t be any where near the 2.4% they typically get.
We figure we’re in the driver seat since our home has gotten interest, but we don’t want to turn down an offer if we can come to terms. We’ll negotiate and see what happens.
I’m not questioning where the bid is coming from. If a buyer wants to hire an agent to assist them, that’s fine. Since that action was taken by buyer, then the buyer is responsible for paying their assistant’s fee. You didn’t hire the agent, so why should you have to pay the fee?
I don’t know many home buyers who pay their own agent’s fees (directly, at least)… and I think it’s pretty much the norm to use a buyer’s agent to buy a house.
It sounds good in theory but it’s just not the way it works. Kind of like selling your house on your own so you can save…. oh, um, nevermind.
Like I said, hiring an agent was the buyer’s doing, so paying the agent is the buyer’s responsibility. If the agent’s fee is a percentage of the house price, then that would be on top of my asking price, not a cut from my proceeds.
It’s absurd for the seller to pay for the buyer’s support person. If I brought an agent with me to help buy a car and told the dealer that my agent’s fee was coming out of his sales price, he’d laugh me out of the building (and rightfully so).
But her agent never showed her our house. Her agent didn’t even find it for her, her daughters did. The prospective buyer knew this was a “for sale by owner,” and the sign does NOT say “agents welcome.” The buyer should have no expectation for us to pay. That’s the way it works. This all the more true now that there are multiple offers for us to consider.
As I said, that’s not to say that we won’t consider paying something. But since we didn’t negotiate that beforehand, we are not bound by some arbitrary percentage.
How many times have you paid your realtor out of your pocket for helping you buy a house? I seriously doubt either of you have, cause that’s not the way the deal works.
You guys are underscoring the problem with FSBO, imo. Sellers see this as a way to save $$$ by not paying agent fees. But buyers see the same opportunity, assuming they can offer less because the seller isn’t paying for an agent.
You can’t have it both ways.
And MM, your car salesman analogy is off target. It’s not typical for someone to bring an agent with them to buy a car. A better analogy would be for you to request that he pay for your gas — which they typically will. After all, It’s your gas, so why should he pay for it? Because they are selling you something. They want you to buy the car, so paying $25 for your gas isn’t a big deal.
Mark you’re absolutely right… it’s your choice what the buyer’s agent is going to get. I’m not arguing that.
When I sold my house we negotiated a flat fee. And the buyer’s agent did many things throughout the process to ensure the deal was closed.
The buyer’s agent is representing the buyer. The buyer gets all the benefit. The house is clearly FSBO, with no suggestion of commision being paid. If the buyer wants to bring an agent, he or she does so at the risk of having to fork out some money for the agent if we refuse to do it.
It comes down to shaking and baking the various offers and deciding which one is the best. If the agent’s fee makes one offer less attractive than another one, then too bad for that buyer. But we’ll consider all the options before ruling anything out.
That’s about the extent that I’ll discuss any negotiations from here on out. You’ll have to read about it once the ink is dry on the contract!
I think you should just pay the agent and get the deal done.
Sincerely,
Some random Internet surfer and totally not the Buyer’s Agent