Buying a house without a realtor?

T

TheFied

2,500+ Posts
If you put an offer on a house without a realtor, how do you deal with bargaining to knock 3% off the cost for not using a realtor?
 
wtf?

Having a broker/agent represent you is the best thing that you can do, particularly as a buyer.

they will know what the house is worth, and can best bargain with the seller (threaten to take you to a competitive listing, etc.)
 
When we sell our hosue, we will definitely use a realtor. No doubt. 100%.

But buying a house, if we find the house that we are interested in, then I don't see the value other than negotiating final price and terms but we can also do that.......
 
Typically, it is of no negotiating value since they have agreed to pay 6% to their broker. They won't save 3% unless their realtor agrees to it for some reason. Their realtor agrees to share the commission with a selling broker, but unless you have a buddy serve as a phantom selling broker it usually won't affect the selling broker's juice.
 
With all due respect to realtors, I see no bigger drain on the real estate economy then realtors. They bring very little to a transaction but somehow have negotiated a standard 3% rate for each side of the transaction, in all transactions. With all the real estate websites like Ebby.com, etc., I really do not see how a realtor brings any value to a real estate transaction on the buyer's side. All of the information that a realtor would be able to show you is right in front of the buyer on all these different websites.

To answer your question: I have purchased two homes without a realtor, you can negotiate to have the title company pay the 3% to you at closing or take the 3% out of the price of the home. It all depends on what you want to do and it always makes things smoother if the title company and seller are on board. The seller's realtor will raise all kinds of hell and throw a bunch of untrue statements at you (like you can't split a commission, etc.), but that is just wrong and really reinforces why they are stupid and a drain on everyone. Check out the TREC website for more info.
 
buster,

Curious, how do you go about viewing the interiors of the houses before you purchased them? Do you call the selling agent and they showed you?

I generally loathe realtors also, but they do have their uses in a number of situations.
 
I don't loathe realtors but if I find a house on my own, I would in turn be saving the seller the 3% for my realtor.

The houses that we have seen, the selling realtors contact information is readily available.
 
I bought my home without a realtor. It wasn't difficult and I highly recommend it if you're comfortable doing the leg-work on your own. We just called the realtor listed for any house we wanted to see (this info is on MLS) and the seller's realtor then showed us the house. If you do decide to use a realtor, this is also a good way to find one, because you can interact with a bunch of them and find out which ones are not super-douchy.

When we decided on which house we wanted to purchase, we simiply negotiated as part of our offer that the the seller's realtor would only take a 3% commission, and that the price would go down proportionately (plus whatever else you're taking off the asking price).
The seller's realtor might not like this, but they are legally obligated to present all offers to the sellers, and the sellers are going to be pissed at a realtor if that realtor argues against accepting the offer when (i) the sellers are still getting a good price; and (ii) the realtor is still getting as much as they would have if the buyer had had a realtor. That's a win-win situation.
It all worked out well for us - I would use a realtor when selling a house, for the convenience factor, but I had no issue not using one for buying a home.
 
Yep, the folks on the board hit the nail on the head. I just contact the seller's agent and they will open up the house for you. When the market was good, this was not as easy a task because they are busy with their own clients and, unless they think 6% commission is possible, they might blow you off (this did not happen very much, but maybe a couple times). With the market being really bad, the seller's agent is more than happy to bend over backwards to even get the 3% if they think they have a willing buyer. They will, of course, put the hard court press on you to sign with them and let them show you some houses (but you, of course, know better than this because you know how easy their job is and ebby.com and similar websites should make realtors obsolete altogether). It really depends on the realtor, but most will accept you as a free agent and not continue to push the issue. Others will continue to push the issue to the point of being beyond annoyance.

In my first purchase, I had the seller's take the 3% out of the price of the home. On the second purchase, I took the 3% in cash. Either way works.
 
Just be careful to not sign the generic form based on time. If I EVER had a real estate agent show me a house that they found and brought to me, I would sign an agreement for the commission based on that house and that house alone. We would sign a new one for every house they showed me. That way they do not have a claim if I find a house without their help just because I signed some generic agreement that covered our relationship based on time (they would have a tough argument anyway, but you never know).
 
So what are the basic steps for buying a house without a realtor?

1. How do you go about writing the offer? Do you get a generic form off the internet and fill in the blanks?

2. I assume the buyer finds their own inspectors.

3. Does the seller engage the title co.?

Or does the seller's real estate agent facilitate most of the paperwork because they want the sale done asap?

This topic is really hard to research because of all the agents saying "someone representing them self has a fool of a lawyer," or "using an agent to buy a house is free! The seller is paying for it." There is a ton of b.s.
 
Realtors will tell you all kinds of lies because they have some sort of false entitlement that they are the only ones that can write up a contract and sell a house. That is complete BS. The contract is basically already written and all you have to do is fill in the blanks. You can go to the TREC website and get the blank forms. Check out the yellow pages for an inspector, they grow on trees. The seller's agent can give you recommendations of a title company (most likely one that they get some sort of kickback from) or you can also find one of those in the yellow pages (or on any street corner in a residential area for that matter). I cannot begin to describe how easy it is.
 
The ironic thing is that real estate agents are probably engaged in the unauthorized practice of law if they help you fill out the form. Under a rigid reading, so are doctors, insurance adjustors, ...lots of people when they advise you of your "rights" under a contract. I'm not advocating they shouldn't be able to help, but an attorney would probably charge 1/10th (if that much) of what an agent tries to make off of the deal.

One thing that always amuses the hell out of me is the TREC form have some boxes to be filled in with respect to the seller doing repairs. People frequently specify "lender-required" repairs be paid by the seller and then hire an inspector who tells tham ALL kinds of picky little **** that isn't right with a house. 3 times now buyers have tried to get me to pay for leaking faucets and the like and I tell them that unless they give me some sort of notice that the lender won't loan them the money without those repairs then I'm not listening. Agents get that clause wrong ALL THE TIME. It's not even a close call or anything that a 5th grader couldn't figure out.
 
A buddy of mine is a realtor. I completely forgot about that. I asked him and he said he would represent me in buy and sell with a 1% / 2% deal he does for friends. He will charge 1% on the buy and 2% on the sell (rather than 3%). He is with one of the big firms here in town. Net-net, I am basically saving 3%.

My mortgage broker has a title company he uses. We used an inspector for our current house and liked him. Would use him again.

My friend should help with the offer and negotiations. We are already talking about where we want to come in on the offer...

But some good info on this thread.
 
I sold a property to a couple without a realator and it was a horrible experince. I wont do it again. They were clueless and unforgiving.
 
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