When Selling a House, the Realtor Fee Question

[Soxrule111]

Is this a negotiable fee when putting a house up on the Market. General consensus has been If I list, its a 5% fee.

I was just curious, if its something that you generally can negotiate. Like, can we agree to 3.5% or 4% fee?

Thinking about putting my house up for sale, but was curious if there was anyone in the know on here who has done it, or has tried.

[Dielon]

I would skip a realtor personally and try to put it online yourself first. That's a big chunk to give up for work you can basically do yourself.

[Soxrule111]

Originally Posted by Dielon

I would skip a realtor personally and try to put it online yourself first. That's a big chunk to give up for work you can basically do yourself.

Ive thought about that. I just dont know how much I have to do at the closing, or if the buyer will be in charge of most of that.

[GeechQuest]

I only know Texas.

Can’t negotiate the buyer’s realtor fee. That’s a flat 3%.

You can negotiate the seller’s realtor fee. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

[techtre2003]

It's worth a shot. Maybe see if you can negotiate 5% if they get it sold within 60 days and 4% if over 60 or something like that? Worse they can do is say no.

[Josh611]

It will probably vary from state to state.

We got lucky and bought our house off the market and had to pay no fee. Seller was friends with the realtor and paid a whopping 1%.

Depending on who you go with, I’m sure there’s room to negotiate. Doesn’t cost anything to ask the listing agencies, give it a shot.

[Soxrule111]

Originally Posted by Josh611

It will probably vary from state to state.

We got lucky and bought our house off the market and had to pay no fee. Seller was friends with the realtor and paid a whopping 1%.

Depending on who you go with, I’m sure there’s room to negotiate. Doesn’t cost anything to ask the listing agencies, give it a shot.

Nice, my neighbor is the one who got me thinking about selling, but its because shes a realtor. But she said 5% about 5 times, so I think she would be more of a realtor than a friend trying to help out.

But my girl has gone to the pool with her prob 6 or 7 times since, so maybe shell be accommodating.

[Lonewolf]

Here in California, you can regularly negotiate different commissions. I've had realtors take 2%, and others demand 5%...the rates are all over the place here.

I've only sold one property on my own out here and it was a pain the butt. It is doable but there is a lot of tedious paperwork, disclosures, other misc. garbage.

[TheWrightStuff]

Originally Posted by Soxrule111

Ive thought about that. I just dont know how much I have to do at the closing, or if the buyer will be in charge of most of that.

Its very easy. Ive sold my last three houses myself. You have a title company handle everything.

[49ersSF]

If you have a property that is in demand it is likely you can negotiate the buyer paying your realtor fees. That happens quite a bit in SF where people sometimes pay 30%+ over market listing price.

[RollTribe]

Originally Posted by TheWrightStuff

Its very easy. Ive sold my last three houses myself. You have a title company handle everything.

A title company can help you put terms down on a contract, but they won't negotiate on your behalf on things like price, repairs, etc. They won't help with pricing or comps. It is better to have professional representation. I've been in the mortgage industry for over a decade and would never buy/sell real estate without the representation of a Realtor.

[TheWrightStuff]

Originally Posted by RollTribe

A title company can help you put terms down on a contract, but they won't negotiate on your behalf on things like price, repairs, etc. They won't help with pricing or comps. It is better to have professional representation. I've been in the mortgage industry for over a decade and would never buy/sell real estate without the representation of a Realtor.

No, the title company handles everything for the closing. If you are not comfortable with negotiating selling your own property then you should probably stick with a realtor and pay their large fee. For me, its not been an issue and have had no problems at all. Ive sold three properties and bought two all without a real estate agent and just using a title company to handle the closing. Its not difficult.

[Jopeal]

In my area if a prospective buyer has realtor representation, their realtor may be less likely to guide them toward a property with a fee below 5% as the buyers realtor would be splitting a smaller fee and your realtor may be less inclined to work with as much diligence for the sale. It's kind of unethical but that can be the nature of anything in sales.

Sites like Zillow make it more likely for buyers to find your listing without realtor recommendation, but the issue still exists.

In my opinion Technology will continue to improve the property sales process for sellers & buyers over time as the traditional Realtor becomes more obsolete but we're not there yet.

[sak0309]

We were able to find a realtor that was breaking away from a large agency to work on his own. We negotiated a total 4% commission on the sale of our home, and with the promise that he'd be our buying agent on our new home one county away, he gave us a 1% credit off our purchase price on the new home.

[Soxrule111]

Thank you guys, ill check with a title company. Im pretty confident I could Negotiate and sell the house without the help of a realtor to bring in buyers. Just the paper work is the part that intimidates me.

Hoping to have it cleaned up, and ready for photos even if its just me taking them this week. Will be curious to see how things go.
Thanks for the comments so far guys.

[Looking4Luka]

Technology has eliminated the need for most middlemen. 30 years ago you would've needed a realtor. Nowadays... Not so much. Try selling online and keep the 5%. You busted your @$$ to pay for the house. Don't give away 1/20th for work that algorithms could do in 2020.