Kate wrote:

I am thinking about buying a townhouse directly from the owner without
an agent. But I am not sure how much is the lawyer fee and is this a
smart choice. I am a first time home buyer, so don't know much about
the process. For example, the closing fee, the owner said 50/50,
what's the reasonable amount. the owner said it costs me about at
least 10,000 less without an agent. the townhouse is 2 years old and
the price is 305,000. please give any advice and I will appreciate.

The seller is feeding you a bunch of bull****. The seller pays for any
costs of agents, not you. And what is this "closing" fee he is so
graciously willing to share with you?

First time home buyers often really need the advice of a GOOD agent.
Ask around the pople you work with and see if any of them recommend an
agent.

(Kate) writes:

I am thinking about buying a townhouse directly from the owner without
an agent. But I am not sure how much is the lawyer fee and is this a
smart choice. I am a first time home buyer, so don't know much about
the process. For example, the closing fee, the owner said 50/50,
what's the reasonable amount. the owner said it costs me about at
least 10,000 less without an agent. the townhouse is 2 years old and
the price is 305,000. please give any advice and I will appreciate.

Why are you asking random people on the net for advice? Get yourself
a good real estate attorney and have him/her handle all the contract
negotiations. Depending on where you live, you will likely need to
have an attorney anyway to handle the closing. They typically charge
a flat fee (less than $1000) for their services. It's well worth it
to spend that much on a $305K investment when you don't know what
you're doing otherwise.

-Sandra the cynic

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 10:39:05 -0500, someone wrote:


First time home buyers often really need the advice of a GOOD agent.


How about a good attorney instead? Why pay a sales commission for
only partial advice (a real estate agent is not allowed to give legal
advice, which OP surely will need). The legal fee will likely be far
far less than the commission on a $300k purchase, and in most states a
lawyer is used anyway, in addition to the agent. If you don't need an
agent to find homes for you or sell for you, that's the one to skip.

(BTW, I *do* use agents myself, I currently have 4 parcels listed for
sale with agents, I feel they work for me and I don't have them time
to make the sales efforts myself.)

-v.

I agree that you should use a buyer's agent. I'm a first time house buyer
who would have been LOST without my agent--believe me, she earned every
penny of her commission in answering questions, her knowledge about homes,
and general hand-holding. She also was a great negotiator and got me a
wonderful price plus additional money out of the seller after the
inspection...
Kirsten
"John R Weiss" wrote in message
t...
"Kate" wrote...

I am thinking about buying a townhouse directly from the owner without
an agent. But I am not sure how much is the lawyer fee and is this a
smart choice. I am a first time home buyer, so don't know much about
the process. For example, the closing fee, the owner said 50/50,
what's the reasonable amount. the owner said it costs me about at
least 10,000 less without an agent. the townhouse is 2 years old and
the price is 305,000. please give any advice and I will appreciate.

Though I bought my first house (back in 1978, in a small town in TX) as a
FSBO
without an agent, and have bought and sold via both agents and FSBOs since
then,
I strongly recommend you find a buyer's agent and/or lawyer who will
assist you
for a straight fee, set in advance. Since you are apparently unfamiliar
with
the process, you are setting yourself up for big problems by trying to do
it
yourself.

Since a real estate agent will have no advertising or sharing costs for
this
transaction, you should be able to get one to advise, assist, and
represent you
for a couple thousand dollars or less. Depending on where you live, use
of an
attorney may be advisable or required. Depending on the attorney, [s]he
may be
able to give you all the advice you would otherwise get from the real
estate
agent (though the attorney may not know the specific neighborhood/market
as
well).

Just my opinion, but from all my reading a good real estate attorney would
be fine, too, and quite possibly will charge less than a real estate agent.

We've sold by owner twice and bought by owner once. The real estate attorney
cost quite a bit less than an agent would have cost us as sellers. Our real
estate attorney in a mid-size midwestern city is $90 per hour -- over the
course of the sale, including a buyer backing out 6 days before closing, having
to put it back on the market and then evaluate and negotiate with two buyers at
the same time vying for our home, we will spend less than $1000 on the
attorney. This was for a $200,000 home sale.

Had we used an agent with this home we are currently selling, we would have
raised the price at least $20,000. We probaby would not have recouped the full
$14,000 an agent would have taken from a $200,000 sale, but we also would not
have sold it for $200K -- so in effect we sort of "split" the savings -- the
buyer got the house at a cheaper cost and we will pocket a little more when we
close.

We've been very up-front about all of this with our buyers (all three of them,
lol!)

When we bought by owner we felt we got the house for less than we would have
had it been with an agent. We backed this up by looking at comparable sales in
the neighborhood and also with an appraisal.

A good real estate attorney is an excellent investment with or without an
agent, imo. The attorney gets paid whether you buy/sell or not. The agent
only gets paid if you buy/sell.

To the OP -- the best way to know if you are truly buying the house for less
than it would sell for with an agent is to get an appraisal and then back that
up by looking at comparable sales. In many communities you can seek recent
sales in the same neighborhood through the real estate tax website. (I'd think
comparing townhomes would be even easier than trying to compare homes).

Hope this helps, and good luck.

-Dawn

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 15:55:54 GMT, "Caliban"
wrote:


Yeahbut the seller passes along that cost to the buyer.


And the objective of most if not all sellers who offer a house FSBO is
to sell the house for the same price as one being handled by agents
and keep the profit that otherwise would be spent to pay the agent's
commission!


I've sold twice by owner and that was not my objective either time. My
objective was to recoup *some* of the 7 percent the realtor would have earned,
but not all of it.

YMMV.

-Dawn

(Kate) wrote in message . com...
Hi,
I am thinking about buying a townhouse directly from the owner without
an agent. But I am not sure how much is the lawyer fee and is this a
smart choice.

Generally lawyers in my area (Central NJ) cost $800 to $1000 to buy a
home, and $600 to $700 to sell a home.

I am a first time home buyer, so don't know much about
the process.

Generally without an agent, you need to do the negotiation, and
leg work yourself. Usually the seller will lower their price a
bit to make this legwork more attractive to you as the buyer.
If you are willing to put in the time to research the home
buying process, there is no reason you cant buy your first home
from a for sale by owner without an agent.

For example, the closing fee, the owner said 50/50,
what's the reasonable amount.

Closing fees are genrally paid buy the buyer totally in my area.
This seems to be a regional thing. I just sold my house FSBO and
all I paid was the transfer tax fee. The buyer paid everything else.

the owner said it costs me about at
least 10,000 less without an agent.

Yes, normally you would expect a fsbo to be a little cheaper then the
rest of the market. The listing price might be the same as others
but they are usually willing to knock 2-3% off the price if they arent
using a realtor.

Crayola

On 20 Aug 2003 07:43:31 -0700, (Michael
Cunningham) wrote:


Closing fees are genrally paid buy the buyer totally in my area.
This seems to be a regional thing. I just sold my house FSBO and
all I paid was the transfer tax fee. The buyer paid everything else.


Who pays what at a closing is a very 'regional' thing dictated by the
custom in the area where the house is located, it is not even uniform
within the same state. When we lived in NJ we found out that customs
relating to the buying and selling of homes in the northern part of
the state were entirely different than in the southern part and in the
central portion of the state it was a mish-mash of the two regarding
what costs involved in the sale and closing were paid for by the buyer
or the seller. The only thing that was the same stae-wide was that
"Escrow Companies/Agents" were not used to effect the transfer of
property.

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 21:12:05 GMT, someone wrote:


"Escrow Companies/Agents" were not used to effect the transfer of
property.

And may I point out that what in some areas are referred to as "title
companies" are really "escrow agents", and that in other areas a
"title company" is something else entirely, like a "title insurance
company"...

-v.