Whose side is the agent on...

[to-guy69]

Agents represent themselves. They want the property to move as soon as possible. A few thousand dollars one way or the other is irrelevent to them. I personaly don't have a lot of respect for real estate agents. Their right up there with lawyers. Can't live with them and can't live without them.

+1...in the end, most professional salespeople are all slime...just in varying degrees.

Lawyers also make excellent politicians because they are professional liars as well.

 

[fuji]

I wonder if you could renegotiate the terms to get an agent who is really on your side. Instead of offering them 6% of sale price on a $200k home, offer them 50% comission on the sale price above $175k. So if it sells for $200k they earn the same money, but they can really boost their earnings by getting that price up, at which point you split it with them.

You wouldn't have agents trying to convince you that 93% of list was a good offer in that case, they'd be working hard to get 110% because half the 10% would be theirs.

 

[Trapdoor]

I have

I wonder if you could renegotiate the terms to get an agent who is really on your side. Instead of offering them 6% of sale price on a $200k home, offer them 50% comission on the sale price above $175k. So if it sells for $200k they earn the same money, but they can really boost their earnings by getting that price up, at which point you split it with them.

You wouldn't have agents trying to convince you that 93% of list was a good offer in that case, they'd be working hard to get 110% because half the 10% would be theirs.

negotiated a 5% overall commission on the sale of my last two houses.

 

[KBear]

Believe the agents want to sell the property for as much as possible. The problem is that there is a purchaser and agent on the other side that is thinking like the seller, except he wants the property for a little as possible. It does not make much difference to offer more commission, but it makes a big difference when the seller offers less commission then normal to the agent with the purchaser.

 

[MYSITEONLY]

Open houses are just for your neighbours to snoop and be noisy. The MLS will bring the buyer to you if its priced right.

 

[fuji]

negotiated a 5% overall commission on the sale of my last two houses.

OK, so offer them 20% on the price over $150k, or 40% on the value over $175k, for a $200k home. That's exactly the same commission as 5% on $200k if they sell at $200k (it's $10k under either commission structure), but the leverage inherent in those offers will cause them to work a lot harder to get sell above list--if they sell for $220k they earn a LOT more than under the flat 5% arrangement (they earn 8% in that case), so they'll be more motivated to do that.