OT-party with realtor want to buy..who pays

A realtor come's to you, with an interested party that is very interested in purchasee your place, your place wasnt for sale or listed with any one. Who should be paying a realtors commission. Realtor wants to sign a one time showing contract. Not sure how to proceed with this, wasnt thinking of selling, but I guess with health and life, maybe the right offer would be Gods little sign. Any advice? We do know what we would want for the place, but would hate to have $ taken off that to pay a commission when we didnt negotiate for reprsentive listing to sell for us
 
sounds kinda fishy. if someone was that hot to buy your place, why didnt they stop in and ask you???? i would bet there is no hotly motivated buyer and the realtor is just looking for a listing. once he /she gets a listing, regardless of what realtor sells it, he still gets a commission.
 
I would insist the commission be paid by the purchaser or increase the sale amount to cover the commission. If it is not clearly spelled out in the contract DON'T SIGN.

Mark
 
Got a local realtor you trust? Ask them. If not consult a lawyer. It's not unheard of for a potential buyer to be in an area, see a property while driving by and contacting a realtor to check to see if the owner is willing to sell.

Could be the realtor is like one we have here. Knows all the locals. He knows is someone is have money or health issues. Then when a potential buyer contacts them about land in the area knows who may be tempted into selling but hasn't listed the property yet.

Rick
 
The agent is going to make his commission, one way or another. If he represents you, the commission is deducted from the sales price. If he represents the buyer, then his commission is tacked on to the amount the buyer pays.

Your first question to the agent should be "do you have a buyer's agent agreement with the buyer?" If the answer is "yes", then he wants to represent both buyer and seller, which is a no-no. If there is no such agreement, you can sign a seller's agreement, in which case the commission will be part of the agreement. Or you can try to figure out who the potential buyer is and go around the agent.

If you think the deal is something you want to follow up on, I suggest you sign the listing agreement, but try to negotiate the commission down. In this scenario, 4 percent commission would be fair, IMO.
 
Sometimes the simplest answer is also the best. Just ask the realtor what he proposes regarding the commission. You'll probably end up paying something, but because he already has a buyer, it should be substantially lower than the normal rate. Be sure you read the listing agreement carefully to make sure he didn't "forget" the commission agreement you negotiated.
 
I am always wary of people who cold call on me to either sell me something or to buy something from me.
In most cases, I am not interested in what they are selling.
In most cases, I am not interested in selling what they want.
If I were inclined to sell, I would have advertised what I wanted to sell.
If I wanted to buy something, I would already be shopping.
I don't need some agent to try to put ideas in my head about selling my property. I worked hard and struggled to make the payments for years. Why would I want to sell what I worked so hard for?
I would have showed the agent to the door and told him I was not interested. Who pays the commission is irrelevant.
 
bingo , buyers and sellers SHOULD have seperate reps , Dont Know if Its probably is a Law ,but it ought to be . . if he represents buyer , you need a real estate attorney to finalize the deal ,.. if he represents you .as far as fees , just add that to your sale price , and negotiate from there ,,regardless.. YOU ARE IN NO OBLIGATION TO SELL,.
 
Did you ask him just what he wants for commision tell him you will give him $500 and no more then see what he says
 
Have the realtor put his or her proposal in writing. Have a trusted neutral party be at your place when the realtor stops by to be a witness to any conversation. If it is not clear as to who pays the commission tell the realtor the meeting is done and you will make a counter proposal after you have had time to think things over. Take any proposal to a lawyer or somebody you know to be proficient in such matters to make your own proposal. At any time the realtor is on your place let he or she know it is with the understanding to listen to their proposal and nothing more.
 
I didn't realize having the realtor represent the buyer and the seller was such a bad thing. When I bought my place, I called the lady whose picture was on the sign out front. She was representing the seller. All my dealings with the realty was through her. It was the first and only time I dealt with a realtor, the first and only place I looked at.

Didn't have any problems. The whole thing was a pleasant experience and I came out of closing with several thousand dollars more than I expected.

Didn't know that I needed to call someone else so they could stick their finger in the pie too.
 
> I didn't realize having the realtor represent the buyer and the seller was such a bad thing. When I bought my place, I called the lady whose picture was on the sign out front. She was representing the seller. All my dealings with the realty was through her. It was the first and only time I dealt with a realtor, the first and only place I looked at.

As long as you understand the agent represents the seller and you're cool with that, there's nothing wrong with a single agent handling the transaction. That is quite different from having both buyer and seller signing separate agreements with the same agent, which would put the agent in a conflict of interest situation.
 
Dave, good question, as BOTH a past Real Estate Broker and now an Attorney I will offer the advice you were looking for and here it is: EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE

1) You can tell the realtor, I will take so much X NET, so if you can negotiate a sale price so the buyer (not me) somehow pays you a fee and I still get my full X ITS A DEAL IE BUYER PAYS A COMMISSION

2) You can tell the realtor I want X and I WILL PAY YOU A COMMISSION if you sell it for my X PLUS the commission Im willing to pay you... IE if you want $100,000 and the realtor wants 3%, you simple sell it for $103,000. IE SELLER PAYS A COMMISSION and you still get you X net price

3) You can tell the realtor to hit the road and tell them I will pay you nothing, the place is for sale at x dollars to you or your client or anyone who wants it.

FREE LEGAL ADVICE As an Attorney and past real estate broker I will offer this very brief information regarding real estate sales contracts: I can draft a one page or a 100 page agreement to purchase and/or Offers to Purchase and Acceptance etc etc BUT REGARDLESS its like very difficult next to impossible under real estate contract law TO FORCE SOMEONE TO BUY YOUR HOUSE REGARDLESS WHAT PAPERS THEY SIGNED (may still be some damages possible) HOWEVER The buyer can MUCH easier FORCE YOU TO SELL IT.

Regardless what the parties sign ITS NOT SOLD UNTIL CLOSING

Sales agreements and offers to purchase and acceptances etc are legal binding contracts (still subject to caveats above) SO CONSIDER HIRING A PROFESSIONAL with so much at risk and all the expensive consequences VERSUS what your brother in law or someone here, lay or professional including me, has to say.

EXAMPLE I recently listed my farm on Zillow on the net. Very same or next day I had realtors knocking on my door. One wanted to sell it for well over 10% of my price provided I pay them 7% in which case I would get MORE then I was asking I SAID SURE BRING ME AN OFFER,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Others I negotiated a greatly reduced commission I SAID SURE BRING ME AN OFFER,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Others I didn't like their personality I SAID HIT THE ROAD

EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE but I had a great advantage as both a past realtor and an attorney many other home sellers do not have. I had NO PROBLEM giving realtors a ONE TIME SHOW, its a simple one paragraph document yet there are still some parts of it negotiable.

NOTE for those who hate realtors and used car salesmen and attorneys or engineers and get some sort of thrill flaming on them IVE BEEN ALL lol so bring it on.......I'm just NOT one who would criticize or make fun of or berate a person for their chosen lifes work and profession used to raise their family, be they ditch diggers or farmers or plumbers or electricians or teachers or doctors or lawyers etc) HOWEVER I can tell you this from experience, it takes a ton of time to arrange and hire and schedule appraisers and inspectors and lawyers and title insurance companies and termite and health and septic inspectors and allllllllllll that paper work etc etc etc so a realtor (especially at a great reduced commission) CAN BE WORTH EVERY PENNY OF THEIR FEE Even as a past realtor and attorney I could have dome alllllllllllll that myself (soooooo much time and efforts and calls grrrrrrr) I was more then happy even tickled to hire a realtor (who brought me a full price offer) to do allllllllllll that work

Bottom line of the sale. You give them a warranty deed and title insurance, they give you the money BUT THERE ARE A TON OF COMPLEX THING GOING ON

If thy buyer requires a mortgage there are a lot more hoops to jump through for the buyer and even seller as the banks require so darn much. There can be survey requirements or location or boundary surveys and all sorts of other concerns, now that I think of it ID HIRE A PROFESSIONAL if you're not real estate and legal minded, you don't wanna risk loosing the farm now do you ??????????????? A home sale is complicated and NOT for the timid or a person unfamiliar with all the goings on

John T BSEE, JD
 
Get it appraised so you know what your property is valued at. My experience has been some realtors will try for a quick sale for their gain and under sell to get the sale.
 
My first rule of real estate is that everything, absolutely everything is potentially open to negotiation if both parties are willing.

I would try to find out why the buyer is in a hurry to buy that property. That information could substantially change your position and bargaining power. In the meantime I would run the idea and the actual showing contract past your lawyer and maybe also to a reliable non-involved realtor. If there is a large development happening in your area, your lawyer or the other realtor is probably aware of it, is seeing more of these offers and for a few hundred dollars can tell you the who and why behind the sudden interest. That may sound like a lot of money for just information, but it could be money well spent. Good luck.
 
Did you ever consider the real estate agent might be fibbing, and really doesn't have a untreated buyer at all , just wants to get you interested in selling. And once you have set your mind on the idea of selling your property, even if he brings some one by to look at it, and they don't buy. You are now primed to sell, and you now have a real estate agent , that you know, and have had dealings with. I would just back up, and take s good hard look at all of this. There is some good advice offered on here.
 
Places in the country are a red hot market around here right now and same thing is happening, unsolicited offers coming to buy or list are commonplace. As some others said I would guess that it is the realtor, not a buyer that is instigating the interest.
As for your question the answer is as simple as you want to receive X for the place and whatever the commission is plus any other costs you add to the price. Be very careful what you talk to the agent about and what you say. I just heard the other day that in Ohio if you talk to a real estate agent in anything but the most broad sense that they can claim a portion of the sale in commission. Happened to a neighbor who had an unsolicited offer to list his place and simply asked the agent what he thought it would bring and somehow that gave him the right to claim commission when it sold. Best thing to do if you are considering selling is to hire your own agent. if that guy does indeed have a buyer they will find you. If your not wanting to sell then run them off.
 
John, a high school friend of mine went on to become an engineer, and he's still an ok guy, we are still friends.

So you probably aren't all bad..........



;)

Paul
 
My wife still likes me or at least she's stayed 47+ years lol The world needs us nerdy engineers yayyyyyyyyyy

Best wishes thanks for the kind words

John T
 
Do you happen to know the zoning of your property, and whether or not it is develop-able? Could be that it has favorable zoning and realtor or his buddy may be looking for property to split up and develop.
Go to your county Planning Dept. and see how many houses could be put on your property- and if its several, don't sell too cheap!
 
(quoted from post at 14:49:38 09/20/17) I didn't realize having the realtor represent the buyer and the seller was such a bad thing. When I bought my place, I called the lady whose picture was on the sign out front. She was representing the seller. All my dealings with the realty was through her. It was the first and only time I dealt with a realtor, the first and only place I looked at.

When we bought our current place we signed dual agency for the sale of our house and for the new place. No real problems with it but I really don't like the idea of paying, in the case of our sale, the commission for someone who isn't representing me only. Seems like they won't disclose something material that they would find out about the buyer. In the case of the place we bought we didn't find out until after the sale was finalized that the seller was losing the place and it was about to be sold at a sheriff sale. Had someone ask us if we bought it that way, we had no idea. Probably could have gotten it for less money, certainly would have offered much less. Our "agent" never said a word about the situation.
 
I "resemble" that remarry Larry LOL Get well soon so I can squat in my RV on your farm some day, I sold my farm and I'm HOMELESS. Id do it for you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John T
 
The realtor and the buyer probably have a lot better information than you do. Have an appraisal done before you sign anything else with anyone. You have all the risk and nothing to gain from asking "what you want" for the house.
 
The interested party might be legit - decided to try a cold call on something he really liked. That happened with a neighbor here. The first buyer backed out but the realtor found another at the same price pretty quickly. Neighbor got more than he thought the property was worth but I always wondered if he got full price when two buyers were so easy to find.

You say you know what your property is worth. How do you know that? If you're thinking of selling the first thing to do is get an appraisal.
 
Your best advice from here is to get an appraisal. Don't guess at the value. My dad sold 100 acres at $1,000 per acre ten years ago (family owned it since 1898) because some guy was spouting he could get $1,000 an acre for brush. That guy bought it with me pleading to my dad to get an appraisal. My dad was too smart for that, and his buyer sold it quickly for $2,000 an acre.
 
They are legally required to disclose anything they know about the property. They don't have any options on that.
Failure is a serious license violation, and in a repeat or serious case, they can lose their license.
Back to my previous comment - they probably have more and better information than you do. They do this full time.
The drawback is that most real estate agents don't have any expertise in discovering or analyzing property defects.
 
He did not say he knows what the property is worth. He said he knows what they want to get for it which could be more or less than it's worth.

Like you and others have suggested, he should get an independent appraisal.
 

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