Real Estate help needed

It is all negotiable between you and the buyer. However, because this is more of a buyer's market right now, you may be stuck with more of the fees.

Also, is a lwayer needed for a real estate transaction if I have a purchase offer?

Lawyer that is.

It is never a bad idea to get a lawyer. Think of it like an insurance policy-- you are insuring that the transaction is handled correctly. Your car is worth-- what 10k$, 50k$???-- and you insure that. How much is your real estate transaction worth?

I recommend looking for a solo real estate transaction practitioner who has been in business for at least 7-10 years.

what area are you in? if you are in my area I can recommend a lawyer (not me) to help you.

Ithaca NY

What is a typical fee for a RE lawyer, say on a 100k sell?

That'd be a miss by about 3000 miles. Sorry. Good luck. If you go without a lawyer, do yourself a big favor and document everything, every little agreement needs to be on paper, signed and copied for both parties.

You sellin' the Hot Truck? Or the Rongo'?

?

Oi... You say you are from Ithaca, you refer to "Uncle Ezra" (and EVERYONE knows that that means CORNELL); I was merely referencing two well-known properties: the ever-parked "hot truck" and T-burg's Rongovian Embassy (I could have chosen a local vineyard, I suppose).

It was a (failed) attempt to at one blow show solidarity with the good people of the Finger Lakes region, while also wondering (archly) whether you were a local real-estate/commercial property mogul... (e.g., Mr. Wegman himself...)

Never mind...

get a lawyer to help you.

he will NOT do anything to get a buyer, that is your job (or the job of the real estate agent), but he can put the contract together, make sure the paper work gets filed properly, answer your questions ...

you are selling the proeprty for a 100 grand or so, spend a couple hundred bucks on the lawyer - depending on where you are and how much you want him to do, the cost could be around $200-$500.

I know the ORngo, but not the truck. Guess I don't get out enough. Looked for lwayers today and most run about 700-800. But I guess it will be good in he long run.

Uncle Ezra wrote:

I'm selling a propery of mine without the aid of a real estate agent. I was sondering who normally pays for fees such as survey, transfer tax, septic pumping and inspection...

Also, what other fees should I expect?

You wouldn't have those questions if you'd hired an agent!

I also wouldn't have about 6% of the sale profit ig I hired an agent.

Since you get what you pay for, you have property that hasn't sold and a bunch of questions. Depending on the type of property you're selling you also may have some liabilty you're not protected from.

You're right. You really are saving!

I just sold a place myself and hired a guy for $450. His 2 man practice does about 20 per week and his paralegal (who does all the work) answers all your questions. The buyer selects the closing agent/lawyer, so you could just trust him or her, but I'd get my own representative.

Things like inspection, pest are at the expense of the buyer and these things are fairly standard, depending on your state.

The most time consuming things is chasing away those pesky real estate people who want to list your house. One very determined agent called me every two weeks to tout her marketing plans (she also had the house next door as a listing). She kept calling up to one month after the new people moved into my house and she still has not sold the house next door two months later.

Uncle Ezra wrote:

I also wouldn't have about 6% of the sale profit ig I hired an agent.

it's actually far worse than this. you'd lose about 6% of the sales price. assuming that you didn't acquire the property for nothing while also putting no money or effort into improving or maintaining the property, you're losing much more than 6% of your profit. probably 25% or more.

for example, if you bought for $60,000, put $10,000 of time, effort and materials into maintaining and improving the property, including things like insurance and taxes, and then sell for $100k, your profit is $30,000. if you pay a realtor $6,000 (6% of the sales price), you've just lost 20% of your profit ($6,000/$30,000).

and i don't understand how the person posting as "realtor" suggests that using a realtor will somehow protect the buyer from being responsible for selling a property with undisclosed liabilities attached. are you suggesting the realtor will voluntarily take on responsibility for such liabilities? i sort of doubt your standard sales contract provides for that, or else you'll be out of business pretty fast.

When I moved, I found the house on the internet. I did an initial property/neighborhood layout inspection via Google Earth. I took time to do a drive-by when I interviewed. When we were ready to move, I got a recommended agent who found 12 more properties more or less matching our requirements. He showed us TWO, one of which was the one I'd already found and looked at and ended up buying.

He got a handsome payday and pretty much just filed the paperwork for us...maybe 8 hours of work total. In addition, he formed a middle-man between myself and the seller's agent, effectively preventing me from negotiating as good of a deal as I could have gotten myself. He actually tried to prevent me from entering a counter-offer that saved me several thousand extra.

If I had not been a first-time buyer new to the process and had already been local, I probably would not have even gone with an agent. As a buyer, everyone has a vested interest in keeping the price high except you...and that includes your agent. As a seller, yes they want the price high for you but then they take a BIG cut.