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Posted by on February 14, 2008, 2:23 pm
Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a
real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between
the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the
seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price
if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6%
go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
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Posted by PeterL on February 14, 2008, 4:00 pm
On Feb 14, 11:23 am, beliav...@aol.com wrote:
> Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a
> real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between
> the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the
> seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price
> if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6%
> go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
>
>
This is a buyers' martket, anything is possible from a buyers side.
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to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting
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Posted by Avrum Lapin on February 14, 2008, 4:00 pm
In article
beliavsky@aol.com wrote:
> Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a
> real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between
> the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the
> seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price
> if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6%
> go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
>
> --------------------------------------
A lot depends on the listing contract but the selling agent may be
willing to forgo the buying agent's share to make the sale (especially
now)
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Posted by Don on February 14, 2008, 7:02 pm
On 2008-02-14 11:23:23 -0800, beliavsky@aol.com said:
> Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a
> real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between
> the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the
> seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price
> if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6%
> go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
In buying property, I would suggest the following plan. Familiarize
yourself with the area where you are going to buy. Actually drive
around on your own and look at a lot of houses with a for sale sign in
front. Look through newspaper ads. Look at computer sites, the MLS if
you can. When you find something interesting, call the listing agent
and say: "I would like to see the house at so-and-so address. Is it
still available? If it is not available, I do not want to look at
anything else."
If you do get to see the inside of the place and do not like it, the
agent will probably say: "Can I show you something else? I have many
other listings, etc...' At this point say "No thanks" and leave. Keep
looking around on your own, dealing with one agent at a time, until you
find something that meets your needs. Then negotiate with the listing
agent of that particular property. I believe this plan in the long run
will save both time and money.
In my experience it is rather difficult to sell a house without an
agent, unless you happen to personally know someone who is interested
in your house, in which case there is no reason at all to involve an
agent. However, if you have the time and are willing to expend the
effort, it is certainly possible to save a lot of money by going the
FSBO (for sale by owner) route.
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Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive
to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting
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MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the
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Posted by catalpa on February 14, 2008, 7:07 pm
> Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a
> real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between
> the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the
> seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price
> if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6%
> go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
>
If you don't have a buyer's agent then good luck getting the selling agent
to give away anything. You might be able to find a buyer's agent that will
give you a rebate.
Consider that the seller may not have signed a contract with the standard 6%
commission, as the rate is negotiable. When I bought my house in 2002 I
found out at settlement that the owner had signed a contract with the
selling agent specifying only a 4.5% commission. The lower commission did
little for me as I still paid full price for the house and the two agents
got to split the reduced 4.5% commission.
--------------------------------------
Misc.invest.financial-plan is a moderated newsgroup where Moderators strive
to keep the conversations on-topic for financial planning. Other posting
guidelines include a request for brevity and another for trimming posts to
which we respond. For all of the other tips and suggestions, see "FROM THE
MODERATORS: Posting to misc.invest.financial-plan", a weekly post now on the
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