<p>How about asking the realtor to take the 3% cut in her commission and getting it under contract ASAP?</p>
<p>Hayden, we were in a similar situation with MIL’s home after she died. She had actually specified the real estate agent for us to use, and this took some of the pressure off - he priced the house lower than what we thought was market price, and then he strongly encouraged us to take the first bid that came in tho it was lower than we thought it should be. Turns out the market was about to plummet and this agent knew enough to sense what was happening. We got what in hindsight looks like a decent price and someone got a nice home. For a few months after we closed we felt uncomfortable with the low price, but we knew we had trusted MIL’s wishes so that helped. One year later we knew we had done well! It’s nice to move on, divvy up the “stuff”, clean the place up and see another family enjoying life in the home.</p>
<p>Parent1986, I appreciate the suggestion, but I have to say I really feel a lot of sympathy for real estate agents today - at least, for the good ones, and there are many of those. As I was mentioning to someone else here, the housing prices have tumbled since September 2008, so their income based on housing prices have taken the same hit. Then the volume is down also, so they got that hit.</p>
<p>As far as taking the 3% out of their commission, the math doesn’t quite work. Out of a total 6% commission, there are 4 mouths to feed. The seller’s and buyer’s agents only get 1.5% each, then the agents’ companies get 1.5% each. If the house were a McMansion, there might be enough to take a cut, but this is not at that level.</p>
<p>I would close the deal. You are not that far apart, and you are unlikely to get a better offer, seriously. I’m surprised your agent isn’t telling you this. Since you are splitting the profit or loss with others in the family (I think?), you may be talking about a couple of thousand dollars difference at the most. In our area, you’d be “nuts” not to take the deal. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m seeing a clear theme from everyone’s responses, and I think you’re all correct. I’ve been very sensitive to the feelings of my sibling, since I didn’t want to jump on a deal, and get out of all the house keeping/management I’ve had to do, if it means shafting him. But your independent assessments help me through that.</p>
<p>I think the agent senses I’m probably going to take the offer. If she sensed the opposite, she might try to nudge me more. </p>
<p>Hugcheck - your mother is/was an awesome person.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, everyone. We’ve told them we’ll decide by the end of tomorrow. Now let’s just hope they don’t back out (I’m still feeling burned by the first couple) !.</p>
<p>Hayden, we went through something like this last year. We turned down the offer and couldn’t come to an agreement. There was a TON of interest in the house but no other offers came forward. Fast forward two months later and we mentioned to our realtor (who was also the realtor for the people who made the offer we turned down) that we might be interested in revisiting that low ball offer. We did end up selling the house to them (at a slightly lower price than the offer we turned down). Best move we made. This market is so wacky, you never know when you might get another offer. There are houses here that have been on the market for several years. IMO, if a house doesn’t get snapped up immediately (like DStark’s), it can sit there indefinitely and you need to be very flexible on pricing if you need to sell it. There are three people at work who had just put homes on the market when the bottom fell out (they were all looking to move ‘up’, so to speak). All three homes sat on the market for over a year before they were pulled. Several other friends have ended up renting out their homes since they had already moved into other houses. These were all homes that were in very desirable neighborhoods and had always sold quickly in the past. It’s a different world. I would take the money and run if selling the home now is important to you.</p>
<p>A bird in hand is worth more than 3 in the bush, especially in today’s economy. Pick up your contract offer and tear a corner portion the size of your thumbnail off and throw it away…that’s the 2%. Now look at what’s left and if you are willing to throw away the rest of the contract that is left too because it doesn’t look big enough, don’t sign the offer. Good luck!</p>
<p>So Hayden, what is the story?</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your very helpful comments. I leave the house in 20 minutes to go sign the contract! I’m feeling pretty good about the decision, no regrets yet. There’s no mortgage to worry about, and the difference between what the market told me to expect vs the deal on the table is only $10K, split between my sibling and me. In the general scheme of things, this will be a win win. I like win wins.</p>
<p>Congratulations.</p>
<p>I like win-win too.</p>
<p>That is such great news! Congrats!</p>
<p>Congrats - I think you’ll be glad to get this over with!</p>
<p>Sooo… who out there is a real estate agent? I’ve got a few questions…</p>
<p>In this market it sounds like a huge win. Congrats!</p>
<p>The nice house on the corner now has a Sale Pending sign. As it is August, and we are in a good school district, I wonder if others in the neighborhood will start moving.</p>
<p>Wishing all of you still waiting lots of luck!</p>
<p>We just had the house inspection this morning, and the inspector thinks there’s an abandoned oil tank buried on the lot. Oh, yay. I was wondering what else would happen.</p>
<p>^^^^^Ouch.</p>
<p>Oh my. Well hopefully it is dry and empty.</p>
<p>I’ve been mum about our (my dad’s) house as I needed to wait it out to see what happened. We had a very, very lowball offer on it a week or so ago. We came down, they came up, we came down, they wouldnt move. So they disappeared. Sigh. But with this market, I am not convinced they’d have made it all the way to the closing table. But, we did get the taxes lowered almost 20%. So we are happy about that. Small victories.</p>
<p>Hayden, Sorry to read that.</p>
<p>Jym626…sorry to read your deal fell through.</p>
<p>Another house down the block, next street over, has a sold sign on it. If I remember correctly, this was the lowest price house, by 40K, but a lot smaller. It has a converted garage to living space, so just has a carport. </p>
<p>The remaining four houses on the three block stretch include the next door house that’s in okay shape, but lots of work to be done. It’s not going to sell at the price, which is not high for the square footage, but it requires a lot of yard work to be done, as in dead tree removal, lots of fill, and as we’re doing similar work on our house right now, it’s at least 30K worth of work.</p>
<p>Another house down the street has had two fires, a tree through the roof, just a bad luck house, that I’m happy the poor family is unloading. I felt so bad for them. The third house on that block just went up for sale, and I haven’t checked the price yet. It’s in good shape on the outside, so it will likely sell before the burned house.</p>
<p>Still lots of houses for sale in the surrounding blocks.</p>