Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

DH and I are now ready to really go through with putting our home on the market. We live in FL and I know most of you are in NY, but I thought I could get some insight from you guys anyway...

Homeowners/Sellers:

What % commission did you give your realtor? On top of that, what are seller's closing costs roughly??

Has anyone try to sell by owner? I'm not sure I want to go that route, but if it worked for you i'd like to hear about the process.


Realtors:

We are doing a regular sale, not a short sale or foreclosure like most homes down here. We want to make some profit and are thinking of 4% commission for our realtor, but is that insulting? Is it usually 6%?

Do you think a lot of realtors will treat a home differently that is offering 4% commission than one that is offering 6%?

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

We are selling now in NJ and our realtor is getting 5%. If there buyer was also they client then the commission would have gone down to 4.5 or 4.

I would meet with the realtors and let them tell you there fees. Once you find one you feel confident with see if you can negotiate it down.

I will say though, once I found how the commission gets split I really felt bad for ever negotiating in the first place. The realtor doesn't get that 4% lets say. Out of the 4%, a percentage goes to the company say Prudential, then another percentage goes to the broker if the agent is working under one. They really don't walk away with as much as you think. Now, this is how it was explained to me but I could have mis understood.

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

I know, they only get like half, it gets split with the buyers agent, etc. We spoke to a realtor a while back when we were thinking of selling (it's the same guy who helped us buy our house 4 years ago) and he said 6%, but we can do whatever we want and that most do betwen 4 and 6.

I don't want to insult by saying 4, but between 4 and 6 is a difference of $4-5k in profit (which would be a lot of it).

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

I wouldn't try to sell it on your own.

First of all, it's been shown via studies that sellers who work with a realtor wind up getting more $ -- something like 16% more, I think was the recent stat (I need to look it up to be sure!). So even if you pay a 4% to 6% commission, you still come out ahead of the game by 10-12%. I think the reason why for sale by owners don't sell for as much is that they usually wind up selling to a family member or friend, if the owner successfully sells their own home (most of the time, they can't sell it and wind up eventually listing with a realtor). But when you sell to someone you know or a friend of a friend, it's not a true arms' length transaction, and you usually don't get top dollar.

Also, there are other considerations:

1) Marketing: A homeowner cannot do the type of widespread marketing that a realtor can. The more buyers you reach with your marketing, the better your chance of getting an offer and getting the highest offer possible. Whatever marketing you do as a homeowner, you need to pay for it out of pocket. You don't pay a realtor a dime unless the property sells! And if you list with a big company, like Century 21, we have substantial marketing resources.

2) Access to the House: Do you work? Is someone going to be home to show the house whenever someone wants to see it? People need to be able to get in to the home in order to see it/want to buy it. And this means waiting around weekends, etc. for buyers who may or may not show. Or having people knock on your door at inconvenient times and want to take a look, which leads me to...

3) Safety/security: Are you comfortable with random strangers coming into your home? For sale by owners are targets for those who are up to no good. People can come in and distract you in one room, while a partner steals your jewelry upstairs. Or they can leave a window open, watch for you to leave, and come burglarize your home later. People tend to feel safe in their own homes and let their guard down. If you were at home alone or by yourself with your children (if you have them), would you feel safe letting someone (or a group of people? men?) in whom you've never met before? What would you do if someone came in and made you feel uncomfortable while you were there alone? I am not saying this to scare you, but I truthfully think it can be very unsafe to have strangers come unaccompanied into your home, versus having licensed realtors bring in qualified buyers. We've all heard the Craig's List horror stories. In my office, we always have 2 agents work each open house for many reasons, but safety is one of them.

And these are just a few of the reasons I think it doesn't make sense to try to sell your home yourself. There are other benefits to having a realtor.

As far as commission -- I agree with a pp -- see what a realtor asks for, and you can always negotiate from there. My commission varies based on the property, the marketing plan, and other factors.

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

Thanks Christine! We talked last night and are definitely going to go with a realtor. We both work full time and are very active at night and on the weekends so it would be hard to sit home and wait to show the house, etc.

Also, we live in a gated community so it's not like people will be driving by and see that it's for sale. They would have to see it online first or through their realtor, so having the most marketing we can get makes sense.

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

You're welcome!

And as far as your question about realtors treat a house with a lower commission v. a higher commission differently --

No matter what, the listing agent is going to want to sell the house. He/she doesn't get paid if the house doesn't sell! But there may be certain marketing tools and techniques or services that they will eliminate if they take a house at a significantly lower commission. It depends on the agent and how they work, so it's hard to generalize, but you definitely want to find out what each agent you talk to is offering, and how that may change if you negotiate a lower service fee with them.

And keep in mind -- do you care about paying the lowest fee, or do you care about getting the most money in your pocket? Sometimes a "discount broker" who doesn't have much to offer in the way of marketing or services will offer to take a low fee (and as far as what is low, it really varies by region), but they won't do anything for you. If another agent charges a higher service fee, but does more for you and is more effective in marketing, negotiating, etc., you will probably come out ahead anyway, despite paying a % or two more! For example, if we are talking about a $500K house, the agent with more to offer/better skills who charges more may get you $10K more at the end of the day, which will more than offset the 1% difference ($5K) in fee. You will wind up with $5K more than you would have had with the "cheapest" agent that may have less to offer. Just another way of looking at it.

Finally, find out whether whoever you list it with will be offering out the standard commission on MLS to cooperating brokers. For example, on LI, we typically offer out 2%. So if a listing agent says they will take less overall commission, but will only offer out 1%, that will hurt you if there are a lot of similar properties on the market. There won't be any incentive for agents to bring buyers to your home then. And with a property that may be a tough sell, or where the owner needs to sell quickly, sometimes it makes sense to offer out a little more (e.g., 2.5%) than usual to drive traffic through the door, or to at least have that option to go to if necessary.

Re: Those who have sold/are selling their home (and also realtors!!), I need some help with this..

Since I looked to buy property in FL. I can tell you that I ONLY will deal with a buyer's agent as a buyer.

I won't even deal with For sale By Owner. From personal experience, it's nightmare!

Commissions vary slightly by States/areas.

I would hire a go getter realtor only. You have A LOT of competition so do your own homework and see the comps.

That being said, you house is GORGEOUS and WILL appeal to many potential buyer. Just price it right that it won't turn people away. But do expect people to try to get it for nothing since the FL market is saturated with houses, house for rent, short sales/foreclosures.