Believe me… at full asking price I would throw in the stupid Home Warranty. I’m sure I have given my tirade on Home Warranties by now. Makes sense on an older home with lots of old appliances and plumbing. Makes no sense when everything in the home (except, in this case the HVAC) is already covered under manufacturer warranty. The Home Warranty company won’t pay for a thing… and that would be after you paid $65 for the ‘service call’. Or, the Home Warranty company will claim that it is a ‘workmanship’ issue and it comes back onto my plate anyway. In our market it’s just standard practice for agents to include it in the offer, at Seller expense of course!
However, I am usually successful in countering it out and my agent either covers it herself and/or the buyer’s agent should step up to the plate and pay for it out of their commission. They usually have to do that because they have given some giant scare story to their buyer about how they need it and now they cannot back down.
I’m not sure the all cash buyer is aware that we are receiving another offer. Until we have that offer in hand, it would not be ethical to call the other agent with a little “Oh, by the way…”
Good strategies, CB. It is interesting that often the realtor expect the buyer/seller to pay more/take less, but they don’t want to offer a penny of their commission to close the deal. You have a great approach.
I have been in several situations where the real estate agents were going to make more than I did. It’s frustrating because they did not take the huge financial risk or get covered in poop and sweat for months. It is in those moments that I strongly consider selling the houses myself.
I don’t think I would even have to get a license, although I have taken several courses to get ready to take the licensing test. I have had some conversations with personal friends who are casual agents, work alone and have broker license. One of them would let me use his broker ID to list the property in the MLS for a ‘flat fee’ kind of thing. The name and contact # would be mine and I would pay for all the photos, marketing cost and handle all the paperwork. Believe me, I know how to handle all the forms and paperwork and I actually have blanks of every possible form. It is tempting.
I’m not saying you wouldn’t be good at that – I have no idea – but often it’s easier to outsource the things that aren’t your primary expertise. Besides, as the seller, you might sometimes be emotional about a deal, and having a separate, more objective agent can often be helpful.
ETA: Go for a looooong, vigorous walk to get your mind off things. (But be sure to take your cell phone!)
The question to ask yourself is, does your agent provide value commensurate with what you are paying her? If not, then you should think strongly about going on your own.
For most people, who sell a house once a decade or less, or who have their own full time jobs to deal with, it makes sense to use an agent. For cb, who sells a house every few months, and has the time to deal with showings and all that, it’s not so clear.
Didn CB’s agent deal,with setting up and paying for the staging, and photos? I know that doesn’t equal the selling commission, but it’s time consuming.
Even if the selling agent has to split the commission with the buyers agent, and even if there are costs to the broker and the stager, the approximate $ to the sellers agent (before those costs) is probably around $30,000. Not bad for a few weeks work.
If I recall, CB’s agent also gave pertinent advice regarding types of improvements to be made to this house. She gave input regarding kitchen cabinets, vanities, the garage conversion to living space, etc. So she would have to weigh losing that expert advise vs. not paying a commission.
Even though I wish that my agent was taking care of everything and I was off getting a facial or something… the reality is that I am the one who:
Has to clean up and haul at least two rooms of furniture over to the house and set it up
Haul over boxes of accessories and some paintings/mirrors that I keep for staging
Work all day with the stagers to clean and organize and set the furniture where I want
Madly clean, up to the moment the photographers are there and then double check the ‘shot’ and make requests for certain shots that I want to be taken
Go over every 2 days or so and make sure everything is clean and nice and check to see if there have been showings
Make sure to replenish flyers in the box under the For Sale sign
I also handle showings and/or requests from buyers, if needed
Here is what I do not have available and would have to figure out
Photographer - I would probably have to pay a little more than an established agent and won’t get highest priority for turn around time
Access to MLS - I currently have ‘read only’ access through my agent. I would have to find a way to legitimately post a listing. This is the biggest issue.
For Sale Sign and box for flyers - pretty sure I can take care of this!!
Open House signs to put out everywhere if I was holding an open house. However, I could get clever and let some hungry young real estate agent hold it open fishing for new clients
Staging - I would need to budget maybe $2-$3k per sale, but that’s a lot less than 2%
Access to a DocuSign type software that makes it easy to send docs back and forth to get signed. That’s probably easy to figure out
Plus it’s not free to be an agent - you have to split the commission with the broker (the split depends on the company and the agent’s performance), and depending on the company there can be desk fees, office fees, etc.
WOW!!! It’s amazing what a difference one afternoon can make.
It’s been a whirlwind this evening. I get a call from my agent that buyers want to come back through the house one more time in the evening and invite their son/daughter/grandkids. It’s pouring rain here and they live way out East. They want to meet me and ask some questions. I’m OK with that, I am all about full disclosure. The good, the bad the ugly.
I get called over after they get there (another reason it helps to live near the project) and we spent about 45 minutes going through the whole house. I gave them my speech about not being a corporation, it’s a labor of love and I am all about quality over quantity. I think the only uncomfortable question was about liability if something goes wrong. Gentleman asked a very intelligent question “have you used all the showers and everything to make sure they drain OK”. That is a reasonable question, because no one has lived in the house. Strange things happen with ‘new stuff’. I was honest that we really haven’t taken 20 minute showers. Some other intelligent questions about potential crime in the neighborhood, etc.
For once I put a filter on it and said “I am not a contractor and cannot provide a full warranty on everything for many years”. I proceeded to let them know that my agent can share how I address issues that have arisen before (thankfully, very few) with their agent. I don’t want to open my big mouth and put myself into any situation with misunderstanding or vague promises. I then left to give them privacy.
Hour later we get the call from the agent that they have been in multiple offer situations before and they just don’t want to have anything to do with it. Would I accept full price, all cash, quick close without going into multiple offers???
Uhhhh, let me think for a minute??? YES YES YES
The thing I am most excited about is that they ‘get it’ when it comes to the views. It’s all about the views. They have been searching for awhile and spend a lot of time driving to Point Loma to find that the ‘views’ shown in photos in the listing don’t really seem to exist. The wife told me that it was the first place they had seen where the views were far superior to the photos in the listing. Not one mention of the next door neighbor house or anything. They ‘get it’, they know that the neighborhood is transitioning from original owners to high end homes.