I found that website and it was very interesting and helpful to me. Why do you disagree?

No link for me

I would appreciate an agent who looked beyond their job description to guide me in issues related to my property purchase.

If he or she has the understanding from previous client's experiences that a particular lender tends to charge $700 in pure profit junk fees and didn't tell me that it would be in my best interest to question fees "1, 2, and 5", I would feel betrayed. Or, let's say the realtor has heard a rumor that a chicken rendering plant is eyeing, although hasn't offered on, land adjacent to property I'm interested in. If he/she doesn't tell me about that rumor, I would feel more than betrayed -- that would be a lawsuit in the making if I purchased the property just to find out that my new neighbor was going to be a slaughter house.

I compare this to a cop who sees me on a road that has flooded out in a few miles away and decides not to tell me because the road I'm currently on is totally dry and I may turn off at the one intersection between here and there. Maybe he figures that, if I stall out my car there, I'll be in the neighboring county's jurisdiction and not his problem. Or, maybe he figures that I'll see the flooding and turn around on my own, so why bother himself by stopping me to let me know?

Yeah, all three are examples of unethical behavior.

That's the thing about so many of these articles & books about how to keep your agent honest or on her toes or whatever;
they're based on the idea that the agent is somebody sort of like God, all-powerful & all-knowing, only basically lazy & dishonest, & therefore the smart client will emand the most off-the-wall things, & if they don't get them, it's because the agent is a dirty rotten scoundrel.

Closing costs, be they appraisals or recording fees or junk fees, are subject to negotiation, although FHA & VA regulations prohibit buyers from paying junk fees.

If the seller doesn't pay those fees, the loan doesn't close.

It also advises a seller to insist that all offers be submitted directly to the seller, to prevent the agent from sitting on an offer until (s)he can get a buyer client to make an offer.

Withholding an offer not only will put a real estate license at risk, it just isn't likely to happen, since so many buyers have their own agents today & those agents will be sure to get an acknowledgement & response from the seller's agent asap.

The seller's agent should make sure that the contract is in order & that the appropriate addenda & supporting documents are included, & *then* the agent works up a net sheet & timetable & presents the offer to the seller.

Both these suggestions from the site direct a seller's attention & anxieties (which we all have) to...things that aren't really there.

It's always good to know more rather than less, but I wouldn't recommend relying on that site for enlightenment.

**Fixed the link in the original post**

What I disagreed with is the REA's involvement in the buyer's financials. I'm not aware of seller junk fees - I thought they were all buyer junk fees associated with their loan.
So, I expect my buyers to get pre-approved by a lender or be working on it. Every blog and article out there tells potential buyers to do this before starting to look at homes (which is where I come in).
I might give some extremely general advice about credit score, savings, shopping around online or using a broker, and negotiating fees. Anything specific will get me into trouble because I am not a licensed mortgage broker or financial advisor - so I try to stay out of that completely. I know I can never, ever mention a % rate.
In my very tiny amount of experience (my buyers tend to have excellent credit, higher income, savings, NOT first time homeowners), I know I can ask, "Are you paying any points for that rate?" and they'll know what I'm talking about.
I'm sure there are buyers who won't know, and those I'd need to steer them towards some education. For example, my credit union offers outstanding free lectures on buying a home (which are really about getting a mortgage) and for attending you get a $500 credit coupon off the origination fee, good for six months.
The only time I got involved with the loan company was when my buyer was rather...unresponsive. He was unable to answer his phone at work and did not respond to texts or VMs reliably. So in the last few days, I was calling the loan agent to ensure they were getting all the stuff from him that they needed so that we would close on time. But I didn't get involved in the numbers.

Yes, got the link ok, and I think everyone looking to buy/sell a home/property should read this. BUT, read it for information only, for you to do the research, not set in stone reading. Not being familiar with rules and regulations of the field, to me it is a guide to protect me. I feel some agents posting on this forum are better informed than others. and do offer some valuable advice. Wish I had this forum when I sold in the west coast. 14 years ago. The third and final agent was terrific.

This is the stuff that burns me! In this internet age, we don't steer clients to or from properties. As for pricing, we want the house to sell. Over or under pricing does nothing to help us, as the market and appraisals determine this in the end.

What I found interesting was all of the information about the motive for agents to price a home too low, and how a seller can overcome that. I also found the related sites, the FSBO primer and the one about asking for a commission refund for buyers to be interesting.

There is a corresponding evil in listing agents who price too high in order to get the listing and then have to lower the seller's expectations when the house doesn't get any interest. There is an agent in our area who is known for listing way high.

Another one I've seen here is the listing agent who also has a buyer -- and then doing things like saying they don't need an inspection or picking the inspector -- and the buyer doesn't find out about what should have been obvious problems.

What do you say if sellers don't disclose existing major issues and their agent is aware of this, too?

Lascatx - I know of which you speak (#1 evil). I'd talked to two or three different sellers in my neighborhood a few years ago that each interviewed several agents and chose their agent because they agreed to list at the price they wanted. The agent in question was one of those that did such things to get the listing, and just as expected, told the seller two weeks later that they needed to drop the price. And the same thing two weeks after that, until eventually the price was right where some of the other agents had suggested, only now it had been sitting on the market for six weeks with barely a showing.

On a similar note, but more on the seller than the agent, a friend/mentor asked me to co-list a property with her (I don't normally do listings, but thought it would be a good experience). I did all my research and thought it would be a stretch to list the condo at $90K - it had been far overimproved and other identical but original condos had sold for between $50-70K.
At the listing appointment, where I just took pictures and listened in, the seller wanted something like $135K (apparently thinking he could re-coup all his remodeling expenses) and they agreed on $125K.
I told her that was crazy and that it wasn't a good idea for me to do this - my goal is to sell homes, not just list them for eternity - so I was out.
I checked the listing periodically for months...at around the 9 month point it was still on the market for under $100K but the market had dropped further, and they weren't going to catch up.
You might blame the agent here, but honestly it was the seller being completely unrealistic and he had an attitude that I doubt she could've talked sense into him. She should've walked away as well.
It could very well be a seller like this making statements about "agents trying to price their homes too low".

Any agent, listing or buyer's rep, who doesn't stress an inspection, is wrong. Even if it's new construction, I don't care - there isn't a perfect home.
But, buyers need to realize that they get what they pay for. I recommended a couple of inspection companies to a buyer (the one I used for my own home and a personal investment property, and another one that has a good reputation around here), but, of course, told him that he could choose any inspector he wanted. And he chose the cheapest one he could find on the internet. The @#$% report was the most difficult and illogical thing to read through, and failed to mention the BROKEN GLASS in the bedroom window that could be clearly seen (from my house!!! two doors down!!!) Ugh!!! Fortunately, that was an "obvious" problem that we noted on the walk-through so it had already been taken into account. But all I could think was, what else did they miss?

C9-- I agree that agents being willing to list too high just to later lower the price is not cool.

However, on the flip side, one of the reasons we chose to go FSBO was that the agents we interviewed seemed reluctant to price where we wanted and used comps we felt were not very comparable to our house. We ended up feeling like they were interested in a lightening fast sale while we were in no rush and preferred to get top dollar. We were told to list at 270 or 290. We listed at 315 and got 310 after six weeks. By that time other agents had told us that 315 was the perfect listing price.

If at the beginning the agents we interviewed had listened to us and been more gung-ho about our desired price point they would be collecting a commission.

So, I agree with you but think it can go both ways.

3PinkTrees -
Unfortunate that you couldn't find an agent to price your home right - but of course, you are knowledgeable & savvy enough to do a FSBO, so that was obviously the way to go. Too many inexperienced folks try FSBO and end up with an agent in the end, or they're like so many sellers who insist their home is worth more than it really is because they did this or that, which in the end doesn't actually increase the value of their home to anybody else.
Anyhow, your story is somewhat market dependent. I sold a home (using a lawyer to write up the contract to my tenants) in a hot market that was pretty much going up $10K a week. Seriously, when the buyers had to extend the contract for their loan approval, I could have not signed the extension and put the house on the market for $50K more than contract price from five weeks prior (but I would have lost most of it in commission, and they knew it).

C9-- I do think it has to do with market hotness and such. However, I think the bigger problem is that as a seller it's hard to feel like my priorities are in line with the agent. I realize a good agent should pay attention to the seller in this regard, but I think it is challenging even for an excellent agent to prioritize top dollar sale price over a quick and easy sale. I also realize that for many sellers, the quick and easy sale is what's most important. However, we got the impression that the agents we interviewed (and these were agents with excellent reputations) had a hard time understanding that we didn't mind at all waiting all summer for a buyer if it meant getting 20k more for our house. Which, incidentally, only means 500 extra dollars for the agent before the broker gets their cut (5% is the norm here split between the buyer and seller agents).

Nosoccormom, we actually had that issue when we bought this house -- and it got washed through a relocation package for the seller so we bought as is. An inspection can only turn up so much. We found evidence or plumbing/water problems in at least three areas of the house. One involved jack hammering up part of our slab and finding that a 6-8 foot length of drain pipe had never been sealed on either end. Over time, it filled in and nothing would drain. That required ripping out everything in out half bath and them some. Fortunately the section was not in the front hall or DR as originally suspected. Another was an improper drain from the toilet above our master bath -- had to take out the entire ceiling and repair/rerun the line -- after "brown water" was dripping through to our bathroom. The other was in the wall between the kitchen and LR -- that got fixed when we redid our kitchen, but my son couldn't use his bathroom sink for a while. Fortunately, that was a jack and jill bath and he had the other sink to use. And we knew we were going to be doing work in the kitchen. We suspected some known repair issues with our prevois house, but these were all worse than those.

I found records (law suit, complaints, letters, etc.) against the HOA regarding a substantial defect, actually the main reason why the seller wanted to sell. The REA was very much aware of this. When I canceled the sale, they turned around and sold it to another buyer.

Well reading the listing agreement my realtor sent I now I see the reasons for listing low. The realtor is entitled to commission if they can bring a buyer who will pay listing price. That makes it clear -- the realtor has a major financial incentive to list low.

The realtor is entitled to a commission no matter what the price. We have a financial incentive to list at the correct price. We don't want your house to sit on the market. We are trying to get you to be realistic. If a list price is too low for the market, multiple buyers often bid on it and raise the price. The price ultimately is what the market will bear and what someone is willing to pay for it.

This post was edited by mpinto on Mon, May 26, 14 at 22:49