My wife and I found a lot in CT where a builder was building a house
last fall. We talked to the listing agent and brought our own
agent (my wife's friend of many years) up to help us negotiate
with us. She had us sign a Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer
Agreement. The builder took our design (different than the
one he had designed) and gave us a price. The price was much
more than we wanted to spend and we got cold feet and called
off the deal. Right after that the builder took it off the market.

Now it's Spring and my wife loves the location and wanted to approach
the builder again. I called the builder and he was planning to develop
something later this year but would work with us if we are interested.
I didn't come out and ask him but I think (since he is not listing it) he
won't
have a realtor involved. We never kept the agreement we signed with
our realtor so we don't know whether she has any right to compensation
since she was involved earlier. She is our friend and I don't want to stiff
her, but if the builder isn't using an agent... can she expect compensation?

Thanks for any advice. Tim

"Tim Nelson" wrote in message
...

My wife and I found a lot in CT where a builder was building a house
last fall. We talked to the listing agent and brought our own
agent (my wife's friend of many years) up to help us negotiate
with us. She had us sign a Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer
Agreement. The builder took our design (different than the
one he had designed) and gave us a price. The price was much
more than we wanted to spend and we got cold feet and called
off the deal. Right after that the builder took it off the market.

Now it's Spring and my wife loves the location and wanted to approach
the builder again. I called the builder and he was planning to develop
something later this year but would work with us if we are interested.
I didn't come out and ask him but I think (since he is not listing it) he
won't
have a realtor involved. We never kept the agreement we signed with
our realtor so we don't know whether she has any right to compensation
since she was involved earlier. She is our friend and I don't want to
stiff
her, but if the builder isn't using an agent... can she expect
compensation?

If she is your friend, and you want to do the right thing, then you should
call her, explain the situation, and ask her to go over the agreement with
you. It probably covers this situation one way or the other; as it
represent your agreement with your friend, you should do whatever you had
previously agreed.

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 11:14:33 -0500, someone wrote:


... can she expect compensation?

Depends what the contract says.

How long a period was it for; if beyond that, how long is the "tail"
period (if any) where she may or may not be entitled to a partial
commission if you buy from the same party she worked with during the
period, depending on what the contract says?

Without the contract, all we can give you over the internet is USELESS
speculation.

-v.

"Andrew Koenig" wrote in message
...
"Tim Nelson" wrote in message
...

My wife and I found a lot in CT where a builder was building a house
last fall. We talked to the listing agent and brought our own
agent (my wife's friend of many years) up to help us negotiate
with us. She had us sign a Exclusive Right to Represent Buyer
Agreement. The builder took our design (different than the
one he had designed) and gave us a price. The price was much
more than we wanted to spend and we got cold feet and called
off the deal. Right after that the builder took it off the market.

Now it's Spring and my wife loves the location and wanted to approach
the builder again. I called the builder and he was planning to develop
something later this year but would work with us if we are interested.
I didn't come out and ask him but I think (since he is not listing it)
he
won't
have a realtor involved. We never kept the agreement we signed with
our realtor so we don't know whether she has any right to compensation
since she was involved earlier. She is our friend and I don't want to
stiff
her, but if the builder isn't using an agent... can she expect
compensation?

If she is your friend, and you want to do the right thing, then you should
call her, explain the situation, and ask her to go over the agreement
with
you. It probably covers this situation one way or the other; as it
represent your agreement with your friend, you should do whatever you had
previously agreed.


Andrew,
Thanks for the quick reply. The realtor is our friend and we are not going
to
try and get out of something we agreed to. The point is the Seller
(builder)
WAS going to pay the commission. Now the builder WON'T be using a realtor,
does that mean we have to pay the commission or we have to approach
the builder (which really means us since he'll up the price) has to pay her
commission? I am not sure how many months we signed this exclusive right
to represent (I think it was late August) so that make 6 months. [I am
kicking
myself for tossing the agreement right now! ] I guess even if the
agreement
is in force we can negotiate with her since she will be selling our house
for around ($450K) for a nice commission. We have nothing signed on
that but she knows we will use her for the sale since she did the last two
for us. Furthermore, this is THE house we want to build (~$570K) and
since the builder owns the lot we can't go around him and likely we
won't buy it if we have to pay our realtor 2.5% of that !
Thanks for your help.

On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 16:50:05 GMT, (v) wrote:

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 11:14:33 -0500, someone wrote:


... can she expect compensation?

Depends what the contract says.

Without the contract, all we can give you over the internet is USELESS
speculation.

-v.


V , don't say that. We have to sound like we know it all even when we
are make jackasses outa ourselves on the internet.

Only kidding of course. You're right. My pet peeve is people would
rather ask on the net before reading their own papers (yeah I know the
OP says he doesn't have his any longer but I'm speaking in general).

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 16:50:05 GMT, (v) wrote:

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 11:14:33 -0500, someone wrote:


... can she expect compensation?

Depends what the contract says.

Without the contract, all we can give you over the internet is USELESS
speculation.

-v.


V , don't say that. We have to sound like we know it all even when we
are make jackasses outa ourselves on the internet.

Only kidding of course. You're right. My pet peeve is people would
rather ask on the net before reading their own papers (yeah I know the
OP says he doesn't have his any longer but I'm speaking in general).

Again the key item here is that the builder will NOT be using a realtor.
We originally came upon the property ourselves and we asked
our realtor at the to help negotiate. Given that fact and the commission
was originally going to be paid by the seller, I just don't know if we are
liable
6 months after the time it was taken off market.

I did download the document from the local board of realtors give me
a clue about my particular situation.

"Tim Nelson" writes:

Again the key item here is that the builder will NOT be using a realtor.

This has no relevance whatsoever.

Given that fact and the commission
was originally going to be paid by the seller,

The seller just gives part of *buyer*'s money as the commission.
Don't kid yourself: it's *your* money that pays commission to
both agents. Without your money, there would be no commission.

Cheers,
--
In order to understand recursion you must first understand recursion.
Remove /-nsp/ for email.

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:52:21 -0500, someone wrote:


We originally came upon the property ourselves and we asked
our realtor at the to help negotiate....

That was your first mistake.

Man oh man, bringing what is basically a commission SALESperson in to
negotiate for you? What is her incentive to get the price down? Get
it down enough so that net after commission she can convince you she
paid for herself?

If you already found a property you like, DO NOT pay someone who is
set up to be a commission "finder" putting buyers and sellers
together, that's what they get commissions for, to handle contract
matters. You would have done better having an attorney handle it at
that point. Oh well.

Here's how this stuff usually ends up.

You buy the property for $500k and you pay your agent $12,500
commission. You buy the property for $512,500 and the seller pays
your agent the $12,500 commission. So, do you want to finance the
commission over the next 20 years or not?

If you want the seller to pay the commission, you have to get the
seller to sign a purchase contract saying they will pay it from the
sale proceeds. You can't just show up at the closing with an extra
demand for an additional expense to the seller any more than they can
hit you with "and you also have to pay $x to this broker in addition
to what you agreed to buy the house for". Now, most broker forms for
Purchase & Sale *do* say that "Seller shall pay a commission of $X to
-broker's name here-". For obvious reasons!

If *your* contract with the broker obligates *you* to pay this person
a commission, then if you want the seller to pay it, you need to get
the seller to agree to take this over. *You* ARE using a broker
whether the seller thinks he is or not. And if you do get the seller
to agree, do you know what the mortgage or settlement company will do
as directed by the closing attorney?

They will likely cut a check out of YOUR mortgage amount to give to
the broker, and another check for the rest to give to the Seller,
unless you say you will do it out of your "downpayment". Since the
Seller is *getting* money and you and your bank are *giving* it, the
seller does not normally need to bring funds to the closing. The
broker is only going to get paid out of your money anyway.

Whether your broker is entitled to a commission depends on your
contract with that broker, not what contract the seller has or does
not have with his broker.

-v.

In article ,
(v) wrote:

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:52:21 -0500, someone wrote:


We originally came upon the property ourselves and we asked
our realtor at the to help negotiate....

That was your first mistake.

Man oh man, bringing what is basically a commission SALESperson in to
negotiate for you? What is her incentive to get the price down? Get
it down enough so that net after commission she can convince you she
paid for herself?

If you already found a property you like, DO NOT pay someone who is
set up to be a commission "finder" putting buyers and sellers
together, that's what they get commissions for, to handle contract
matters. You would have done better having an attorney handle it at
that point. Oh well.

Here's how this stuff usually ends up.

You buy the property for $500k and you pay your agent $12,500
commission. You buy the property for $512,500 and the seller pays
your agent the $12,500 commission. So, do you want to finance the
commission over the next 20 years or not?

If you want the seller to pay the commission, you have to get the
seller to sign a purchase contract saying they will pay it from the
sale proceeds. You can't just show up at the closing with an extra
demand for an additional expense to the seller any more than they can
hit you with "and you also have to pay $x to this broker in addition
to what you agreed to buy the house for". Now, most broker forms for
Purchase & Sale *do* say that "Seller shall pay a commission of $X to
-broker's name here-". For obvious reasons!

If *your* contract with the broker obligates *you* to pay this person
a commission, then if you want the seller to pay it, you need to get
the seller to agree to take this over. *You* ARE using a broker
whether the seller thinks he is or not. And if you do get the seller
to agree, do you know what the mortgage or settlement company will do
as directed by the closing attorney?

They will likely cut a check out of YOUR mortgage amount to give to
the broker, and another check for the rest to give to the Seller,
unless you say you will do it out of your "downpayment". Since the
Seller is *getting* money and you and your bank are *giving* it, the
seller does not normally need to bring funds to the closing. The
broker is only going to get paid out of your money anyway.

Whether your broker is entitled to a commission depends on your
contract with that broker, not what contract the seller has or does
not have with his broker.

-v.

IMO this is a good explanation of a Realtor's basic function --
SALESperson. Which brings me to wonder about a possible solution for
people thinking they need someone to represent them. Unless there's some
local law that requires you to hire a Realtor to represent you the buyer
(and I can't imagine there are any, tho it wouldn't exactly surprise me
if there were), what most people need is just * a someone* who's a good
negotiator for the price haggling, kinda like one of the reasons why
athletes have agents. Some love the whole process of haggling, but I
think most people find that to be the worst part about buying a home.

Find someone you know who makes a living negotiating stuff, contract to
pay them X dollars for X amount of services, and let them do the dirty
work of personally niggling with the seller like the house was a fez in
a Moroccan street market over what YOU deem acceptable or not
acceptable. Having an intermediary with no commission/gain in the house
would also carry the advantage of distancing you a bit from what's
normally a stressful situation -- and thus allow you in theory to make
better decisions that suit YOU, not the seller, including walking away
from the deal ... which is sometimes the best thing you could do.

Just one guy's opinion.

AJS

"Tim Nelson" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the quick reply. The realtor is our friend and we are not
going
to
try and get out of something we agreed to. The point is the Seller
(builder)
WAS going to pay the commission. Now the builder WON'T be using a
realtor,
does that mean we have to pay the commission or we have to approach
the builder (which really means us since he'll up the price) has to pay
her
commission?

I don't see why it's relevant whether the seller is using an agent. You
signed a contract with your friend, in which you agreed to do certain
things. Does that contract make that agreement contingent on whether the
seller does certain things?