Most realtors want you to buy that house for top dollar because there commission is based off the selling price. Not really in there best interest to get you "good deals"
Looking for a GREAT realtor. Where to start?
- Thread starter sixstringsteve
- Start date
Most realtors want you to buy that house for top dollar because there commission is based off the selling price. Not really in there best interest to get you "good deals"
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
I suppose, but I believe there are realtors out there who would have steered me away from it, or at least advised me differently. I'm looking for a great, honest realtor who will help me find what's best for me and my budget.
I don't know what accurate realtor commission rates are, but let's say they're making 3% commission on a $300k house. If I sell it for $300k, they'll get $9000. If I sell it for $280k, they'll get $8400. That's only $600 difference. It doesn't seem like they'd benefit THAT much from me overpaying, especially when so much of their business is referral-based. But I could be way off here. I'm sure there are realtors out there who value my satisfaction over $600 in their pocket.
My father was an extremely successful realtor, and he would fight tooth and nail for his clients to get the lowest price they could. Other realtors hated him because he didn't play their game, but he was way more successful than they were anyway. I've got my fingers crossed that there are other realtors out there like that.
I don't know what accurate realtor commission rates are, but let's say they're making 3% commission on a $300k house. If I sell it for $300k, they'll get $9000. If I sell it for $280k, they'll get $8400. That's only $600 difference. It doesn't seem like they'd benefit THAT much from me overpaying, especially when so much of their business is referral-based. But I could be way off here. I'm sure there are realtors out there who value my satisfaction over $600 in their pocket.
My father was an extremely successful realtor, and he would fight tooth and nail for his clients to get the lowest price they could. Other realtors hated him because he didn't play their game, but he was way more successful than they were anyway. I've got my fingers crossed that there are other realtors out there like that.
One of the reasons I wont sell a house it the commission issue. Say your home is $300k. You pay 3% to your realtor and 3% to the buyers agent.. plus usually a 3% concessions to the buyer for closing costs. 9%! you walk away with $273,000.. lose 6 months income!
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
Maybe I don't need a realtor to sell my home, but I'll definitely want one to buy my next home.
- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
I think you have that backwards.
A Realtor can be needed to sell, simply because their brokers have a stranglehold on the MLS. So, if you want your home "listed", you need a Realtor to sell. But, do not, under any circumstances, pay more than 1% for a listing Realtor. There are tons of hardworking, talented, good real estate people out there that list and sell homes every day for 1%.
A decent listing agent can more than earn that 1% pretty quickly just by dealing with all the noise calls and weeding out the a-hole buyers agents that are going to get some earnest money in on you then bog the thing down forever with contingencies until you wish the deal would just die... I can refer you a great listing agent if you decide to go that route. He's not going to do a bunch of eye wash corn ball crap like have open houses or any of that, but he'll get your house out there in front of the eyes that need to see it and will run interference on all the negotiations for you.
All that said, the market and the listings data distribution are changing rapidly. Sites like Zillow, Trulia and others are chipping away at that Realtor listing monopoly. You can easily sell a home these days without putting it on the MLS at all.
In fact, if you know what you're home is worth and how much you want to get for it (jeeper can help you with that for a reasonable fee!), selling on KSL is totally realistic. That's what my old neighbor did (wish he was still my neighbor...). Got his full asking price and paid zero commission on the deal. Utah uses a standard sales contract form that even a high school dropout like me can use to make a home sale legal according to Hoyle.
Using an agent to buy... It's harder to find a buyers agent willing to work for 1%. They could end up putting in a lot of hours and miles trying to satisfy a demanding client.
But, again, the only thing you need them for is instant, real time access to the MLS data. Once it is a day or two old you can see it for yourself, for free on the home search sites. If you know what you want and how much you want to spend and can use the internet, I'm really not at all sure what a buyers agent can actually do for you to earn the commission. It's just adding an extra "end" to the deal, that you'll likely end up splitting the cost of with the seller, whether you know it or not.
The only time I see a buyers agent making sense is on a relocation or the like, where someone has a narrow window, and limited or no knowledge of the area. They do make a lot of sense there. But for a local, like you? Who isn't an idiot? Really don't know why you would want to pay someone up to 3% of the price of your new home just to do internet searches for you and drive you around?
I'd just do a 1% listing agent to handle the sale and buy without an agent.
Just a few of my opinions....
- DAA
Clutch
Registered User
- Location
- Salt Lake City
Sixstringsteve, Check your PM. I'm the agent ILEAN referred.
Tonkaman
Well-Known Member
- Location
- West Jordan
I'm trying to either build or find a small house with large yard/garage combo. Like Brian said it is a tough combo. Once I find the right lot I think building will actually be the better solution for my needs
sawtooth4x4
Totally Awesome
- Location
- Land of East Laytonshire
I didn't really like my guy. so I won't suggest him.
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
What didn't you like about him? Any warning signs I should steer clear of?
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
sawtooth4x4
Totally Awesome
- Location
- Land of East Laytonshire
We gave the guy a budget. We had one day to look at houses since we were living in North Dakota. We drove 18 hours to look at 10 houses we had picked out.
The guy shows up, and doesn't know where any of the houses were. So we spend most of our time lost in Layton.
He didn't listen to what we were looking for. I should have dropped him then. But we had to choose a house that day and put in an offer.
After looking at 30 houses we finally found we liked. After we had the offer in and agreeded upon, the guy basically disappeared until we were in signing the Title and Loan docs. I had to go all the way down to West Jordan because he couldn't get anything set up in Layton.
It was a pain. I'd never use anyone like that again. He was completely unorganized.
I would suggest using someone who lives in the area where you are planning on buying a house as well. That way they will know the area, schools etc. We got lucky and ended up in a great neighborhood. Great ward and great schools. I love everything about it except my short garage doors and air force fighters buzzing my house occasionally.
The guy shows up, and doesn't know where any of the houses were. So we spend most of our time lost in Layton.
He didn't listen to what we were looking for. I should have dropped him then. But we had to choose a house that day and put in an offer.
After looking at 30 houses we finally found we liked. After we had the offer in and agreeded upon, the guy basically disappeared until we were in signing the Title and Loan docs. I had to go all the way down to West Jordan because he couldn't get anything set up in Layton.
It was a pain. I'd never use anyone like that again. He was completely unorganized.
I would suggest using someone who lives in the area where you are planning on buying a house as well. That way they will know the area, schools etc. We got lucky and ended up in a great neighborhood. Great ward and great schools. I love everything about it except my short garage doors and air force fighters buzzing my house occasionally.
sawtooth4x4
Totally Awesome
- Location
- Land of East Laytonshire
I inspected my house myself. the only thing I paid for was the Radon test, or whatever its called. My house was new enough that I wasn't worried. The only thing that does not work right so far is the jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom. It just needs a new switch of some sort. I haven't been bothered to fix it anyway. I'll worry about it when I sell the house.
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
Man, that sucks
- Location
- Draper, UT
On the flip side, we found a realtor when we were in north bay Cali that was outstanding. He was digging through building permits to verify that the house was truly 4 legal bedrooms (It wasn't due to septic size). He even made it possible to get our house in Texas, even though he was in California. We had an accepted offer and the owners found another full price offer with no contingencies. Texas law said we had 24 hours to remove contingencies, which we couldn't, so our Texas realtor called to inform us that we lost the house. Robert Ramirez (in case you ever need to buy/sell in the Sonoma county) said "What?, now it just gets fun. Is it worth another 5k?". Had us call our realtor and counter with 5k more but the seller could only get back-ups in case our house did not sell in time. That is where we were prior to moving here.
Boy do I miss that property.. 3 acres of oak trees, 2400 sf main house, 1000 sf guest house, pool, not in city limits but 4 mins from the interstate, dead end road off of a dead end road, cable and high-speed internet. 6 mo before we moved I almost had a 30x60 metal shop put in for $25k.
Boy do I miss that property.. 3 acres of oak trees, 2400 sf main house, 1000 sf guest house, pool, not in city limits but 4 mins from the interstate, dead end road off of a dead end road, cable and high-speed internet. 6 mo before we moved I almost had a 30x60 metal shop put in for $25k.
- Location
- Sandy, Ut
x3 on Clutch, he's my go to on real estate questions.
smartass_kid
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Cottonwood Heights, UT
Clutch, what's your opinion of city home collective? Good peeps or trust fund blowhards?
Steve,
I have a GREAT realtor that is out of Lehi. She is amazing, and really knowledgeable. She helped us get through a crazy home buying process and gave awesome advice along the way. I believe that she will list and help sell your house for free if you use her to also help buy a house. (for the 3% commission) She is REALLY good at working with other realtors and always has YOUR best interests in mind. She worked around our schedules and was on the ball about finding us houses to see right after they were listed so that we could be the first ones to go through them. i didn't have time to scan the MLS during the day, so she was all over it. her name is Yolanda and her number is 801-602-9898
On another note, we will probably be listing our house in the next week or 2. 1600 sq. ft. 4 bd/3 bath, and well within your budget. We did all new carpet and paint when we moved in a year ago and remodeled the kitchen. .3 acre, large covered patio, great low maintenance fenced yard, sprinkler system, lots of parking, really nice friendly neighborhood and on a dead-end cul-de-sac street...
AND a detached 1500 sq. ft dream shop w/ 600 sq. ft loft space for storage. Have you come by and seen it yet? (16' ceilings, extremely well insulated, extremely well lit, heated, bathroom, extra thick concrete pad at one end intended for a car lift, tons of outlets, 220....it's the nicest homeowner shop I've ever seen.) I love it and I know that if we sell, I'll never have a shop as nice, but we think we're going to build a house. We love the area and will actually be building in the same ward. It will sell quickly once we list it because of the shop. Yolanda found it for us immediately after it was listed and we were the first to walk through it and we snagged it. The agent's phone was ringing off the hook for showings. We were looking for a shop but it was VERY hard to find one with any sort of a shop that wasn't just a glorified barn for under $400k.
We are probably going to try and list for sale by owner first to see if we can avoid any realtors (although Yolanda has agreed to just help with the proper paperwork, so it will all be done correctly.)
If you're interested, shoot me a text and we can meet up. It pretty much meets all of the needs that you mentioned, but the shop is above and beyond what most people expect out of a shop when they're looking. It cost the guy 3x the $$ to build it than what you'll pay now that it's built. It's probably over-built, but good for us, right?
If anybody else is interested, you can pm me here. I'll probably give Steve first stab at it since this is his thread that I'm kind of hijacking...
I have a GREAT realtor that is out of Lehi. She is amazing, and really knowledgeable. She helped us get through a crazy home buying process and gave awesome advice along the way. I believe that she will list and help sell your house for free if you use her to also help buy a house. (for the 3% commission) She is REALLY good at working with other realtors and always has YOUR best interests in mind. She worked around our schedules and was on the ball about finding us houses to see right after they were listed so that we could be the first ones to go through them. i didn't have time to scan the MLS during the day, so she was all over it. her name is Yolanda and her number is 801-602-9898
On another note, we will probably be listing our house in the next week or 2. 1600 sq. ft. 4 bd/3 bath, and well within your budget. We did all new carpet and paint when we moved in a year ago and remodeled the kitchen. .3 acre, large covered patio, great low maintenance fenced yard, sprinkler system, lots of parking, really nice friendly neighborhood and on a dead-end cul-de-sac street...
AND a detached 1500 sq. ft dream shop w/ 600 sq. ft loft space for storage. Have you come by and seen it yet? (16' ceilings, extremely well insulated, extremely well lit, heated, bathroom, extra thick concrete pad at one end intended for a car lift, tons of outlets, 220....it's the nicest homeowner shop I've ever seen.) I love it and I know that if we sell, I'll never have a shop as nice, but we think we're going to build a house. We love the area and will actually be building in the same ward. It will sell quickly once we list it because of the shop. Yolanda found it for us immediately after it was listed and we were the first to walk through it and we snagged it. The agent's phone was ringing off the hook for showings. We were looking for a shop but it was VERY hard to find one with any sort of a shop that wasn't just a glorified barn for under $400k.
We are probably going to try and list for sale by owner first to see if we can avoid any realtors (although Yolanda has agreed to just help with the proper paperwork, so it will all be done correctly.)
If you're interested, shoot me a text and we can meet up. It pretty much meets all of the needs that you mentioned, but the shop is above and beyond what most people expect out of a shop when they're looking. It cost the guy 3x the $$ to build it than what you'll pay now that it's built. It's probably over-built, but good for us, right?
If anybody else is interested, you can pm me here. I'll probably give Steve first stab at it since this is his thread that I'm kind of hijacking...
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
pm set tyler.
Frieed, that's EXACTLY the type of realtor I'm looking for.
Frieed, that's EXACTLY the type of realtor I'm looking for.
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
Tons of great info here in this thread, thanks guys. I updated post #1 with some new criteria for our next house. I'm thinking it makes a lot of sense to get a property that we can rent part of it out. I'm not savvy with the laws regarding mother-in-law apartments or accessory apartments in the cities I'm interested in, so I need to do more research there. I know a lot of people rent it out whether it's legal or not, but I'd hate to be high and dry if a city ever decided to enforce it. A duplex, or a house with a basement with a separate kitchen would be ideal.
- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
I don't know the laws on that either. But I have a pretty good idea about the laws for killing the people living downstairs from you... Which is what would happen, if I rented out part of my property.
- DAA
- DAA