Real Estate Agent - Getting a Sweet Deal

[FeverPitch]

Hi

A townhouse next door to mine sold last week. The townhouses are identical except mine is a mirror version.

The agent has three potential buyers who are interested in mine and I'm happy to sell for a similar price.

We have one evening viewing mid week. This could be a very quick and easy sale.

What would be a fair agent fee for this engagement of service.

I'd be interested to hear from both owners and agents.

Thanks Fever

[Wayne]

A quick sale - how much commission?
An interesting question!
Would you feel better paying more if the place took a long time to sell?
What is a quick, painless, sale worth to you?

[FeverPitch]

I'm not desperate to sell but it was part of my plan over the next two to three years.
The townhouse is low maintenance with a well run body corporate.
The commission is 2.75% + gst
It will save me decorating/staging but its no biggie with easy access.

[Keys]

0.5% for a three day listing.

[Wayne]

I'm not desperate to sell but it was part of my plan over the next two to three years.
The townhouse is low maintenance with a well run body corporate.
The commission is 2.75% + gst
It will save me decorating/staging but its no biggie with easy access.

At 2.75%+ I'd take it.
Personally I am fairly happy to pay where they have added value. Bringing the buyer to you like that adds value in my book - as opposed to sitting around waiting for someone to stumble across your place as often happens.

[Davo36]

Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Don't believe the Hype]

At 2.75%+ I'd take it.
Personally I am fairly happy to pay where they have added value. Bringing the buyer to you like that adds value in my book - as opposed to sitting around waiting for someone to stumble across your place as often happens.

100% agree... they have already provided value... why would you expect to pay less than their standard rate.

You will be saving time and inconvenience by:
- not having to do any tidy up the property
- having the hassle of open homes
- having large numbers of strangers come through your house

You will be saving money by:
- not having to tidy up the property
- not having to pay for advertising

if the price is a good one to you take it, pay the agent, move on.

[Nick G]

To an experienced agent a buyer they have built a relationship with is probable future income, why would he steer the buyer into your property for a lot less than he can steer that buyer into another one? That buyer is of value to him.

At the same time, you are offering a conversion now. So it upgrades probable income to definite. Your property is of value to the agent.

So meet in the middle. You could offer a 1 weeks listing with no marketing spend at a .75% discount, after which you will open it up to all agencies to bid on selling your property.

[Keys]

Oh, come on guys. This vendor has no need to sell now. I wonder if the agent has knocked on the door? Possibly. What would 0.5% actually be in terms of dollars? Let's say it sells for $400k. You are looking at $2k commission. What does the agent need to do for this? Take the (ahem) three qualified purchasers through? In all of one day each? No marketing, no rushing around with tyre kickers etc.

For little more than a few hours work he gets $2k.

Or, is that not enough for you lot?

[Nick G]

Just because one particular transaction is easy you shouldn’t get paid a lot less. You’re in business, you should know this.

Agents are taught to secure good listings to then build your buyers list. You can ask him to give up his future earnings if you want, just don’t be surprised if he says no.

If I walk on to a car lot can I buy at no commission if I just happened to be there because I was with a mate? Computer store? Hell no.

There’s a quick way to test this out, list it privately on TradeMe at the price the other one sold at or a bit less (after it goes through, you don’t want your neighbors wrath).

[Dunning]

It could be a win-win-win
win for you, easy sell, low work
win for purchaser , easy buy, less diligence work.
win for agent, no marketing, vendor and purchaser already found.

The agent still has to do work, negotiation on behalf of vendor, getting contracts signed, agency fees etc but a lot of the running around, open homes and wasted time is removed.

B and T rates are

• $300,000 of the purchase price* 3.95%
• On the balance of the purchase price* 2.0%

plus GST


Based on that I'd offer 2%+ GST commission.

My sell price for mirror place would be the same price as the other one Plus commission, 7 day listing only.

Try it out for a week, don't drop your price, don't sign up for longer unless an offer is presented to you.

Be prepared to sell your house, ie where are you going to move to?

[Meehole]

Oh, come on guys. This vendor has no need to sell now. I wonder if the agent has knocked on the door? Possibly. What would 0.5% actually be in terms of dollars? Let's say it sells for $400k. You are looking at $2k commission. What does the agent need to do for this? Take the (ahem) three qualified purchasers through? In all of one day each? No marketing, no rushing around with tyre kickers etc.

For little more than a few hours work he gets $2k.

Or, is that not enough for you lot?

The agent wouldn't get the $2k, his office would take $1k plus and he would get the rest.

[DaveW]

I can sell it for you for 1%. I can put it on trademe and those same 3 buyers will receive it in their email the next day. If you give me $100 I will put a for sale sign out front also. For another $300 I can do a 2 week tender process and may achieve an even better result.

[SimonW]

I have recent experience in a similar situation. The owner of the unit below mine had been trying to sell his unit through one of the low commission agents for over a year with absolutely no luck. He then changed to a more mainstream agency, and the new agent managed to presented multiple offers to the vendor within a week and a sale went unconditional in just 3.5 weeks.

When I heard about this from the vendor, I contacted his agent and asked him if any of the back up purchasers were still looking to buy, as I "may" be interested in selling. We had a meeting onsite and he advised me what he thought I might get for it, which was in line with my own expectations. He then advised me that he did have someone who may be keen, and he was happy to show the guy through, but to keep everything above board I would have to officially list the property with his agency, but he just wouldn't advertise it yet, which also meant I wouldn't have to pay for marketing at that stage. If the guy ended up not being interested, I could then choose to withdraw the listing entirely, or could put it on hold to tidy the place up and then launch a full sales & marketing campaign.

My unit had some good features such as recent double glazing, newish kitchen and bathroom etc, but it has been a few years since the last full reno, and after a few back to back tenancies, the carpets were in a bad state (frayed/stained etc) and it needed a good deep clean and lick of paint inside and out. It was definitely not in good enough condition to go to market and expect a decent price.

Anyway, as it turns out, the prospective purchaser that the agent had in mind really liked the property, and because he had already missed out on a few places, the agent advised him to make his best offer straight out of the gate "to prevent the vendor from fully going to market and advertising properly" which would then bring competition from other buyers. This strategy worked. The purchaser put in an offer that was significantly higher than the offer he had placed on the unit downstairs, and it was $30k higher than what I considered my property to be worth. ($30k might not sound like much, but it's a property with a CV of only $160k, the agent and I thought it might fetch $170k in its current condition, and he offered $200k).

So the deal was done and settled within 30 days, I didn't have to pay for marketing, and I also didn't have to hurriedly bring the property up to standard for marketing (which I estimate could have cost me at least $10,000). Because of these savings alone, together with the price which is more than I personally think it is worth in its current state, I was happy to pay the agent his full commission (2.95% + $490 + GST) which came to around $7,400 inc gst.

My advice is if you want a quick hassle-free sale where you don't have to do any work, and you can do it without having to pay for marketing, just embrace the commission for what it is - it's the cost of a quick and easy transaction, and in my case it was worth every cent. I paid next to nothing for that property 17 years ago, and the rent from it has more than covered the initial purchase price, and then some. But it was likely to become a millstone in future years when these new healthy home rules come in, so I was happy to let it go quickly but still at an excellent price for the condition and area.

For a more expensive property you could maybe ask for 10-15% off the total commission - I did this successfully on an estate sale recently in which I was the estate executor.

[datacraft]

You can operate the complexities of a web browser so you have more than enough brains to sell it yourself. Real-estate agents market on fear and greed. My last purchase was a private sale it was an absolute pleasure not to have to deal with a ***** agent!