Is this normal? Realtor won't show us anything without a pre-approval?

[AKL_Megs]

We are trying to buy a house, and we've been having a REALLY hard time with our realtor.

I posted earlier about him telling us that he would "discuss his commission rate with us at a later time." It is common knowledge that the SELLER pays the commission.

Now, he won't show us any homes until we get pre-approved.

TWO of my friends, a SINGLE female and another couple are also first-time home buyers, and also MANY co-workers of mine I have spoken with who are getting in on the $8000 and buying first homes ALL have been looking at homes with their realtors, and NONE of them have dealt with getting pre-approved yet. We are ALL looking in the same area.

We really want to just LOOK at this point. When KNOW we will be approved by our bank, we have done banking business with our bank vice president, and he knows ALL ABOUT our financial situation, and I don't think he is worried. We are also putting 10% down, so...

Do you think it is time to find a new realtor?

 

[jrmasm]

We are trying to buy a house, and we've been having a REALLY hard time with our realtor.

I posted earlier about him telling us that he would "discuss his commission rate with us at a later time." It is common knowledge that the SELLER pays the commission.

Now, he won't show us any homes until we get pre-approved.

TWO of my friends, a SINGLE female and another couple are also first-time home buyers, and also MANY co-workers of mine I have spoken with who are getting in on the $8000 and buying first homes ALL have been looking at homes with their realtors, and NONE of them have dealt with getting pre-approved yet. We are ALL looking in the same area.

We really want to just LOOK at this point. When KNOW we will be approved by our bank, we have done banking business with our bank vice president, and he knows ALL ABOUT our financial situation, and I don't think he is worried. We are also putting 10% down, so...

Do you think it is time to find a new realtor?

Yes

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Did you sign a contract with this person? Can you get out of this by firing them?

I would go thru hoops to rid myself of someone like this.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Yes

Are you saying "yes" that it is normal, or "yes" that we need a new realtor?

 

[AKL_Megs]

Did you sign a contract with this person? Can you get out of this by firing them?

I would go thru hoops to rid myself of someone like this.

Thank GOD we did not sign anything with this man. I wonder if this is why he is giving us such grief! I am tired of it.

 

[Stitchfans]

Yes, without a doubt.

 

[MosMom]

You need a new realtor. I've never heard of a buyer paying commission to a realtor. He is an idiot or a scam artist. Either way, run don't walk.

 

[RitaE]

If you don't like your Realtor, then by all means kick his butt to the curb. Since you are buyers, I'm guessing you don't have any sort of signed contract with him???


As for Pre-Approval letters, it was pretty standard practice a couple of years ago when the housing market was active. You pretty much had to have a Pre-Approval letter to get an owner to accept a bid on the house. I don't know what it is like now.

But really, if you do buy a house you are going to have to go through all that paperwork. You might as well go ahead and get started on it now.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You need a new realtor. I've never heard of a buyer paying commission to a realtor. He is an idiot or a scam artist. Either way, run don't walk.

Buyers pay the selling price of the house. The commission the relator gets is thru the seller, right?

 

[DisneymoonJess07]

Get rid of this one.

Too many hoops - you are the customer.

Also, I do believe that the buyer does sometimes pay some percentage of commission.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Also, I do believe that the buyer does sometimes pay some percentage of commission.

I can't remember. Relators?

 

[AKL_Megs]

If you don't like your Realtor, then by all means kick his butt to the curb. Since you are buyers, I'm guessing you don't have any sort of signed contract with him???


As for Pre-Approval letters, it was pretty standard practice a couple of years ago when the housing market was active. You pretty much had to have a Pre-Approval letter to get an owner to accept a bid on the house. I don't know what it is like now.

But really, if you do buy a house you are going to have to go through all that paperwork. You might as well go ahead and get started on it now.

Well, of course, once we get it narrowed down to a few houses we really like, we will immediately go through the pre-approval process. But for now, we just want to LOOK.

 

[DMickey28]

We are in the process of buying our first house. We did get a pre-approval first but noone asked for proof of it.

We worked with two agents because we were looking in two different areas. They both showed us the paperwork for signing on with them so they would be our "buyers agent" but neither pushed for us to sign it until we were ready. That just allows them to work in our best interested rather than being a neutral party. I don't know if that's regional but they both gave us the same spiel with it.

We are not paying any of their commissions. One works for a LARGE national company and while her offical paperwork says that she gets paid 3% she crossed that off in front of us and she just takes whatever the sellers list in the MLS. Most common is 2%. IF she did not cross that off then we would be responsible for the 1% difference.

We did end up signing with one at the same time we started the offer process. It just made it easier because she can then divulge more information to us being "our agent".

 

[Octoberbride03]

When we bought no Realtor would touch us without the pre-approval letter and the market was on fire at the time. These days its not and lending has changed quite a bit. I will tell to you to A) got get the letter, much better to have it done and firm ballpark in place. B) Find another Realtor, this guy has already proven he doesn't want to work for you. Find someone who will.

As buyers we did sign a contract with the Realtor showing us houses. So when you find someone you like you should be signing 1 of those. Just a standard 90 day contract that says they work for you and won't represent both parties in a sale is what you want with the commission decided. The seller pays it but you should still know just how much it's going to be

 

[Rose&Mike]

Are you saying "yes" that it is normal, or "yes" that we need a new realtor?

New realtor. I can see them wanting to have an idea of what you can afford, but we've never had to get pre-approved. Find someone who wants your business. And in this market, I can't think of a reason that I (as the buyer) would pay the commission.

 

[jrmasm]

"yes" that we need a new realtor

 

[Octoberbabiesrus]

Get rid of this one.

Too many hoops - you are the customer.

Also, I do believe that the buyer does sometimes pay some percentage of commission.

yes. But its not up to him to decide what it is. The seller and thier realtor have a agreed upon commission. Like say, 7%. In the listing it will tell the buyers realtor what thier cut is....like 3% or 3.5% You dont pay him for that. It comes at closing.

Time to find a new realtor.

 

[Briarmom]

Very normal to need pre-approval.

 

[Lisa_M]

We had a buyer's agreement with our realtor (didn't end up purchasing, but anyway), if we bought a house, we had to pay $250 to the agency for fees. The commission would be paid by the seller, but if the commission was less than 2.5%, then we would be responsible for paying the difference to our agent up to the 2.5%.

We could get out of the agreement anytime if we wanted and if we didn't buy anything, we did not owe him anything.

We also got pre-approved prior to viewing homes. It was recommended, but not required.

I would suggest you pull your credit reports if you haven't done so recently just to double check them. We had several errors that we didn't know about. Paid off student loans not showing paid and a BIG consolidation student loan reporting twice. Those kinds of things make a big difference.

Also, if you're going to buy a house soon, do not open any credit cards or make any large purchases prior to closing. You want your credit scores to be as high as possible and the bank to see your financial situation as a good risk for them.


I think you should find a new realtor if you are uncomfortable with this guy, which it seems you are. Ask around for recommendations. There are a million realtors out there. No reason to do business with someone that you don't mesh well with.

 

[Pakey]

We are in an area with a high foreclosure rate and realtors DO require pre-approval here. We talked to several before choosing a realtor a few months ago when we wanted to buy an investment property and they all wanted pre-approval prior to showing.

We have bought several houses in our lifetime and the process is very different now. We were shocked at how hard it was to buy this rental home and I think realtors are now having to work a lot harder, put in a lot more hours of paperwork, follow up, etc on each sale. I can see why many would want to know that the buyers are pre-approved before investing a lot of time in showing houses.