Yes, you are free to contact selling agent directly from their sign or advertisement or meet them at an Open House. They will welcome offers through them, they get more commission. But, you need to understand that they are representing both the buyer and seller (seller was their first client) so you need to be very knowledgeable about the forms, process, contingencies, etc.
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Depends on state laws. In some states, it’s a conflict of interest, because the seller’s agent is working for the sellers. When you do an inspection report and there’s issues to fix, you really want a good buyer’s agent negotiating those kinds of things for your own protection.
We just went through the process of selling our house without an agent. Here is the breakdown of what we paid…
$1500 for professional pictures and video ( we used the same company that most of the agents use )
$1000 for a website. We employed a website designer to get the information uploaded and organized.
Time (10 hours) putting together the information, features, filling out disclosure forms etc.
$1800 for help “decluttering” the house… packing away pictures, removing a few pieces of furniture etc.
$3000 for painting and cosmetic fixes ( this cost would be incured whether using an agent or not)
3 hours of time for a real estate attorney to look over documents
We then sent emails to our neighbors, friends, real estate people etc.
We did offer a 2% buyer agent commission.
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Excellent! I bet you saved a lot of money. I don’t see why anyone needs an agent unless you are a buyer in a seller’s market or vice versa a first time buyer. It really doesn’t take much to buy or sell a house imo. The last house I sold was 30 years ago and I forgot how little agents really do. For the money they get, I expected a lot more like some special marketing when I sold my house. No such thing.
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These things you would still need to do on your own even if you used an agent. Agents don’t do that. At least our agent didn’t. We provided our agent with description of the house features (often not visible), filled out every form imaginable, hauled all personal stuff to the house we purchased or tossed or donated, all done by the two of us.
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Correct. My husband and I could have saved the $1800 and done all of the de-cluttering, but opted to spend because lots going on.
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Deleted as a bit off topic …
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