HUD Commissions - No Buyer's Agent

[P Patel]

I am looking to buy my first home and am bidding on HUD properties as an owner occupant and paying cash.

On hudhomestore.com, I found a listing with an as-is price of 29K and that states 'The listing and selling brokers are eligible to receive a commission of $1,250'. Yesterday, I contacted the listing agent and placed a bid for 26K. I foolishly assumed that the total commission deducted from my offer price would be 1250 instead of 2500. So after receiving an email of the bid submission and seeing that the net proceeds to HUD would be 23500 (26000-1250x2), I contacted the listing agent and inquired about the double commission. I was sort of fearful of offending the broker and somehow losing out on this house, so I didn't question her further when she told me that the amounts are automatically filled in and that she can't change them. After spending some time on biggerpockets today, and reading this http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/67250-hud-offer-question-increasing-chances-of-winning-bid, it seems clear that this is not true. Now I feel like a chump.

I understand that the listing agent should be compensated for submitting my bid and completing the paperwork that will ensue should my bid get accepted, but $1250 seems excessive.

Is it possible to cancel the bid and ask her to reduce the selling broker commission (line 6a) to something more reasonable considering how little work she has done on my behalf, say like $500? Or is it common for listing agents to get double commission on these low value properties when the buyer is unrepresented?

This is my first time bidding on a home and I need all the advice I can get. Thank you.

[Sekelle O.]

It may help to avoid the nickel and dime mentality and instead focus on the big picture. Suppose you had strong armed that listing agent into accepting the reduced commission. How would that agent feel? The next time that agent has a HUD listing coming down the pipeline, would he call you first?

Now what if instead you had told the listing agent that since you never use a buyer's agent, any house he sells you, he would get to keep the entire commission, plus you would use him as your listing agent when you sell the house. Now who is he going to call first when he has new HUD listings in the pipeline?

The big picture is saving $625 on one deal could cost you $000s in future profits. The real estate business is not about property, it is about people, building relationships and getting paid for solving problems.

"In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want." Alice Foote MacDougall (1867-1945), U.S. businesswoman