Anyone ever bought at house without a realtor?

[Buzzrock 15136]

Going to check out a FSBO today. I’m thinking it could be a good negotiation lever to not have agent commissions in the mix.

 

Is a buyer’s agent really necessary at all any more?

[South Austin 53220]

1 minute ago, Buzzrock said:

Is a buyer’s agent really necessary at all any more?

Only if you're new to an area and not familiar with neighborhoods, and even then I'm not sure it's a necessity. We didn't use a realtor with our last two home purchasers.

[Buzzrock 15136]

Only if you're new to an area and not familiar with neighborhoods, and even then I'm not sure it's a necessity. We didn't use a realtor with our last two home purchasers.

How did you handle the requirement to have a realtor present during inspection and appraisal?

[phdhorn 6225]

Getting my mom's house up for sale (in Md.) as we speak.  We thought about handling the sale ourselves, because things are changing... some ridiculous amount of people now look/decide to visit based almost entirely on internet browsing.  The amount of pub that realtors used to be able to generate vs. the common schmuck is declining.

However, right now we're still anticipating going with a realtor because 1) none of us can be around at any time to show a buyer the place, and 2) it needs a good deal of fixing up, and we're needing a little "what's worth it and what's not" for spending the money.  I think a realtor is still necessary here (of course you can hire a stager, but not sure many of them are worth it).

On your question, some agents will simply charge a fee to do those things (not usually a big deal, they get extra dough for a relatively small (to them) amt. of work.  But also remember that as a buyer, if you bring an agent, that agent would expect his (roughly) 3%.  You can 1) negotiate with the seller if a deal is imminent who pays that agent; 2) pay the agent entirely as the buyer; or 3) tell the seller you're not paying shit, in which case you run the risk of losing the deal.

As a buyer, you need to talk to the owner/seller about that and decide if you can hang a deal around their neck based on paying your buyer agent if you have one.  If not, then it simply leaves that out of the negotiations... you can negotiate with the seller to have them pay any/all fees attached to realtor/lawyer assistance for you (paperwork, appearances, etc.).

It's very tempting to try and sell ourselves.  We still might (haven't signed with the realtor yet) but we'll see.  It's just hard to handle the calls/inquiries/showings if you have other shit to do.  But yeah, it could be worth $20,000 to do it.

As a buyer, it doesn't really change the game much.  You ask for a price, and go from there.

Edited June 24, 2018 by phdhorn

[South Austin 53220]

26 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

How did you handle the requirement to have a realtor present during inspection and appraisal?

 

We were present during inspection. Appraiser just looks at the outside of the house, as I recall.

[Dbeasy 15583]

I got tired of bad real estate agents and went and got a real estate license (Texas) to handle transactions myself when buying and selling rental homes.

Most transactions are pretty straight forward, so if you know what contract forms to fill out (Inc addendums) and understand what the forms mean, you could do it yourself. I will say that it’s a little tricky. A mistake here or there could cost you a lot of money or get you stuck in a house with a major problem.

You could also ask a buyer’s agent for a discounted fee since you already found the house. I do that for friends and friends of friends. You could also just have a real estate lawyer help you at about $200-400/hour.

[UTPhil2006 3930]

On the buyers side it's not all that bad, just make sure you have someone review it.  What Dbeasy said above is the safest route -- hire a realtor for a flat fee (negotiations, contract, etc) or hire a lawyer to review everything.  As seller pays the realtors, make sure what you're saving on not having a buyers agent is being taken into consideration in the price otherwise you might as well have a realtor.