I've got my eye on a beautiful little bungalow in downtown Detroit, in one of the more "colorful" sections, if you know what I mean. Only $200, but I've got to pick up the tab for upkeep and utilities. How can I lose?
Realtors are generally scam artists. 6% for nothing. These days sellers and buyers want more control.
You can always use a flat fee realtor listing that basically lets you put your house in MLS through their realtor company but they offer you no services you show the house they may or may offer you contracts. You can then decide what commission to pay the buyers broker but let me just tell you that if you decide you're going to pay the buyers broker 1% and everybody else is paying the buyers broker 3% guess who that broker is going to show a house to. Their clients are only going to see the houses that have 3% and the broker is going to tell them that your house is already under contract even if it's not. I know it sounds terrible but the truth of the matter is MLS is the way 90% of homes are sold and most buyers go through Realtors who are on mls. So as a seller you might think oh great I can save money selling my house but you won't get any buyers looking. The only buyer is brave enough to buy your house without a realtor are going to be people who want to buy it for very much less do something to it and flip it and so you won't get a good price. if you want the floodgates to open for a lot of buyers to have a bidding war in your house the only way to do that is to go through MLS which means use a realtor. The cheapest thing to do is to get one of those flat fee $500 sell your own Home realtors that will list your house on MLS. But then you do have to do a lot of stuff and if you do do that I would still offer a full two and a half to 3% to the buyers broker so you're going to end up paying $500 plus two and a half to 3%, so why not go ahead and just pay the 6% and have somebody do it all for you.
The one thing I absolutely would not do is sign a long-term contract with a real estate agent. You only sign it with them for as short a period of time as possible and tell them you will extend it if they're bringing in lots of buyers and offers. Real estate agents won't like that but you won't like it if you're stuck with a bad real estate agent that doesn't get things moving and you signed a 6-month listing. so sign is short a listing as possible and say look if you get a lot of people in the door and we're getting offers of course I'll extend it and of course I'll give you the right to sell it and close and make the commission for anybody you show it to during your short period of time even if they close 2 months later. That's only fair.
this is a well thought-out and honest answer
That upkeep is potentially infinite. Niggers will loot, burn, and vandalize your house.
(post is archived)