If
you are selling your own home and have a
newspaper advertisement or a for sale by
owner sign you will undoubtedly get many
calls and unexpected visits from
real estate agents. This will happen even
if you say "no agents" in your
advertisement, I guess they can't read
very well.
"If"
you decide to let
them into your home, they will smile and
talk nice "like a
stripper giving a lap dance".
But
like a person of the night, most are not
interested in you, only your money! They
see dollar signs and will tell you what
you want to hear. It's up to you whether
you want to cooperate with them, meaning
if they bring you a client with an offer,
you pay them a fee.
This
is dangerous ground for the private
seller. Personally, if I received such an
offer I would say, "sure bring me an
offer and I'll pay you $500 or
$1,000". If it's a legitimate offer
then be sure to have your lawyer or
notary look at it first, before signing.
Most times propositions like this are not
sincere and the real estate agent is
fishing for a listing or a way to get
their foot in the door, so be careful.
New
real estate agents are commanded to "descend
on for sale by owners"
like a bunch relentless Jehovah's
witnesses.
They
don't usually know what they are doing
and will say almost anything to get a
listing. Think about it, they stand to
earn $7 to $20 thousand dollars for your
business. And in times of a hot market
they might be able to turn that over in a
very short period of time without much
effort or incurring expenses.
The
shark versus the for sale by owner.
Some experienced agents specialize in
finding FSBO's and flipping them into
listings. Watch for these ones, they are
tricky. Some will say they have a buyer
and get you to sign a 2, 3, or 7 day
listing. Most times this is BS as they
don't have a buyer but it's a way to get
familiar,( notice the second part of
familiar is "liar" ), with you
and try to build some rapport. The next
step goes like this, "unfortunately
my buyer did not materialize but now that
we have come this far Mr. for sale by
owner why don't we make the 7 day listing
into a 90 listing". At which
point you will get the whole song and
dance and may feel obligated to proceed.
Some
"FSBO specialists" will
tell you that your home is worth much
more than you have it listed for
privately and ask, "why you are
selling so cheaply"? The scam here
is to get the listing at a high price and
after it does not sell or nobody is
looking at it then your "friendly
broker" will ask the private home
seller to reduce the price to where the
market is, over and over again until it
sells.
Why
do real estate agents get into the
business, in my experience, it is
for the money! Look they will
tell you otherwise, I need a new career,
I want to help people, I want to be
independent etc. But know what likely
motivated them in the first place was
they knew someone that sold a house and
paid the agent, $15,000. They
thought..hmmm, I want to get me some of
that. This is particularly relevant when
you are selling your home by owner and
know what motivates some of them.
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