<p>If only it were a small community with low inventory. Inventory is high, and houses can stay on the market for years before they sell! I some ways too it’s not necessarily all that price sensitive. Just can take a long time to get the price. It’s been 12 years since we’ve sold a house so the point about buyers seeing the house on the Internet is one I hadn’t thought of and was probably not in play way back at the turn of the century! Also, IMO, this house will sell itself when the right buyer comes along - 3500 sq ft, nearly 10 acres, gorgeous views within an hour of a major airport for less than $400,000! Who wouldn’t want it?!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info and link Jym. I’m feeling encouraged and less gloomy by the minute.</p>
<p>jym,</p>
<p>I have no idea, Costco is in the RE brokerage business? I am planning to join right now…:)</p>
<p>VH,</p>
<p>No inspections on foreclosed properties. You buy sight unseen(inside and backyard), with the previous owner occupied. After you bought it, you have to evict the previous owner, then proceed with inspections, repairs and such. You can only drive by and check out the neighborhood. </p>
<p>But, you get a HUGH discount on the price.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>YES, VH, those are the BEFORE pics. But the AFTER pics are no better, we just put more tiles on to the wall to “complete” the tile installation so that the shower is “functional” with handle and shower head. I have investigated the neighborhood home sales prices. If I go for a complete makeover, the cost involved does not justify for the incremental value added to the home. So I am selling it as is, without updating/makeover. I will make enough money, because 1. I let buyers to look INSIDE and 2. I have removed the owner occupant, including all the junks he had in the house. I am doing this with full professional inspection disclosures.</p>
<p>
Happy to help. So, if/when my DS decides to look into purchasing a place in the SV area, you’ll represent him and give him a great (low) commission rate?? 
Right now he could probably not even afford a shoebox :(</p>
<p>jym,</p>
<p>I don’t mind to get 1% commission when he is ready to buy a $10M house in LAH or PA.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>You never know, my cousin who was penniless when he started, sold his company 10 years later and bought an one acre home in Atherton for himself AND a new house for his parents. He is retired at the age of 35 or younger.</p>
<p>Um… what are those acronyms, Artlovers??</p>
<p>oh, LAH= Los Altos Hills, PA=Palo Alto…</p>
<p>Today is the first day of open house. I prepared 25 flyers for it and when its all done in 3 hours, there is only one left. One family saw it at around 2PM, by 4 PM the agent has handed me an offer which is OVER my asking price already. During the open house, 2 cash offers were orally presented, I have not accepted any.</p>
<p>I guess I was right on my prices 
AND my buyers were not as picky as CCer’s regarding the comical bathroom tiles. They took it with a stride. After all, money talks, a similar house down the road about 1/2 mile away is asking $30K more than I am and my lot is much larger.</p>
<p>onetogo, maybe you misunderstood the realtor? Half of the commission goes to the listing agent, and the other half to the selling agent. Not half to marketing. And of course, the broker gets a percentage of the agent’s cut. Maybe they said “marketing” when they meant to say “listing agent.”</p>
<p>Wow, congratulations Artlover. Sounds like a good business enterprise</p>
<p>Busdriver, the person I spoke to is the Broker/owner of the RE agency and specifically said marketing, though I know you’re right and basically they get half, regardless of how much they spend on marketing. If one works directly with the broker what is a reasonable commission? Is it different from working with an agent?</p>
<p>Generally, the commission is divided between the owner/broker and the agent. If you are dealing with the owner directly, then there is no agent to pay. If the buyer comes from your broker’s office, then your broker gets the buying and selling broker’s cut.</p>
<p>So, there is more than a little room for negotiation.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Any suggestions as to what would be a fair percentage commission for a broker? I’m not very good at negotiating unless I know upfront what I want the bottom line to be and I feel I’m less than ideally informed when it comes to this. The last time I considered hiring this agency was about a dozen years ago and they again lowballed the price. I didn’t work with them and sold the house without a RE and got 30k more than they wanted to list it for. This time I’ll be some states away and think I really need a RE to take care of things here but I wish I had more confidence in them.</p>
<p>Exactly, deega. These are all very valid and important points, and can/should be negotiated in the listing contract. Also, is this broker asking for a long listing time? Given all that you’ve shared about this person, it may be a good idea, if you choose to list with them, that you don’t get locked into a long commitment.</p>
<p>If the seller is the broker and the agency owner, the “advertising” fees are probably paid for as an agency expense and not directly coming out of this persons pocket. I realize as the owner it is his/her pocket, but it may be calculated as a company expense and not a direct cost to the broker (if this is making any sense-- hard to express things clearly early in the morning )</p>
<p>Also, the seller/broker should list for you ALL the services they will offer. This should include things like presenting a marketing plan complete with information re: comparables (as best as can be discerned if there are limited comparables, but an appraiser will have to come up with similar info), printing brochures, doing a video and photos of the house to be available on line, putting a box with flyers on the front lawn for people to take and read and making sure it is never empty (some states may not allow this, but its worth inquiring), open houses and/or caravans (how many? when?), etc. Is the house empty? Do you need someone to stage the house with a little bit of furniture? All things to think about, as it may help sell a house.</p>
<p>Find out what they do to market/sell a house. If their only solution to selling, if it doesn’t move quickly, is to lower the price, ask what other marketing ideas they can propose other than that.</p>
<p>Around here the usual commission is 6%. There’s some room for negotiation if you have a very expensive home, but otherwise it’s pretty set in stone.</p>
<p>In CA since the market is so hot, there are varieties of commission structure for selling:</p>
<ol>
<li>3% total commission, 1% to the listing broker. Normally its on large scale new development of new homes, the 1% could represent Half a Million dollars.</li>
<li>4%-5% for resale homes, 5% is the norm. 4% on REO or short sale or modest expensive homes.</li>
<li>Limited service, MLS listing only service for a fixed fee, owner has to do his own marketing.</li>
<li>All bets are off on homes over $3 Million.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input. I think the upshot is for me to do more due diligence before committing to a realtor. I need more clarity about marketing plans and then can make a better decision about who to sign with. Still have a few weeks of boxes and bubble wrap in front of me so I have time. I think a 3 month contract would be a good idea too. It’s interesting to see the differences in commissions in different areas of the country.</p>
<p>Our realtor lowered his commission from 5% to 4% when our home fell out of escrow the first time around and it is NOT a 50/50 split just in case you were wondering. It pays the buyer’s agent 2.5% with my realtor only getting 1.5%.</p>