Zillow offer, now what?

[OLDNEWBIE]

Location x 3!

We got a solid offer very close to asking price on our house after only 3 days posting it by ourselves on Zillow. And we were asking at or even above some recent sold comps!

The pre-qualified buyers are with a realtor but even with us paying her half commission or 3% we will come out fine as these people will have no contingencies like pending sale of their home.

That is worth a lot as we are now on a deadline with our move out of state.

The offer/ sellers agreement seems pretty straight forward and acceptable to us. We have less than 24 hours to respond.

Do I need representation? or is a basic contract a basic contract? It is basically a fill in the blanks form. Pending inspection if they choose, Title search and earnest money from them etc.
Who pays what is clearly spelled out.
We have bought sold and bought before. All with a realtor.
This time the house/ location sold itself and getting a realtor seemed an extra expense.


Anybody here ever got burned/regret selling a house without representation? Seems the risk is mostly on the buyers side. What have I got to lose?

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[Nick Burkhardt]

It has been a while since I have bought or sold anything, but it YOU are paying the Realtor half her commission, then she has a fiduciary duty to you. Others can chime in, I have to take the kids to the movies now.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

She has the Realtors oath not to be a liar etc. but she does represent her clients as I understand it.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Normally the seller has a realtor who gets/charges 6%. That realtor splits the commission with a competing realtor if they bring a buyer.

In this case I am playing Realtor for the seller who is me. And I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn so I may be over my head here!

 

[Larrytpdx]

You can get a R.E. Atty to look it over for you for a few hundred dollars . Much less than a R.E. agent commission.

 

[kilimanjaro]

You can take your contract to your attorney and have him review it, pay his fee, and either accept it or negotiate.

Last house I sold my attorney did the entire closing and escrow for $1500 total. No realtor, no title company except for the title policy. Sold before I formally put it up for sale, so no realtor for the buyer, either. Saved big bucks on commissions and phony title company charges.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

You can get a R.E. Atty to look it over for you for a few hundred dollars . Much less than a R.E. agent commission.

I guess we could put that as a contingency in our counter offer. That would give us time to line things up. I tried to line one up ahead of time but the one I called charged by the hour and seemed uninterested. Then things moved real fast.

 

[kilimanjaro]

Larry, you beat me to it! Good man.

 

[Larrytpdx]

Dont let their agent suck you in for 1/2 her commission. There are plenty of R.E Attys in Eugene who would love to help you. Or in Portland.

 

[Larrytpdx]

Remember, they came to YOU so you are in the catbirds seat!

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Unfortunately the buyers signed a contract with the Realtor. If we go with these buyers she comes with the package.
We are going to attempt to reduce her commission a bit.

 

[Larrytpdx]

Unfortunately the buyers signed a contract with the Realtor. If we go with these buyers she comes with the package.

They signed the contract, not you. Let them pay the commission.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

They signed the contract, not you. Let them pay the commission.

Our counter offer to them will reflect some of the added cost of bringing in a realtor.

 

[jbett98]

I would talk to a local escrow company and see if they will handle your private "Fee Simple Absolute" transfer of ownership.
The sale will more then likely be handled through an escrow company anyway, so why not ask their lawyers for advice.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Normally a homeowner lists their house with an agent at a local office for a commission of 5% to 6%. That agent is then responsible for marketing the house. Usually an agent from a different firm brings the buyer and both offices split the commission so each gets 3% of the sales price. Unless they are the owner of the firm or principal broker, each agent has to split the commission again with their respective offices so the agents only end up with 1.5% of the sales price each.

This agent is wants the whole enchilada even though she only brought the buyer and is not working for you. She can legally lie to you. Here is the ORS http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/696.810

 

[Goosebrown]

It sounds great, but I hate to say that it might be too good. A 24 hour response time and the offer came on Saturday? I am a pessimist, but if its bona fide, can't they wait for Monday for you to get some advice?

 

[Poseidon]

I am a Realtor and have been for over a decade. If you want someone to talk some stuff through without charging you, you can give me a call.

 

[mjbskwim]

You can get a R.E. Atty to look it over for you for a few hundred dollars . Much less than a R.E. agent commission.

Poseidon will probably agree,most in real estate will tell you a lawyer will f@&k up a real estate deal .
But with that said,if I didn't have a Realtor I would want a lawyer.
I'd nix the 24hr BS,especially without a agent on your side. They'll want the house anyway or have a deal going on another one also. You blink and they're gone
It's hard for me to say slow it down cause I hate selling stuff and will give the first person with money a good deal to get done with it. But I don't like the pushy 24hr BS
Oh and good luck
Oh yeah make the buyer pay the agent

 

[clearconscience]

There are some things that can go really wrong in a sale if you are not represented or you don't have someone watching your back.

At a minimum I would meet with a R.E. Atty.
sometimes paying the commission to a realtor is cheaper than getting sued.

Call Poseidon, free advice will never hurt.
Maybe send him a box of ammo for his troubles!

 

[The Heretic]

I've only bought a house once and not sold any yet, but in my experience it is the buyer's agent who puts in the time limit on the response. I wanted to give them more time but my agent said 48 hours was customary.

Also, during the process, the sellers and/or their agent or my agent, was out of town or not easily available.

If you respond with a counter-offer that means that you don't accept their offer and it restarts the clock. If you put in a contingency that you need time to consult with a lawyer/consultant/etc. and that this must happen on a business day, and that any future offers must take this into account, then they can adjust their offerings in the future or not - but at that point if they insist on being obstinate about time limits, you can just reject their offer and move on to the next buyer - selling/buying a house is enough of a hassle without dealing with people who want to play hardball.

I made a somewhat lowball offer on a house/property and the owners rejected it without a counter-offer, but they did send a message through their realtor that they wouldn't entertain offers below $420K which was above what I wanted to pay, so we went our separate ways (they took their house off the market some months after that). That's fine.

The market is hot right now. You don't have to accept the first offer.