An agent who works for the seller is called the listing agent. The work that they were hired for includes:
- Helping you set the price of your home.
- Collecting and making sure the information about the house is correct including the information sheet on the house, lead based paint disclosure, sellers disclosure.
- Creating the marketing plan, implementing the same thing, following up on the results and providing that information to you.
- Presenting offers on the property to you and explaining each one.
- Negotiating on your behalf with any prospective buyer or buyer’s agent.
- Processing all the paperwork for your side of the transaction
- Following up with the other agent to ensure that the buyer is completing all of their paperwork and obligations to the lender and title company.
- Coordinating the closing and accompanying you to it.
- Providing all the necessary access to the property that the buyer may need for their inspections and such.
- Making sure the buyer has the keys and any other things such as the garage door openers, so that the buyer can take possession after the closing has been finished.
Selling - How Does An Agent Work for You?
So, you’ve gotten an offer on your home, and it reads like Russian. Your agent is telling you to accept it and you don’t even know what it says. The builder of your new home is almost finished and wants to set the closing date, and by the way you removed the financing contingency so that he would start the building process immediately, which means that you have to close when your new home is done whether the one your living in is sold or not, so the probability is good that you may end up next month with 2 house payments and to finish it all off your child was having difficulty in school and you decided to put to put him in a private school this year and the tuition is due by the end of the month. Welcome to the world of most sellers. Under pressure, can’t afford to make a mistake, trying to figure out what is the best way to sort this offer out, and it seems like just yesterday the idea of selling the house and building a new one was such a great one. HELP!
The first thing to do is get out a piece of paper and pencil to sort out the new offer. The object is this exercise is to take the offer and break it down into something you can understand, as in: How much moneyam i going to have left when this is over!
The important things to write down: {my opinion of how to look and assess each of these will follow in capitals}
The asking price: the operative word is “asking”, meaning the final price will go up or down based upon what they offered you and what additional costs they want you to pay for them. Don’t worry about the house appraising out to the final sales price, we’ll deal with that later
Commission cost based upon the sale price. Take the percentage you agreed to pay and multiply it by the sale price
Repair costs to your home required by inspections by the purchaser or municipality that you live in. (Always estimate them at about $1000) no home is perfect and anticipating that there will be something wrong with your home is just smart planning. For instance, what if the gas company finds a crack in your heat exchanger, or termites are having a feast in your basement? Boom that grand is gone in the blink of an eye, and the old argument that you’ll sell it to someone else or you’ll sell it to the next sucker “as is”, just got flushed down the toilet because now that you are aware of the problems you are required by law to disclose them to the next purchaser.
Closing and loan commitment dates the closing date will determine when the cost of the home will cease for you, let you know when you will receive your money and just as importantly whether you may owe a dditional months interest to your lender because many loans have a clause in them that says if they do not receive the payoff of your loan by a certain day that you automatically owe them a additional months interest. No kidding! What a rip-off, but we still have to deal with it. This rule especially applies to fha and va loans.
Any closing costs or fees that you agree to pay for the buyer; are you out of your mind terry? I’m not paying any stinking closing costs for the buyer! If the bum’s don’t have enough money to buy a home they shouldn’t be out there looking. Why, when i bought my home….get the picture? Let’s change it. When you bought a home it was required that you come up with all of the downpayment and closing costs or you were allowed to get some money from your family. Home ownership was limited to the lucky few. Those rulses have all changed now to where many loans are designed to circumvent that problem opening up the oppurtunity of home-ownership to a much larger pool of people, one of which is the person wanting to buy your home. If a buyer wants you to pay some of their costs to buy your home, all that’s necessary is calculate how much they are asking for and add it to the amount you want from them for your home. In essence what they are doing is borrowing the
closing costs or downpayment or both into their loan amount! Who cares how they get their money as long as you get the amount you wanted for your home. Times have changed and you have to change your attitude with them or be left behind.
The first thing to do is get out a piece of paper and pencil to sort out the new offer. The object is this exercise is to take the offer and break it down into something you can understand, as in: How much moneyam i going to have left when this is over!
The important things to write down: {my opinion of how to look and assess each of these will follow in capitals}
The asking price: the operative word is “asking”, meaning the final price will go up or down based upon what they offered you and what additional costs they want you to pay for them. Don’t worry about the house appraising out to the final sales price, we’ll deal with that later
Commission cost based upon the sale price. Take the percentage you agreed to pay and multiply it by the sale price
Repair costs to your home required by inspections by the purchaser or municipality that you live in. (Always estimate them at about $1000) no home is perfect and anticipating that there will be something wrong with your home is just smart planning. For instance, what if the gas company finds a crack in your heat exchanger, or termites are having a feast in your basement? Boom that grand is gone in the blink of an eye, and the old argument that you’ll sell it to someone else or you’ll sell it to the next sucker “as is”, just got flushed down the toilet because now that you are aware of the problems you are required by law to disclose them to the next purchaser.
Closing and loan commitment dates the closing date will determine when the cost of the home will cease for you, let you know when you will receive your money and just as importantly whether you may owe a dditional months interest to your lender because many loans have a clause in them that says if they do not receive the payoff of your loan by a certain day that you automatically owe them a additional months interest. No kidding! What a rip-off, but we still have to deal with it. This rule especially applies to fha and va loans.
Any closing costs or fees that you agree to pay for the buyer; are you out of your mind terry? I’m not paying any stinking closing costs for the buyer! If the bum’s don’t have enough money to buy a home they shouldn’t be out there looking. Why, when i bought my home….get the picture? Let’s change it. When you bought a home it was required that you come up with all of the downpayment and closing costs or you were allowed to get some money from your family. Home ownership was limited to the lucky few. Those rulses have all changed now to where many loans are designed to circumvent that problem opening up the oppurtunity of home-ownership to a much larger pool of people, one of which is the person wanting to buy your home. If a buyer wants you to pay some of their costs to buy your home, all that’s necessary is calculate how much they are asking for and add it to the amount you want from them for your home. In essence what they are doing is borrowing the
closing costs or downpayment or both into their loan amount! Who cares how they get their money as long as you get the amount you wanted for your home. Times have changed and you have to change your attitude with them or be left behind.
