Realtor advice/help

natefuturewifey

Hello!

A little background first - my husband and I met with a realtor last year. He was referred to us by a friend. We met with him, talked numbers for about 30 minutes and decided last year wasn't a good time to buy/look. (We currently live in a townhouse but want to get a SFH)

His automated system sends me updates on sales in our community so I can monitor the market. Well now we would still take a loss but the not as significant as last year. With the interest rate the way it is, we are seriously looking to buy soon. We probably want to go the new construction route for many reasons. My husband and I have visited many new construction homes and are trying to narrow it down to find out exactly what we want. The realtor has not met with us since that one meeting last year and I've emailed him once over the past year. We have never signed any papers or anything.

Would it or is it wrong to see if he would be negotiable on his percentage/fee from selling our townhouse IF we use him to buy new construction and they pay him as well? Basically, a builder would pay him almost 14K if not more and then he would also be taking a cut from selling our townhouse (Right now at 3% he would make 10K but I was willing to see if he would go down to 1.5%). Should I or can I negotiate the fee from the townhouse? Now, this is only IF we buy new construction because my husband and I did a lot of the "looking" ourselves. If he is not willing to negotiate, should I call up other realtors to see if they would take the cut on selling for an "easier" buy?

Just to clear up a couple things too -  When we go look at the new construct houses we let them know we're working with a realtor we just do not disclose his name.

 Thanks for your help and advice!

Laura 

cinnamonbears

It doesn't hurt to ask. A friend of mine who is a realtor does not negotiate her commission because she only gets 1.5% of the 6%. 3% goes to her and the other 3% goes to the second realtor involved in the transaction. Of her 3%, 1.5 % goes to the broker. This same friend has told me that often people who are looking to list their property try to negotiate the commission fees. I do not think any realtor would be surprised or insulted if you tried to negotiate.