Buying a home without an agent

G

GatePratt

25+ Posts
My wife and I are looking at purchasing a house that is being sold by a retiree ready to move into something smaller. He is not using an agent. To gain some leverage in negotiations, we are looking to perhaps buy from him without using an agent. 3% on this house would be over $10k, so we figure if we don't use an agent, we can negotiate a better price from him.

Will this be a fairly easy process? Or will the hassle of neither of us having an agent make it difficult to complete the sale in an orderly fashion? Is there anything I should be aware of? Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
We did it. Our experience in trying to buy a house with an agent convinced us that buying without one would be more to our liking. It's all about the paperwork. If your lendor rep is good, they will keep you up to speed on what you need to fill out and when. Our original agent was particularly poor, and having his "help" with the process and the paperwork eventually caused us to walk away. We ended up buying a different house without an agent involved on either side. No muss, no fuss, no unnecessary cut for the agent.
 
You actually should get a 6% discount, because the seller pays both the buyer and sellers' commissions.

It's not hard. Assuming you have mortgage approval and can handle the contract, the title company will do just about everything else.

Where people get stung is they don't get it inspected, or forget to get a Wood Destroying Insect Report.
 
Something that has always bothered me about the TREC forms is that they have a paragraph about the sale that includes an amount for lender required repairs. People then go out and get an inspection and expect the seller to do all the repairs on the inspection sheet. The lender rarely requires any of the repairs noted on the sheet. As seller, I would tell the buyer that unless the lender gives notice that the repairs are required, I'm not going to do them and I'm not going to "give" them the stated repair allowance for lender required repairs. As buyer, I'm going to cross out the phrase that ties it to the lender and tie it to "inspector suggested."
 
It's not hard at all, make friends with a mortgage broker that is competent first, then once your past the contract stage, the mortgage broker can help will all your questions. The title company has a vested interest in making sure the deal closes so they help as well.

The real value to a real estate broker/agent is if you don't know the market and gaining access to MLS.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Because of a loan program Bank of America has that my wife qualifies for due to profession(nothing down, no PMI), we are using them and not a mortgage broker. So the rep at B of A should drive the process to a certain extent or the guy at the title company? Thanks again.
 
Gate,

I went through a similar program at BofA and my mortgage guy was outstanding. Don't remember his last name now and I don't want to dig through my paperwork to find it, but Devlin is his first name. He knows what he is doing. He works at the downtown office (maybe they all do) in Austin. If this is your market, you might give him a call.
 
Everything is negotiable-

I can hook you up with a good appraiser who could give you some comps. I can probably talk him into doing a cursury comp serch for nothing. But I would hope you would use him for the formal appraisal if you get that far.

I also had a darn good inspector that was very competent and detailed, helped me negotiate a bit more.

HOWEVER oftentimes FSBO's are not willing to negotiate a great deal and overestimate the value of ther house. Getting the comps will help you determine if you should go forward.
 
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