All Forum Posts by: Kristi Harmon

I decided to take this deal to my agent and make an offer with him (where he gets his 3%) or walk away from it. I figured it is just a house, no need to burn bridges--better deals are out there where my agent will be able to get paid as well. 

You have valid comments and I would like to include him in everything, but i have few concerns. I am very eager and ready to buy something right now before fall. I'm new in all this, he is my first agent who was referred to me by my lender and i might be just overly eager. I know I just have to give him a chance. But I had agents who were sending me CMA's, when I told them that I was considering a different agent and they said that they would work out a better fee than 3% when working with sellers that I would bring to them. It took him a week after we 1st met to send me his website info and that was after I asked him to send it to me. He is either just so busy or has a slower pace or doesn't feel the urgency I feel.

With this particular deal I already offered $15,000 less than what they were asking, which I probably will not even get, because houses like this will go for their asking prices ($269,900 is what they listed in their ad: 4 beds/3 baths, unfinished basement 2,400sqft, in a nice neighbourhood). Paying ~$8000 more to the seller or to the agent, will make this deal less attractive and will eat up a good chunk of my cash. 

I just don't know what is the ethical or proper way to do those deals. I hear people on podcasts as well, how some of the deals are brought in by their agents and others found in other ways. Do they bring all the deals still to their agents then? I'm not going to stop with doing just 1-2 deals right now--I'm hoping to buy several properties and If couple of them are not gone through an agent, will that put a black mark on me and make him lose his trust in me?! I almost feel like, maybe that will make him work harder in finding deals for me, so I don't have a need to start looking by myself. 

Thank you Becca and Wayne for your suggestions! It doesn't take a brain surgeon to fill in the blanks in the REPC, but I wasn't sure if I needed a licence to do it myself. Learning new things every day that will hopefully help me out when hunting those properties!  

Thank you, I will find an attorney as well just in case. My agent is not very aggressive about finding deals--maybe i'm impatient and the market in Utah is just crazy. I've had him for a month and we have looked at maximum 10 houses with him. All the good properties that are in a nice price range get taken so fast (they come online and next day they are under contract already)--I feel i'm so behind in this real estate game. So, i started looking for houses that are sold by owners as well. We sent 2 offer letters today to the properties that I found myself. One was at first sold by an owner, but then the owner decided to involve an agent, but good thing is that it hasn't been posted on MLS yet. The other one was under contract, but I found out that the buyer had financial difficulties and the house was going to be available again.

I actually asked my agent, if I would bring him a house that is sold by an owner, what his fee would be. He said 3%, but he was confident that the seller would pay it.

This is the exact offer letter that my agent uses as well when putting in offers for me:

http://www.realestate.utah.gov/forms/REPC_2008.pdf

I'm working with a seller that doesn't want to involve an agent, if I do then they will increase the house price by ~$8000 (which would be 3% agent fee). Owner uses https://www.homie.com/ to schedule tours and take offers. After viewing the house I sent them an offer and the website sent me the following reply:

"Thanks for your offer on ...(address). Are you currently working with a real estate agent? If not, please meet ....(name of an attorney), an outside attorney who can help you finish completing your offer.

Let us know and ...(name of an attorney) will reach out to you if you don't have an agent. If you do, please work with your agent to finalize a REPC."

So do I want to have my agent fill out the offer letter and pay him $8000 or attorney that probably costs me ~$600 or can I draft one myself (and have a title company hold the earnest money deposit)? 

P.S. The owner hasn't accepted my offer yet.