Real estate agent RANT!

[Anonymous]

I posted a while ago about my landlord deciding to sell the house we are renting. The LL/owner is working with a realtor and commission is reduced if the house gets sold to us before it is listed. This makes sense because the realtor would have to do almost NO WORK, mainly just paperwork and a couple emails/phone calls, if we buy the house. We decided to make an offer, albeit a low one, and the seller rejected it (came back to us with a counteroffer, 10k below
asking). We had assumed that the realtor would make about 2% (seemed more than reasonable) and factored a 4% savings into our offer in addition to a little more for issues we know would need to be fixed in the home. We aren't using an agent and can't unless we pay out of our own pocket. After our offer was rejected we found out that the realtor would actually still get his 3% commission if we buy the house plus an additional 1% for doing the buyers side paperwork. WTF?! He gets a bigger comission for doing way less work?! Realtor has been very nice, honest, blah blah, throughout this process, but this seems so shady to me! Do we have any grounds to pushback on what he would get? I don't think so since the agreement is between the realtor and owner. Also, owner has never been in touch with us and only communicates with us through PM or realtor, so as much as Id love to have a conversation with him, it's not really an option. Should we counter or just give up and hope that whoever buys the place is kind to us for the rest of our lease?

[Anonymous]

You sound unhinged and way too preoccupied with the agent's compensation. Frankly, it's getting in the way of your negotiating strategy.

To answer your question, you get absolutely no say in how the agent is paid by the seller. That is literally, a contract between the agent and your landlord and couldn't be more "none of your business" if you tried.

[Anonymous]

From your perspective-he's getting 4% instead of 3%. From the owner's perspective, he's paying 4% instead of 6%. It's their contract, so you have no leverage here.

Do you want the house? At what price? That is the only thing you need to consider. Leave your feelings about how much work the realtor is doing and how much he has "earned" out of it.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why this matters to you so much??? What a small thing to let ruin your buying process!

[Anonymous]

OP is either that person who constantly posts about how real estate agents have no value in this forum, or has been way too influenced by the underlying hatred in those threads.

You're negotiating a price for the house, OP. How much the agent is paid isn't your concern at all.

Base your offer on comps. Sounds like you made a low-ball offer and the owner made a good-faith counter instead of just telling you to eff off. If you come back now bitching and moaning about how the agent is paid, you're going to demonstrate that you simply do not get how this works, and the seller will be done with you and tell the agent to bring a real buyer at 6%. And you will lose the house and have to move.

[Anonymous]

OP, you don't get to low-ball and then blame a realtor for the owner not accepting it. You feel the owner should be happy with your low-ball and would keep more money if s/he didn't have to pay the realtor commission. It doesn't work like that. The owner rejected your offer and countered. Either it's a fair counter or not. And either you want the house or you don't. But as others have said, stop focusing on the realtor contact with the owner and focus on whether you really want this house.

[Anonymous]

List price is probably overpriced, if owner was going to drop 10k. Owner is trying to take advantage of OP real estate inexperience and desire not to have to move.

OP let the owner list it on the market, and let it sit and then you will have change to negotiate. Be prepared to move bc there could always be some loon willing to buy it, but at least you won't be that loon.

What are terms of your lease, will you get to stay after sale? That will really limit the owners market as well, but he may still try to force breaking the lease.

[Anonymous]

I love how OP explains how selling to her is SO EASY and would just require paperwork: why do I get the feeling nothing about selling to this OP is easy???

[Anonymous]

Btw, ignore the real estate compensation. Unclear to me why you can't have buyers agent and have them negotiate for you? They are paid for by seller and if owner does not want to pay buyers agent commission, they will have hard time finding serious buyers.

[Anonymous]

Get a buyers agent - it is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how OP explains how selling to her is SO EASY and would just require paperwork: why do I get the feeling nothing about selling to this OP is easy???

Owner is selling property in the middle of their lease. That raises all sorts of questions for OP, I can see why they are annoyed -- why can't owner just wait for lease term to end. I'm sure owner would stick it to OP if he tried to break lease under diff circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Realtor commissions at percent is too high

[Anonymous]

Realtor commissions at zero percent is too high

[Anonymous]

WHOA! Lots of realtors on this post early...or maybe the same person. I am not unhinged and not someone who has posted before about realtors having too much value. My main point is that it seems like this arrangement makes it more difficult for me, the current tenant, to buy the place since nothing is offered to a buyers agent (only in our case, for other buyers it would be 3%) and thus we would have to pay out of our pocket to have fair representation. To me, a 50/50 split would still make sense, so if owner wants to offer 4% it would be 2% to buyer agent and 2% to seller agent.

And, I'm preoccupied with this because how much commission the seller agent makes effects how much the owner asks for the home since he has to pay, and also because not using an agent or paying for one out of pocket may put us at a disadvantage. How is that hard to understand? Not saying realtor does no work , but no MLS listing, no open houses, no showings etc...that's a lot less work than a typical sale I'd think.

[Anonymous]

Bottom line OP: its none of your business. Its an agreement between the seller and the agent and you don't have anything to do with it. If it bothers you that much than buy a different house.