Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
It may depend on local circumstances but in the 4 states I've purchased a house you aren't go to be able to see a house for sale without a realtor unless you wait for an open house. A seller's agent isn't going to meet a random buyer and without a buyer's agent you aren't getting into the lockbox with the key.
Likewise when selling a house you aren't going to get on the MLS without a realtor listing the property. No MLS and 99% of buyer's aren't going to see that your house is for sale.
I certainly wouldn't try to buy a house for the first time without a realtor - especially in a hot market where houses are selling within a week.
I completely agree the way realtors are paid is crazy. It doesn't take any more effort to sell a $500K house than a $100K house so why is pay based on a percentage of sale price?
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I really think this is just old sentiment from pre-internet crazy times but your mileage may vary if you don't live in the less regulated state of Arkansas. I was a random buyer asking to look at houses in the 250-300k range and not a single person told me to **** off. Some times the buying agent met me to show the house, and sometimes the home owner. I bought my current house and it says on the contract *sellers fee "3%" and *buyers fee is blank. So woo I was able to save 3% which is $7500.
On the old house i asked a realtor friend about mls and he said not to worry as its the same as Zillow now. So I took the chance and listed it on zillow. Had two main parties wanting to buy it both from zillow. Pending within two weeks. Both were first time home buyers, but one had a realtor. The realtor wanted 6%. I said okay but I will need a competitive offer as I have another offer as well. The realtor offered me asking minus 6% ($9,840). The other party offered asking split closing (I split $4000 with them. So I sent them $2000 at closing.) I actually went to the state of Arkansas website and found a buyers offer contract for them, filled it out, sent it to them with an earnest money section that they deposit $2000 into an account with a title company the moment I accept their offer (just in case they didn't close they would lose the money and if they did they would get it back in full towards closing). We all agreed on terms and signed and I sent it to my loan officer which i also used for a pre-approval on the new house. They accepted my recommendation and we closed in about 30-40 days. New house there was no snags as well but I also signed an earnest money thing as well. No problems with the new house process either.
So I saved about $17000 which helped a lot.
Forgot to add that i showed my house with phone, a smart lock with time windows, and my cameras from 5 hours away. Was a smooth process and never met anybody in person.
It sounds like a scary process but the market is hot right now so i had absolutely no issues in this era with zillow (no fees) and all of that.