When Should I Work With a Buyer’s Agent, a Selling Agent, or No Agent At All?

-Tim Murphy

#AskMurph Show

So here is the unique question:

We are selling my mom and dad's house. We have an agent, Sherry, interested in listing it. We have already met with her, she is very nice and a friend of my sister's. There is also an agent, Lance, I went to high school with, who contacted my brother and said he knows of three buyers interested in purchasing the house quickly. Sherry said, in this situation, she can handle the transaction if we wanted to do a for sale by owner. Do you recommend having a seller's agent involved or should we just work with the buyer's agent? 

Most markets across the country have low supply and high demand. So, as a seller, you hold all the cards. 

So, what should you do? 

Number one, you could hire a lawyer, use no agent. Pay the lawyer whatever their fee is and you could have the other agent bring his buyer. You represent yourself on the sale side. Put a deal together, and you pay an attorney to do all the paperwork. Lance takes care of his buyer and boom, you're good! 

You could use Lance to also represent you as the seller. Bring everything together, negotiate a commission with Lance. 

Otherwise, if you're really loyal to Sherry, you could negotiate a reduced fee, because she doesn’t have to do much. 

So, you have lots of options. I guess it depends on how you want to treat Lance, and how you want to treat Sherry. And what's the best deal for you and for your mom, who's trying to get, obviously, the most amount of money for the house. 

But you also have to keep in mind that it's not always about just the dollars and cents here. It's also about a friction less process. How much stress do you want to add to your mom? Are you out of state, and your mom's going to have to take care of this? Just make sure that everything goes really smoothly and it’s less stress on you or your mom, or the family situation. 

If you've got any other questions, comment below or hit me up. I'm always here to help. www.metropolitanhometeam.com