I’ve got a question about real estate agent commissions–wondering if someone here can answer it. We received a purchase offer for our vacation home–it wasn’t on the market. The offer came through the agent who sold us our home nine years ago. The folks who made the offer contacted her because she had shown them our home when it was on the market back then. The agent called and asked us if she could show these folks our house–they remembered our property because it was in a location where they really want to be and asked if it had sold.
The agent called us and asked if we’d be willing to show the house to these people. My H said it was fine to show the house, but that we probably weren’t interested in selling unless it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. The interested party saw our home, loved what we’d done to it (we remodeled the kitchen and bathrooms and did lots of landscaping) and made us an offer. The offer was through the agent. We turned it down. This was February of 2014.
Last week, the people who made that offer called us directly–said they were willing to increase the amount they’d offer us. The new price is hard to turn down. My question is: if we were to sell, would we or the folks who want to buy our house have to pay a commission to the real estate agent who presented us the offer last year? Would this just be a private transaction with no agent involved? Not interested in trying to cheat an agent out of commission–just want to know what the rules are given this scenario.
I am not well versed on the subject, but it seems you need to know the relationship of the ‘buyers’ to the RE agent. Clearly, the RE agent is not working for you. Are the buyers in a contract with them as a ‘buyers agent’ at this time? If not, this would be a private transaction.
Again, JMHO.
I’m jealous. Just bought my downsize condo; would love a no-work house sale!
It would depend on the terms of your contract with the agent. Did you have a listing agreement with the agent? Or an agreement in Feb 2014 with the agent for whereby you agreed to pay a commission if this particular buyer bought the property within a particular period of time? It all depends on the language of the contract. You must have signed something before the agent showed the property to the buyer.
^^^We had no agreement–we signed nothing. Our house wasn’t on the market. The agent who brought us the offer last February had sold us our vacation home 9 years earlier. She had also shown it to the people who now want to buy it. They bought another property back then and are in the market for a new property. Apparently they now have grandchildren who stay all summer and they want a property outside of town. They wondered if our property might be on the market and approached the agent. Hence her call to us, which resulted in their offer in 2014.
If your buyers signed a buyer agency agreement with that agent and it is still in effect then they may owe the agent compensation. State RE laws vary on this. You owe the agent nothing.
Unless you made some verbal agreement or agreement by email or something (ie said you’d pay a commission), it sounds like you have no contract and no obligation. Whether the buyers have any obligation to the agent is not your concern. (This is not meant to be legal advice in any way, shape or form, and it isn’t a good idea to rely on off the cuff answers from random strangers on the internet.)
I think the right thing to do would be to offer the real estate agent a commission regardless of the fact that nothing was signed. I think it was rather shady of the buyers to try to stiff the very agent who worked with them and got you to show them the house!
You don’t HAVE to offer the agent anything. But I think you should give the agent 1/2 the normal commission which a seller would normally pay (usually divided between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent). You still would have saved yourself a seller’s commission, since you didn’t have an agent representing your property. JMO.
So, if it’s a $1 million house, you think op should just send the agent $30k out of the kindness of her heart? That’s crazy talk! If the agent wanted a commission from OP, the agent should have negotiated a single-buyer lusting agreement and spelled out a time period for which it would remain in effect.
I sold my house thru such an arrangement. Realtor knocked on my door and said he had a buyer interested in ny house which was not on the market. I agreed to pay him 3% if that particular buyer bought my house within 6 months. So, even under an agreement that was very favorable to the agent, i would not have owed the agent anything under the OP’s scenario, where the buyers come back a year later.
I have to state that I missed that the realtor brought the buyers back a year ago. I thought it was recently!! Definitely didn’t read it very carefully.
If we sell, we will definitely buy another home in the area and I would ask the agent to help us find a new place. I’m assuming she’ll still be willing to talk to us.
Why don’t you just ask the bidders whether they have an agent? Assuming they say no, you can follow it up with a confirmatory question: “so your agreement with agent so-and-so has expired?”
Sounds like a question you can quickly run by a real estate attorney. Depending on where you live there may be an attorney involved for the transaction anyway, right?
Why would you have any obligation to a realtor who showed your house a year ago, when you never had any agreement with them in the first place??? If you are looking to give away money, I’ll send you my address
Ask the buyers if they are working with an agent. If you think they are trustable people, and obviously they have a long term interest in this property, I’d be perfectly comfortable working with just an attorney and title company. There is no reason to pay several thousands of dollars in realtors commissions unless they are working with a realtor. But I doubt they are, as they wouldn’t have called you directly.
Potential buyer ended conversation by saying his lawyer would contact us. We have a real estate lawyer in the area who will look at whatever their lawyer sends us. We have no reason not to trust the potential buyer.
