Anonymous wrote:Right - a FSBO situation would be the ONLY real reason that you'd benefit from not using an agent (financially). This is assuming you know what home values are and appropriate pricing and feel pretty confident with it. Being an agent for 10 years now has shown me that FSBOs almost ALWAYS think their house is worth more (sometimes significantly more) than it is, and that nothing is ever wrong with their house. "Oh, that leak? We just put a pan under it during really heavy rainstorms, and it's fine. It dries up between storms. Our roof is only 17 years old!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what the timing of it all has to do with using an agent or not. If you want someone who will give you good advice, walk you through the process, facilitate everything (contract, settlement, inspections, appraisals), make sure you're not spending too much for the house you choose and consult with you to make sure you're making rational/good decisions, hire an agent. If you want to do it all yourself, don't.... But in the end, any seller using an agent won't benefit by YOU not using an agent....their agent will just get the whole commission (say, 6%) instead of having to split it with your agent. So, no better deal for you, and you lose representation.

NP here but I'm sure the timing relates to pressure the OP may feel to buy now instead of at a later point when OP/OP's family is ready.

That's also not entirely true regarding the commission. If you present an offer below list (let's just say 2.5% to keep things simple), any ethical realtor will take their 3% and allow the buyer to keep the other 3%.

If you're just browsing houses now try going to some open houses to get a feel for what the pricing looks like on houses (size, upgrades, etc.) so you can build some knowledge especially since you're not in a rush.

Unfortunately not true. We ended up buying a FSBO thru a friend and got a great deal, but most of the sellers agents we spoke with prior to finding our particular house were not interested in giving a rebate/discount to an unrepresented seller. Most of them were total jerks actually.

OP, if you know a lot of people in the neighborhood just get the word out that you are looking for your parents. That's what we did. We were "moving up" within the same neighborhood and told anyone and everyone that we were interested in FSBO. In the end we saw 3 (in addition to seeing tons of regular listings) and bought the third. Our good friend hooked us up with the sellers, her neighbors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what the timing of it all has to do with using an agent or not. If you want someone who will give you good advice, walk you through the process, facilitate everything (contract, settlement, inspections, appraisals), make sure you're not spending too much for the house you choose and consult with you to make sure you're making rational/good decisions, hire an agent. If you want to do it all yourself, don't.... But in the end, any seller using an agent won't benefit by YOU not using an agent....their agent will just get the whole commission (say, 6%) instead of having to split it with your agent. So, no better deal for you, and you lose representation.

NP here but I'm sure the timing relates to pressure the OP may feel to buy now instead of at a later point when OP/OP's family is ready.

That's also not entirely true regarding the commission. If you present an offer below list (let's just say 2.5% to keep things simple), any ethical realtor will take their 3% and allow the buyer to keep the other 3%.

If you're just browsing houses now try going to some open houses to get a feel for what the pricing looks like on houses (size, upgrades, etc.) so you can build some knowledge especially since you're not in a rush.

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what the timing of it all has to do with using an agent or not. If you want someone who will give you good advice, walk you through the process, facilitate everything (contract, settlement, inspections, appraisals), make sure you're not spending too much for the house you choose and consult with you to make sure you're making rational/good decisions, hire an agent. If you want to do it all yourself, don't.... But in the end, any seller using an agent won't benefit by YOU not using an agent....their agent will just get the whole commission (say, 6%) instead of having to split it with your agent. So, no better deal for you, and you lose representation.