Question about real estate agents.

[cipher]

I'm trying to find/buy my first house, so I'm a noobie at this. If an agent finds a house for me to buy, do I have to pay him/her a fee?

[Rehan]

No, the buyer pays nothing. The seller has to pay the fee to both the selling agent and the buying agent.

[toky]

The person who sell the house is paying the commission to both agents.

[bionicbadger]

Which actually means you are paying for it since if you deal without the agent, the seller would accept less money(the amount they would normally pay the agent)

[mlc2000]

Moot point if the house is listed with an agent.

If there's a sign on the lawn, there's a binding contract stating, that the seller must sell thru the agent.

[pinball]

Moot point if the house is listed with an agent.

Yes but the seller's agent will charge less in commision (~2% less if the seller was smart enough to negotiate this up front) if they represent the buyer and seller.

This may mean that the buyer can squeeze that savings out of the seller.

[Lalchi]

Does anyone know how to find out what the houses in a street were sold for in the previous years?

www.mls.ca only shows current listings & the listings are removed once they are sold, without showing what they were sold for.

[mlc2000]

Yes but the seller's agent will charge less in commision (~2% less if the seller was smart enough to negotiate this up front) if they represent the buyer and seller.

This may mean that the buyer can squeeze that savings out of the seller.
I think its extremely rare that an agent actually sells a house.
I think with the widespread use of MLS, DOesn't the selling agent split commision with the buying agent? Thats the impressionI got.

Like I thought the lower commision structure for the agent was based on selling your house AND buying your next house. They offer the lower reate because I think its very rare that the selling agent brings the buyers to the table.

[milhaus]

Does anyone know how to find out what the houses in a street were sold for in the previous years?

www.mls.ca only shows current listings & the listings are removed once they are sold, without showing what they were sold for.
You must go through a realtor, I believe, since they pay for access to such information, and release it only to clients, on a time limited basis.

[mlc2000]

You must go through a realtor, I believe, since they pay for access to such information, and release it only to clients, on a time limited basis.

Privacy laws now prevent real estate agents from simply giving you that info.
As well, you won't be seeing any advertiszing in teh mail telling the prices houses in the 'hodd have been selling for.

You must sign a contract with a listing agent before they can turn over those numbers to you.

[peterbrowne]

Privacy laws now prevent real estate agents from simply giving you that info.
As well, you won't be seeing any advertiszing in teh mail telling the prices houses in the 'hodd have been selling for.

You must sign a contract with a listing agent before they can turn over those numbers to you.
family business is real estate. for GTA we have full acces for the information. NO Contract is required however the more you give us about the subject house the more we can tell you. we can give road names and the average price.

[LeeBear]

Does anyone know how to find out what the houses in a street were sold for in the previous years?

www.mls.ca only shows current listings & the listings are removed once they are sold, without showing what they were sold for.

My sister has her real estates license and has access to mls. The listing info you see is what the buyers get to see. The real estate agent gets to see more info when they log in. You get to see considerably more info on the houses suffice it to say. Obvious stuff like selling prices, and how long it's been on the market etc. And yes the agent is not allowed to divulge this information.

Now regarding who pays the fee's when a house is sold it's basically like this. The person selling the house negotiates with the agent on what % commission would be paid out. Typical amount would be say 4%. So if say the house sold for $200,000 then $8,000 from it would goto commission to the agent. Now if this agent who's selling the house is also the agent who found the buyer for the house he'll keep the entire 4% or $8,000. However if another agent was the founder of the buyer of the house then that commission gets split between the two agents by whatever percent was decided on when the house was listed (ie. one agent gets 2.25% the other 1.75%).

If you do not have an agent and you want to buy the house then typically the agent who's selling the house will sign you up under him/her so they get the full commission. That's why when you go look at a house one of the first things they ask is if you have an agent. If you say no they try to get you to sign with them.

-LeeBear

[cipher]

Thanks for the replies. One more question. Is it a good idea to sign up with an agent to find a house for you? I spoke to an agent and she want me to sign an agreement making her my agent so she can find a house for me. Is there anything I should watch out for?