Real Estate Sale Fees

[rodi]

Speaking of regional differences in the process....

In N.J. you are required to use an attorney for closing. (Had friends who lived in NJ)

In WA the closing was done separately - no common room with buyer and seller. Of course, when I sold I was out of state - so closing was done with a notary and fedex.

In PA when I bought it was as W2R described, except no lawyer... Happened at the title/escrow company conference room, everyone sitting at the same table.

When I sold in PA I was out of state - so fedex/notary.

When I bought my current house no realtors were involved because I bought from my Dad. We used a title/escrow company and did the closing there. No realtor fees - but still had fees associated with title insurance and escrow... I guess, technically it was a FSBO sale - but since it was my dad - who made me produce comps when we were negotiating the price (he made me pay full market - but I benefited from the prop13 property tax transfer.)..

So... I've bought/sold houses in 3 states without lawyers. But I know NJ requires them.

 

[carty1]

Surprise Buyer

Zillow bought my vacation home. Great offer and was 5% fee.

 

[Third Son]

We just did this

Planning on listing the primary home for sale next spring (maybe sooner) and living at the lakehouse full time. Did a little spreadsheet to calculate the proceeds of the sale after cap gain taxes and realtor fees. For what we might list the house for, at the standard 6%, the realtor fee would be between $42k, and $45k

I just can't do that. That is insane. Especially in a hot market.

One part of me (as I have done before) just wants to tell the realtor "this is what I need to walk away with", and let them add whatever fee they want to make it work. Be the fact is, I would still be foregoing $42k.


We have a realtor that we really like (we we paid 6% to her office last year when she sold some land of ours, quickly, and for more than what I thought we could get), but that 6% was about a third of what this house would be.


DW and I discussed FSBO tonight.

Anyone sold some high dollar property and was able to negotiate a lower fee? If the market is this hot next spring, would I be in better position to negotiate? Anyone ever FSBO?

That realtor said she hates this market now, last time she talked. She has 13 100% cash buyers wanting homes and she can't find any.

We just sold our house FSBO. Not a million dollar sale but It was our fourth home to sell this way. Selling a home is not hard if you have a qualified buyer. All it takes is one. Get a good title company and they will take care of the title insurance and closing. All the documents needed for the sale are online.

We were going to FSBO last year but Covid messed things up (imagine that). We close in a few weeks.

This is not to say realtors aren't important sometimes. We just never needed one.

 

[calmloki]

Last year we sold a set of apartments after being solicited by many companies. The buyer was doing a 1031 exchange and the real estate company solicited us - we didn't have it for sale. Since they handled both sides of the deal we negotiated and (over)paid them a 4.25% commission. Was not impressed with the company, but the place did get sold, owner carry contract.

Last Thursday we closed the sale on a similar set of apartments - eight units instead of nine, but in much better condition. Our buyer was someone we want to do well, so we reduced the price of the apartments by the commission we had paid last year + $50k, reduced the down payment by 1/2, cut the interest by .75%, and had a lawyer draw up papers that should have the 30 year purchase contract expire with us. Tricky business, that. Our costs were the same for title insurance and escrow /collection/filing fees. The lawyer fees were modest (she had drawn another contract for us in the past, so many of the terms were just pasted in) - paid her about 4.5% of what we had spent on real estate commission last year for a much less pleasing contract the RE company provided.

 

[kjpliny]

I put my last house on Zillow and offered a 2% commission to the buyers agent. No MLS listing. Sold in 1 day to the first person who saw it. $9k cost on $450k sale. It was priced correctly based on comparable sales on neighboring streets, same house & similar upgrades.

 

[Cayman]

House #1: We paid 4.75 percent total commission for an excellent full service sale and it was worth it due to ease.

Oceanfront condo: FSBO'd it by telling a few neighbors it was for sale.
No realtor fees. Sold in up market for highest $ in our building for years... sold for more than any of the realtors I consulted - had I used any of the realtors I consulted it would have sold for less and I would have paid them commission to boot.
Title co. took care of closing, etc. Easy!

We closed remotely on both properties - no meetings, etc. (One closing required a traveling notary, I paid $75, the other remote closing did not have that fee... Super convenient!