question about buying house and realtors

robr

robr

Legendary Member
Joined
31 July 2001
Messages
5,194
Location
Boston, MA
I'm looking at buying a house and a realtor has provided me with access to her MLS database. I do all the looking myself and just contact her when I want to see something. Today she asked me to sign a contract that says she is my exclusive realtor... I can understand that, but there were a couple of things in the contract that raised a red flag for me and I'm wondering if it's standard industry practice. Those things are

1. No matter where I buy a house, even if it's 3000 miles from here, while I'm in a contact with her, I have to go to her and she will give me a realtor to use in the area I'm interested.

2. If I find a house on my own that's being 'sold by owner' and is not listed in MLS, I still have to go to her and the seller of that house has to pay her a cut or we don't do business (ie, most people that are for sale by owner are trying to avoid the realtors cut, in order for him to cover that, I imagine he'd have to raise the selling price and in the end I end up paying).

This is with RE/MAX. Do these kinds of things sound normal?

Thanks, first time home buyer here :).
 
Doesn't sound normal to me but that is in MA. I don't know the state laws and regulations, so maybe someone who is a realtor or broker in MA can chime in.

What is the time frame of the contract? Ask her if your not satisfied with her service, can you terminate the contract at any given time? She is not suppose to provide anyone with her password to mls. She is suppose to work for you and find you a house, not let you search for a house and get back to her..kinda on the lazy side.
 
That is what exclusive is. Which mean regardless of who found the property, the agent that you signed up with has a cut. In reality, the exclusive buying agent should work extra hard looking for the right property for you.....and not just give you access to MLS. First, he/she is lazy. Second, you shouldn't have access to the MLS as this access is granted to the agent only and NOT the buyer. I say, you shred that agreement and look for a better agent IF you are going exclusive. Otherwise, don't go exclusive....tell the agent, that you have another agent working for you becuase YOU WANT THE RIGHT HOUSE. :D
 
All the realtors around here set you up with your own MLS account with your own user ID and password, then can grant you various levels of access (ie no street addresses for example). I *LIKE* doing this myself, I know what we are looking for better than any realtor and just like having someone there if I have questions or need to see a property. This could take a long time to find the right place and I'd prefer not to be bothered. I set up MLS scripts to email me when properties come on the market that meet specific criteria.

I just wasn't sure about those other things I mentioned. I don't mind an exclusive deal for MLS listed homes in the area this realtor handles, but over and above that seems crazy. She wanted a six month deal and did say that if we didn't like each other then she'd just tear the thing up, but that's not in writing (and it may be that she does a good job for us but I find a for sale by owner, who knows).
 
As you have already stated, you probably don't have access to the agents names or owners on the MLS you're viewing. You must contact your agent to contact the other party.

I guess you could go knock on the door of the home, but the owner should refer you back to their agent, and then you must get your agent involved once again.

As far as the contract, why sign it? Do you think your agent will tell you to fly a kite if you don't sign it? Of course not. Your agent is attempting to lock you in with her and you have no obligation to agree to that. What happens if you're not happy with her at any point? You're legally stuck. For her to say "I'll tear it up" is very suspicious to me. What's the point of the contract then? I am also doubtful that such a contract could really be enforced anyway. If you found a FSBO yourself I would have a hard time believing the MA Dept of Real Estate (or whatever it is there) would award her any compensation in arbitration. She did no work--you found the home and negotiated the deal! I think that's an unenforceable contract designed to scare you.

I'm sure she will revoke your access to the MLS if you don't sign it, but then she'll have to actually do some work. If she tells you to work with someone else because of that, you don't want to be working with her in the first place.

On the other hand, listings are under contract because there are many expenses, often out-of-pocket, involved for the listing agent or broker. It would not be fair at all if a seller decides to cancel a listing after the agent has incurred such expenses and therefore a contract is needed. But representing buyers is a different story. Realtors lose buyers to For Sale By Owners and other agents all the time...that's the nature of the biz.

Do not feel that an exclusive contract is anything you need to sign. If she is not OK with working with you on your terms, find an agent who is. There are plenty out there.
 
A 90 day contract for your agent to serve as your exclusive buyers agent seems reasonable. Proving you access to MLS is also reasonable, at least here in North Carolina. I have had MLS access for almost two years now. I used it to find our current home, and I still use it for investment property. I prefer to do my own searches on MLS. That doesn't mean she is lazy. I am not a real estate agent, but I value their time, and I value my time as well. It lets you learn the market and find what you want rather than sitting in her car all day looking at things you're not interested in. Like you mentioned, it allows you to determine your search criteria and send you e-mails when new properties come on the market. It's a nice tool.

As a buyer's agent, she can provide you some valuable information regarding comps, contracts, inspection information, and serve as a go between with you and the seller, or the seller's agent which take the emotion out of buying/selling process.

Just write in the contract that if you find a FSBO that's not listed on MLS, your agent doesn't get a commission. (I doubt your going to find many of these unless you just happen to see a sign in the yard. Most FSBO are listed on the MLS.) In this area, most FSBO provide a commission to seller's agents. In fact, most smart FSBO provide a premium to agents if they are smart.

If you feel the person is trying to take advantage, just get a new agent. It seems wrong that a 6 month deal is being proposed, and that "...just rip it up..." is being mentioned. I would run from a person that talked like that. That doesn't seem professional at all.

Good luck.
 
Sounds pretty normal, however all things are negotiable. Here in Michigan it's a pain to go the by owner route unless you are willing to put in a bunch of time to show if you are the seller or search if you are the buyer. The agents around here have us by the balls, and many will not show a by owner home b/c that means that there's an agent out there somewhere not getting a cut that they would if they refered you to a listed house. Personally, I'm not a fan of realtors b/c from my perspective they get waaaay too much % for the ammount of time put into the house. Typical rates here are 3-4% for listing and 3-4% for selling. On a lower end $150,000 house, that's a chunk of change, and of course that also messes with how much you as an owner have to move to negotiate. I've had my house for sale for about a year now, I havn't been in a big hurry to sell so I've had my price on the higher side hoping someone would appreciate the extra's I've put into it. Now that I'm with an agent for listing, if I want to move the house quicker, I'll have to lower my price and then still pay around $10,xxxish in fees and commissions, thus leaving me with not as much as I'd hoped when I threw the by owner sign out there. All in all, I hate going through an agent, I would see if she will look for a house on your behalf without a contract and agree to give her a set % regardless if it's by owner or listed, tell her she has to earn it because that contract for houses far away from her sounds like hogwash.
 
Hi All,
I am a realtor myself. Here in WA, we do the work for our clients. I believe we are experts in this field therefore we perform the search and take care of all the legal paper works that's to a lot of buyers consider hassle and clueless.
Based on your info. sounds like your agent is just plain lazy and want to bind you to work with her regardless. I myself never had to have my clients sign an agency agreement contract, afterall they are the customer and they have all the rights being customers. I don't believe in binding someone to work with me if they are not happy. If I were to represent a buyer or seller, I first must perform my work to show that I am earning my commissions accordingly. FSBO is a great way for homeowners to save agents fees. But most of the times Realtors make a big difference in profit margins (although seller pays the fee). For example, if your house is in a cul-de-sac and you put up your FOR SALE sign expecting to attract a buyer. 99% of the times your neighbors are the only ones ever saw your ad. The multiple listing services is a great tool to sell homes regardless of locations. Home buyers don't always have the free time to drive around to look for the potential house themselves. So that's when we come in to do the researches and minimized the wasted times spending looking at un-suitable homes. Realtors can ask for outragous commission %, but at the end the seller sets the # they want to pay to the realtors. If every homeowner can sell their homes then we (realtors) will be unemployed by now. Look at Ebay, they've proved that the best market is on the net... more exposure means more competitions and thus creates better returns.

my dime
 
NSXGMS said:
As far as the contract, why sign it? Do you think your agent will tell you to fly a kite if you don't sign it? Of course not.
Click to expand...
Agree. While I have no professional real estate experience, anyone and everyone always 'asks' for what they want. What they will settle for is another story. It wouldn't hurt to cross off one or both the items you have a question about and submit it back for execution.
 
thanks for all the feedback. the FSBO stuff we find a lot of on craigslist and have looked at several FSBO houses. we've also looked at a couple on Isoldmyhouse.com but I understand that's not really entirely FSBO and those homes still appear to be listed on MLS.

I will not be signing the contract as it stands. She'll claim it's not her policy, it's REMAX's policy and if it's non-negotiable then I'll go elsewhere.
 
Rather than not signing it, which leaves the realtor hanging and disincentivized - I'd say sign it (perhaps with a better agent) BUT with a 4 week duration. THAT will make them work for you. Oh yeah, and NEVER EVER EVER agree to let them represent both buyer and seller. It simply can't be done, not to your best interest (but certainly to theirs!). If you go with a realtor, as buyer or seller, IMO go with a name company but a "second tier" agent. One that is kinda struggling to get business - and push them. Hard. I just went through a house sale process last fall, to very much success even w/ commission, because I pushed for everything and didn't take "no" from the agent. She hated me when all was said and done. :biggrin: But she got paid reasonably well and I got an above market price in a matter of weeks, with minimal risk. :biggrin:
 
Well, I really don't want the agent to do anything for me other than show me houses that *I* pick out of MLS and handle the deal once I'm ready to make an offer. As I said, I know far better than any realtor what I'm looking for, I don't have the time to be pestered by the realtor with calls and emails saying 'are you interested in this one?' and this could take months if not a year to find the right place. I basically don't want to hear from the realtor unless I contact her. I'd think I'd be a realtors dream :).
 
I buy and sell real-estate a lot, 3 to 4 transactions a month. I avoid realtors every chance I get. They may be worth the cost in other areas but around here they are not worth a dime. If a California realtor came out here to do business most realtors here would not have a job after a months time.
 
Rob - the realtors I've worked with can set up automatic emails in MLS to alert me of homes that meet my criteria. Any agent should be able to do that.

It's ridiculous that your agent can't do that and have to give you access to MLS. Makes me wonder about your agent in the first place.

I would NEVER sign that agreement. Find another agent who is hungrier, or won't tie you down to a 6 months contract. Flexibility NEVER hurt any one.
 
Still some confusion here.... I do have automatic emails from MLS. The agent set one up for me and also provided me with my own userID/pw to MLS. Once I'm in MLS I can set up my own queries or modify the one the realtor set up (though some parameters I have to ask them to change.. ie if I want to add towns or up my max price). Those then become available in the UI so I can select them when building my query.

Those are really the only tools I need to find property. I don't want the realtor to help me do that.
 
It looks like you still need to use a realtor via realtor.com and realtor.com also doesn't appear to supply you with addresses of the homes for sale. I like hitting the satellite and aerial photos to check out the area of a home I'm interested in before I drive over to look around.
 
I don't see a map option. I created an account and I'm logged in. I've selected a property and am in the details page. The only options I really see are:

Save This Listing
Send to a Friend
Send to your REALTOR®
Request a Showing
Printable Brochure
Change Assumptions
Check Local Rates
 
Hmmm I never created an account, but I never saved my listings - I just saved them as favorite URLs.

Here is the option for maps - you can zoom in / out once you click it.

Notice it also shows the address.

Perhaps the realtors in your area are bastards, and chose to hide the address / maps. In that case I'd be even further dis-incentivized to pay them to use MLS. FSBO all the way, baby.
 

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