Not using a realtor when buying a house

[Anonymous]

My husband would like to save the three percent and not use a realtor in buying a house. Would someone be willing to offer up some pros and cons?

[Anonymous]

You will not save the three percent. It will just go to the seller's agent, who will then get six percent. We bought without an agent years ago and, man, is hindsight 20/20. USE. AN. AGENT. Seriously. (Unless you are buying a FSBO.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband would like to save the three percent and not use a realtor in buying a house. Would someone be willing to offer up some pros and cons?

You're not saving anything. The seller pays the three percent, not you. Though if you take that money and put it into your offer so it's more competitive, you may be more likely to get a house in a hot market because your price is higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband would like to save the three percent and not use a realtor in buying a house. Would someone be willing to offer up some pros and cons?

You're not saving anything. The seller pays the three percent, not you. Though if you take that money and put it into your offer so it's more competitive, you may be more likely to get a house in a hot market because your price is higher.

This is exactly what we did. Hot market in San Fran. We did not have an agent. We were going to get one but in a bidding war and used the 3% to strengthen our offer and we got the contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband would like to save the three percent and not use a realtor in buying a house. Would someone be willing to offer up some pros and cons?

You're not saving anything. The seller pays the three percent, not you. Though if you take that money and put it into your offer so it's more competitive, you may be more likely to get a house in a hot market because your price is higher.

This is exactly what we did. Hot market in San Fran. We did not have an agent. We were going to get one but in a bidding war and used the 3% to strengthen our offer and we got the contract.

Well, now that makes some sense!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband would like to save the three percent and not use a realtor in buying a house. Would someone be willing to offer up some pros and cons?

You're not saving anything. The seller pays the three percent, not you. Though if you take that money and put it into your offer so it's more competitive, you may be more likely to get a house in a hot market because your price is higher.

This is exactly what we did. Hot market in San Fran. We did not have an agent. We were going to get one but in a bidding war and used the 3% to strengthen our offer and we got the contract.

Well, now that makes some sense!

We did the same thing

[Anonymous]

We thought about doing this but ended up with redfin. 1.5% cash back towards closing was almost as good as 3%. It's probably good we went with a realtor too because the sellers ended up being pains in my a$$

[Anonymous]

We spoke with a seller pre-market recently. He said if we bought from him before he listed it, he would split the surplus with us and knock 3 percent off the market value based on realtor-sold properties. Win win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will not save the three percent. It will just go to the seller's agent, who will then get six percent. We bought without an agent years ago and, man, is hindsight 20/20. USE. AN. AGENT. Seriously. (Unless you are buying a FSBO.)

Not always. We bought without an agent and negotiated to lower the price 2% as a result - seller's realtor got 4% (she had to do minimal extra work like let us in a few times, etc). It worked out great.

[Anonymous]

We bought pre-market without a realtor. Had it not been pre-market we probably would have used a realtor.

[Anonymous]

What happens if a buyer submits "I'm w/o an agent. here's my offer, it allows only 3% to seller agent" - would a seller agent be obligated to present it to the seller, and is there any language in a typical listing agreement that prevents it, or this type of transactions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if a buyer submits "I'm w/o an agent. here's my offer, it allows only 3% to seller agent" - would a seller agent be obligated to present it to the seller, and is there any language in a typical listing agreement that prevents it, or this type of transactions?

No, because your offer cannot supersede the contract the seller already has with his or her agent. And it's not your place to dictate the terms of their compensation arrangement. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read. You worry about you.

[Anonymous]

afaik listings usually indicate buyers agent % (3 or whatever), I don't see how offering to skip it constitutes as "dictating the terms of their compensation arrangement".

But I understand a realtor like yourself being defensive...

[Anonymous]

This is why the discount brokerages are becoming so popular. If you know what you are doing, as a buyer you can basically "rent" the right to extract the surplus from your realtor. Instead of trying to get the listing agent to go along with amending their "compensation arrangement" you just take it from them, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens if a buyer submits "I'm w/o an agent. here's my offer, it allows only 3% to seller agent" - would a seller agent be obligated to present it to the seller, and is there any language in a typical listing agreement that prevents it, or this type of transactions?

No, because your offer cannot supersede the contract the seller already has with his or her agent. And it's not your place to dictate the terms of their compensation arrangement. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read. You worry about you.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a house without an agent on either side. Used a RE attorney for ppwk and did the deal. The seller saved about $75K,