Selling a house Question

[MuleShack]

What does a realtor do after an offer has been made?

I'm just inquiring if their job is essentially done at that point or how much is involved after the offer?

Looking at putting house on market shortly but have two people interested in taking a serious look. If one of these people make an offer with no realtor involved, how much is involved for me to complete the paperwork? Or would I just contact a title place and give them all the information?

Also is there any legal things I should be aware of with out a realtor, like if someone could make an offer binding somehow even though it was just an offer?

[efgh]

If it were me, if the offer was acceptable, I would have a attorney do all the legal work. If you are finacing the buyer, get a contract for deed. This is the way I have handled a couple of sales.

[corncob]

You can sell your house yourself by just following a few rules....First make sure that you are selling the house at the right price.....Either get a formal appraisal or have 2 or 3 different realtors do a market analysis to determine price. Dont sell cheaper on your own or you might as well have hired a realtor......Once a buyer and you agree on price and conditions you MUST determine that the buyer is qualified to get a loan before tying your house up on a contract ,or be sure to write an option to bump out the first buyer if a second one comes along.....Buyers can get letters of approval from lenders showing their qualifications......Write a purchase agreement on forms available from an attorney , realtor, or online....Include ALL conditions of the purchase and a closing date....If the buyer is qualified to purchase , then get your abstract updated and examined by the buyers attorney prior to closing......The closing itself can be done by a closing office , usually an abstract office,lender closing department or an attorney ......Consult with an attorney if any questions arise that you do not understand.........If all this bewilders you , hire a realtor and or an attorney.....Selling a home is a major transanction , be sure to understand all elements of the sale.

[MuleShack]

I contacted one realtor and he was out last week to see the house and was suppose to get back to me on Monday with a projected selling price etc, but so far no call back.

We are also contacting another gal that does higher end marketing and hope to meet her this week yet.

I was just networking and ran across someone who was looking for a house with acreage and told them to contact me if interested. The person is local but I do not know them. They are coming out on Friday to do a walk thru. If they make an offer that is acceptable, I figured I could save money over paying the 6% commission.

Hiring a Lawyer to do a little paper work is probably cheaper than the full 6% commission.

I did understand most of what you were saying Griz...the biggest question was that I wanted to make sure of was that there was no way I would be bound by an offer. Either by creative writing on their part or something so that if it was low it wouldn't be binding.

[Pherris]

You can go to the "for sale by owner" (take out spaces) dot com and there is a FAQ that should answer most of your questions. You can save a lot by doing it yourself. Good Luck

[BLACKJACK]

I'd have more faith in a professional appraiser telling you the price vs a realtor. The appraiser should be able to find comparable sales to base his price on, realtors want the listing so they're going to tell you a higher price to get the listing. Then when offers start coming in lower, it doesn't affect thier 6% much but is a big chunk for you. Not a fan of realtors.

You can also goto the assesors office and see all realtor sales in your area, its public information, its what the appraiser will do.

[rundrave]

Don't forget to fill out a disclosure form etc and include that with your documents. Probably not a bad idea to have a good home inspector do a walk through also but that is more of the buyers responsibility.

When I bought a house back in 2010 that disclosure form proved to be very important due to some issues that were pre-existing with the house after the purchase was done. I am sure you have a nice home, but remember as a seller you have nothing to lose buy being honest on that form. You have lots to lose buy not disclosing information on that form.

I was able to get a settlement via mediation from the sellers of the home I bought for non disclosure of an issue. It wasn't very fun for any of us.

[corncob]

A realtor doesnt want a higer price as suggested because it makes it harder to sell the house for them.....In theory realtor and appraiser value should be the same.......AGAIN, you MUST know the value of your home to sell it and keep the most money from the sale......How can you show your house for sale to someone if you dont know the value???....If realtors are not getting back to you it is because they think you are going to use their info to sell the house on your own....You can make a deal with a realtor to exempt a buyer(s) for so many days and list the house......THE MOST IMPORTANT part of this is knowing the value of your house......Pay an appraiser, well worth it.

[amateurfishing]

unless you have a legal or real estate backgound or any experience in it at all, with all the legal situations that can arise i would highly recommend a realtor to handle all your legal mumbo jumbo. i highly doubt in this market any house sells on the first offer. there are stacks & stacks of paperwork, especially with all the new loan requirements that may be necessary. yes, they may make 6% commish, but it would also be legally binding compeletely worry free for u, unless u think it is worth your time to run around and find a real estate or title office & "hope" everything is ok on closing day. it is not only the realtor working for you, also their entire office who help in the listing price, proper documentation, making sure buyer is approved, and all other necessary facts and issues that can either slow or delay a closing. their is a ton of legal stuff involved & u wanna make sure u cannot be sued in future for any reason either

[Tom7227]

When we did a refinance I contacted a local real estate firm and asked them to handle the closing for us. I had to do that after Wells Fargo screwed up the paperwork big time and delayed the closing twice. The firm I hired did it for $250. Of course that didn't include creating the paperwork. Maybe you could ask if they would do that. That woman commented that most buyers simply sign everything put in front of them without reading them or having a clue what the are.

As far as hiring a lawyer - be careful. A friend was buying a piece of property up near Fosston. The seller had Attorney A. I am an attorney but not a real estate lawyer. I was able to see about 5 major things that were wrong with the paperwork. Lawyer A didn't have a clue how to fix things. The seller actually was a widow and for some reason all her children were co-owners of the property. At one point Lawyer A redid the purchase agreement with some significant changes and send it back to the buyer. Thing was that one of the children lived in Ohio and there was no way that the signature could have been obtained that fast - despite the fact that the lawyer notarized it.

My friend ended up hiring the other lawyer in Fosston who got all the paperwork squared away and the deal was completed.

Don't hire Lawyer A (I honestly can't remember his name but I suspect he has completely retired by now. Make sure whoever you hire is knowledgeable about real estate transactions in today's market with all the paperwork that is required.

[311Hemi]

i highly doubt in this market any house sells on the first offer.

Not much to go on, but a basic house recently sold near us for asking price from two different offers. A third overbid but retracted their offer. IMO the house was not priced cheap by any means for what it was, but was decent inside. Hopefully it's a sign that things are changing a bit.

[MuleShack]

Yes, we are in the process of finding a "good" realtor.

I just have this opportunity to show the house to someone that is very interested in it. Being an opportunistic person, I would be glad to take advantage of this and save me some money. If I have to pay $36K in commissions I will, but if I can hire a real estate lawyer for $5000 then that is much better.

Thanks for the input.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Yes, we are in the process of finding a "good" realtor.

I just have this opportunity to show the house to someone that is very interested in it. Being an opportunistic person, I would be glad to take advantage of this and save me some money. If I have to pay $36K in commissions I will, but if I can hire a real estate lawyer for $5000 then that is much better.

Thanks for the input.

Not sure where you're located, but feel free to give me a call or shoot over an email any time with even the most basic of questions. Yes, it costs a lot of $ to sell a house, but many of us work incredibly hard to make sure our clients feel it is money well spent.

[MuleShack]

We're in Scott county.

Its been a week since the guy from the Red realty came out and no call back yet with a suggested market price or any other follow up. So my first impression is he is not a hard worker or doesn't want more business.

May have to hit up my neighbors realtor, just met her today while out talking and she seems pretty knowledgeable.

[upnorth]

Go to one of the larger real estate sites like trulia or willow and look for homes close to yours and as similar as possible to find a reasonable price and remember asking price and selling price are not one and the same. I would say most will sell for 5 to 10% less than listing price. There are real estate agents that will come back with a higher suggested price to get the listing and then work the seller down after a period of time to get the price lowered to a more appropriate price. Listings also give a Realtor a way to advertise themselves so the more they can get the better.

You will get a bit more from a Realtor than just the signed documents. A good agent will track the closing to be sure all the loose ends get tied up and and help make sure they get pulled together for a clean closing.

If you have an interested buyer and you can come together on a price I would not bring in an agent to help you sell. If you have to market the property etc, then it may be better to bring one in.

[jerkbait]

Another option if you already have a buyer is ask a realtor what they would charge to run the deal. My thought is offer them a 1-2% commish or 3-5k to run the paper work. They won't have to pay for the MLS listing or other advertising that the realtor usually pay for. Just a thought.

[Down Deep]

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[MuleShack]

My interested party fell thru because they were hoping we were in a hurry to get out and would sell for cheap. Not the case, so we met with a realtor over the weekend and going to list it with them in the near future.

[BLACKJACK]

There are real estate agents that will come back with a higher suggested price to get the listing

Bingo!! Thats been my experience with realtors, if you're talking to several and one says he can sell your house for 98k and the other says 105k, which one are you going with?? Then when the offers start rolling in at 97,500 eventually you'll sell.

You can sell a house without a realtor, I sold a house with 100 acres on it without a realtor. Spend some time at the courthouse evalutating past sales or hire an appraiser, once you figure out a price that you're happy with, and you find a buyer, a competant lawyer that specializes in real estate can handle the paperwork, all the way thru to getting the deeds registered and checks delived to your bank. It cost me about $1000. Lots better than paying 6%. The key is determing the sale price that is fair and that you are comfortable.

[upnorth]

Actual selling price are....what a willing buyer is willing to pay and what a willing seller is willing to pay.

A person wanting to list the home themselves can find a lot searching the web and calling the courthouse to find similar homes in the area that have recently sold. You can ask more, but normally the bank is going to be looking at the same data and saying that 3 similar homes sold for an average of $125,000 in that area, we aren't going to loan $140,000. Market value is what they will base that on and market value is what similar homes are selling for.

[corncob]

OBJECTIVITY is what is needed when determining market value of your home.......Homes that are currently for sale and similiar to yours will be the MOST influential factor......Minor inexpensive spiff-ups can help the sale. Paint a room, replace a kitchen fauet, repaint an entry door, DECLUTTER everywhere, and 100's will get you $1000's........An aromatic roast or soup slowly simmering on the stove won't hurt....I have had sellers spend $1000 on spiff-ups that I'm sure got them another $10,000 on sale price........Good luck.

[LightningBG]

If you dont have a good prospect out there, then a realtor is probably a good idea.

If you do, then a lawyer or paying a realtor to handle the paperwork for a fee is going to be the cheapest and should yield the same results (with more money in your pocket)

Many times I have experienced realtors listing initially for an inflated price, just to get the listing, then wanting to make significant drops after a month or two (to where is should have been priced initially and what other agents were proposing).

Personally, all the people that I know who have sold recently have gotten over asking price, and some were even straight cash deals that went very fast. Whether they were under priced or not is a matter of opinion, but the sellers got what they wanted and the buyers did too.