From: dim@soda.csua.berkeley.edu (D. Gerasimatos)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Ended up buying my roomie's condo. Should I compensate buyer's agent?
Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 10:21:12 -0700 (PDT)

In article , Lady  wrote:
>"sylvan butler"  wrote in message 
>news:slrne7jkbo.1c6.ZsdbUse1+noZs_0605@sdba64.internal...
>> On Sat, 27 May 2006 19:27:41 GMT, Lady  wrote:
>>> You can ask anything you want - doesn't mean it will happen -- if I was
>>> selling a condo without an agent and someone came in and made and offer 
>>> and
>>> expected me to pay the fee I would not accept the offer -- if I wanted to
>>> pay a agent I would not have listed it as a for sale by owner!
>>
>> Perhaps you would pay if you wanted to sell.
>>
>I still stand by my initial post -- there is a reason people sell as a For 
>Sale By Owner -- they do not want to pay commission -- if I put my place on 
>the market as a for sale by owner and someone brings along their own agent 
>and the agent wants a fee -- then the person coming along can pay the 
>fee --- I would NOT pay the fee -- if I wanted to pay a fee I would have put 
>the place on the market with an agent so I wouldn't be doing all the work 
>myself -- if I am doing all the work (showing the place, etc) then I am NOT 
>paying someone else a fee! 


This is why FSBOs usually end up selling for a lot less, if they sell at
all. The seller thinks he is going to save the commission. The buyers
think that the seller should share some of that savings. When you are
the listing agent (the owner) you are not doing "all the work". You are
doing about half the work (give or take depending on the strength of the
market). I know that producing a buyer seems like "no work" to you, the
owner, but brokers (you know, people actually in the business) feel that
the cooperating agent (the buyer's agent) is worth 50% or more of their
commission. If they thought they were doing "all the work" they would not
willingly part with such a percentage of their commission. It is more than
reasonable to pay the buyer's agent a fee. You are still saving money
because you don't have to pay a listing agent. To do otherwise is just
greedy and greedy people often get burned.


Dimitri