Ok, we may have found our home this afternoon. Now, I found this home on my own without the aid of my agent friend. The seller is selling without an agent. Given the circumstances, how much would you pay the agent for representing you? If I throw in the selling of my property into the mix, meaning he can handle that as well what would be a fair amount to pay in terms of commission overall? Should it be say 5% on the selling of your property since that may mean another agent is involved or perhaps less for that part of the transaction and then compensate him for the help on the end side so maybe 5% or 6% total? Keep in mind the market we are in and I have done most of the legwork…
Flat fee.
Why are you selling your property? Thought the rule on this forum was buy and hold.
It sounds like you are doing a reverse exchange! Though I dont have experience, my thoughts are to keep the two transactions separate. Flat fee seems a good idea assuming you have a reliable realtor who may have to deal with unknowns since it is FSBO (hopefully straightforward but it may be optimistic to expect so).
Good luck @sfdragonboy. Hope you’ll share along the way how it goes for you.
You know more than most agents. Do your own transaction.
Why not use a RE attorney for it? It should only be a few hours of time. The title company will do most of the work. Paying a percent of BA home prices seems crazy. If you want to flush money down the toilet, there are more fun ways.
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The fact that you’re selling your home through him is probably bonus enough, but why not agree on a reasonable hourly wage or just a flat fee? Is $2K enough? How much time will the agent spend on it your purchase?
For me I don’t care about the % as much as the service they provide. Saving 1% sometimes can end up costly you 50-200k difference.
Congrats on finding the Home Sfdragon, let us know after it closes.
Thanks, All. I appreciate the compliments and while I did do the Fremont deal pretty much without any agent this one is more complex and frankly more expensive so having some representation may be wise. Well, I found a cooperative seller (in this market!!!) who would align with me for a straight 1031 exchange since she is also doing the same on her purchase (three-way action). @Terri, I am selling for many reasons including downsizing and wanting to use the capital gains 2/5 years tax law after I rent out the purchase property before moving in as my primary home. Fortunately that law did not change to 5/8 years which would have been a disaster to the housing market.
Now, my agent friend did find me my primary home off market though and at that time (2003) the Sunset market was also tough. I certainly made a fair amount of money on that deal from Day 1 so you could say I owe him one. I suppose whatever he thinks is fair for compensation I would go with. Maybe a flat fee for the initial and something less than full commission on the sale of mine.
I just need to think what my offer should be that will close the deal…
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So, no more posts about the Fab 7 x 7?
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Congrats on finding the deal you love, @sfdragonboy
This seems fair to me, I personally think you might not need the flat fees since you are giving him sales of your home but for relationship sake it is worth it.
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Keeping the Fab 7x7 home for now until move-in… so YES plenty of posts still to come. 
Congrats on finding the home. I would think flat fee for something you found is reasonable. Maybe 2-3k?
Thanks @intangible! The only hesitation I have is that it is not ideal but because I have a receptive seller to wanting to coordinate 1031 exchanges (hers and mine) I suppose I can’t complain too much. Yes, I feel I am paying a slight premium in that amenities of the property are not big deals for me but to others it may be so worth the extra money. I may still be in sticker shock state as to what homes cost these days so I better get that notion out of my head quick because the house will sell and will most likely sell for more. I just have to come around on it…
I will charge you $3k under my wife’s brokerage…
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Why worrying about capital gains?
I can make them disappear for 30 years. No worry about timing to buy a new property or to hold it in a 1031 for x years. The returns you could have with that money, oh boy…
Well, I pulled out of the deal so I am back hunting for another opportunity. At the end of the day, the house didn’t fit our true needs which the one big need is a large kitchen space for wifey. Kitchen expansion is not easily doable in this house. The other amenities of the home clouded my thinking when frankly they don’t mean as much to me as perhaps another buyer. What I am passing up of course is the opportunity to work with a seller who can accommodate my 1031 exchange which is huge. The house is nice, it should sell immediately to the next person the seller talks to. Oh well, we continue on with the networking…
That’s a bummer. I am sure you’ll find something better.
If you don’t mind my asking, how do you find these off-market opportunities?
I network with as many RE agents as I can (so, I go to the open houses and try to be mindful of who are the ones with the listings a la The Machine in the Sunset for example) and hopefully they come across something that is about to come onto the market that fits my criteria. My carrot to them is the opportunity to sell my property if they find me something so 1.5 transactions is the carrot. Now this one I did find on Zillow as a sold by owner so if you check since it is active you will probably see what I saw. You can imagine how many calls the seller got…probably over a hundred. Not guaranteed, but it was my understanding that if I gave her what she asked for, the house was mine. It was tough to email the seller that I was bailing out but honestly she will sell for more and probably way more if agent handled. The thing is, if it were my first house yeah I probably would have jumped at the opportunity but because I should know better by now (and lucky I came to my senses as to what we really need in our next home) I think I made the right move.
Wow, that’s too bad… though I can see how having a great kitchen would make or break the deal if that’s where you were planning to spend your golden years. Is the house in a very popular area (just curious)? And I wonder if the seller already purchased her exchange prop/s?