Sharon in SC Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 We've unofficially ruled out the option of going the FSBO route. Honestly, neither dh nor I are especially "business minded" and after a year and a half of blood, sweat, and tears, I just don't think either one of us are up to trying to sell the old house on our own. That leaves us two readily viable options - going with the real estate agent (full service) who helped us in the purchase of our new home (which means we could go with her company and pay 6% interest) OR pursue the help of reduced interest real estate agents (there is one for 2-3% in our area). Can anyone speak to what we might gain, if anything, by going with the full service agent? Can anyone speak to how well a reduced interest company might be able to serve us? Obviously, we don't want to pay any more than necessary to put this home in the hands of someone else. Yet, we. need. to. sell. TIA Sharon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in SC Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 anybody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amanda's Mommy Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Mostly bumping you up. I've never heard of a reduced interest rate real estate agent. When we sold our last house we just made sure the asking price included enough the pay the agent. But that was 4 years ago in a sellers market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in SC Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 Thanks, Amanda, for the consideration. :-) Surely, somebody can speak to the differences between these two services.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claire Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I honestly don't know all of the differences, but I Googled and found a few websites with information. Here they are: website #1 website #2 website #3 I'm not an expert in this area, by any means. My thought, FWIW, is that it's worth paying full price for a real estate agent *IF* he/she is a really good real estate agent. This doesn't mean anyone who works for a real estate company. It means someone who has been an agent for 20 years in your area, has won awards for sales, and who does a lot of research for you to come up with your home's price. We've interviewed a few different agents in our time, and only one was really good. This showed in his presentation. The comp houses he came up with were in our neighborhood and very similar to our house and had sold within the last 30 days or so. He compared our house to *each* of those houses on an item-by-item basis. That is, he took the comp house price and then added x-$$$ because we had a fire place, subtracted x-$$$ because our lot was a little smaller. He did that with all three comps and showed us exactly how he arrived at his recommended selling price. He also listed all of the other houses similar to ours that were for sale in our neighborhood with their selling prices. No other agent had ever gone into such detail in the presentation. He had obviously spent hours doing his homework! At the time, our house had been listed with another agent for *one year* with only two very low offers on it. We hired the agent with the good presentation, and he sold our house within 60 days in the dead-of-winter in a buyer's market -- largely because he had priced it right, but also because he did a lot of networking with other agents to let them know what our house was like and solicit lookers. So, from our limited experience, I would not hesitate to pay a full agent's fee *if* it's a really good agent. Just be aware that most agents aren't that good. Ours had been in the business for 20 years, had received many awards for sales, and really worked for his money. Finding that kind of agent can take work on your part. I think going reduced-fee works better in a seller's market when there are tons of buyers competing for a few houses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 A friend did this last year I emailed her and here's her responese: Well, I don't know that I have a good answer--just our experience. We tried to sell the house ourselves without much success. We realized we just didn't get the word out enough, so we used someone who lists your house on the multi? (can't think of the name right now) for a flat fee of a few hundred dollars. That way you only pay one agent instead of two (3% as opposed to 6%). I had to show the house and handle all the paperwork with the other realtor. It worked out well for us, but you have to be willing to do the showing and negotiating. The realtors aren't happy about this as it's cutting into their profits, but they're realizing it's the wave of the future and are beginning to deal with it. Anyone who does it should do a little reading up (there are lots of books on selling your own home at the library and online) and have a little business saavy. If you're patient, you can save several thousand dollars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in SC Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 Thank you, Claire and Readwithem, for taking the time to do a litle research for me! I appreciate it. Now, homework time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigitte Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 We are selling our rental property and have gone with a full-service agency, but we have negotiated a slightly reduced rate (4.5% if they are the buyers and sellers agent and 5.25% if another agency represents the buyer). We too are not up to the task of scheduling showings, doing paper work, etc. The way we are looking at it is we are paying for a service and that is money well spent. Best of luck to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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