Long story: I wrote a homeowner a written note that I wanted to buy her house. She called me back and allowed me to tour the home. The house is in terrible unlivable condition. Needs new plumbing, sewer, HVAC, etc. The home is in a highly sought after neighborhood. Worst house in the nice neighborhood scenario.

She likes me and wants to make a deal to sale me her house. She thinks it's worth way more than what it's appraised value on the tax roll. Neither one of us are sure how to value the property, so we decide she'll order an appraisal, and I'll purchase at the appraised value. She tells me she does not want to deal with a realtor.

I told my realtor the situation and that I want her help, but the seller doesn't want to deal with a realtor.

How should I approach the contract/offer? Have an attorney draft an offer contract? I absolutely need to go through title search/insurance.

Captn: Yes, you can do the transaction without a realtor/broker. Let me know if you need help with document preparation, review, advice, etc.

You are correct, you aren't required to have any professional assistance on any real estate transaction. This scenario indicates the Seller doesn't want a realtor/broker involved. Option, don't get a realtor/broker involved but get professional assistance on the transaction and also get legal advice (which a realtor/broker can't legally provide nor can a title company provide).

Exactly. Also, as a trade off, attorneys typically don't know or aren't up to date with current market terms and conventions because that isn't their specialty. I'd go so far to say most realtors don't even know current market terms and conventions because they don't do enough deals to know what's happening at this moment. We take advantage of other agents all the time because they aren't up to speed.

Again, the problem is that if you aren't active daily in the market, you don't know where the market is. I worked in commercial real estate for over a dozen years, doing multi billion dollar portfolio sales all over the world. That doesn't make me an expert in todays market in that world. So can you fill in the blanks or even write your own version of something? Sure. But does that make it a good term for your client?

Agilaw, I'm cheap and let my TexAgs subscription expire so I cannot PM you. Any other way I can get ahold of you? If not I'll pony up for another TA subscription.

If you post a quick email, I'll let you know I received it and you can take it down.

donald@whitehouse.gov

This is more of a contract/probate/title/escrow issue, so an attorney would be very helpful.

Got it. Good to edit.

Agilaw said:

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I understand you are going to push back no matter what someone says. I've got access to all the same information that you do, I can create a customized CMA just like you can, I can pull all the comps that you can, etc. After all this, anyone who has been in the real estate business for any length of time knows the market is going to tell you what your property is actually worth. It may or may not be what a realtor estimates it to be.

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Because you haven't addressed the issue that I keep brining up, which is not just price, which you did just address, but MARKET TERMS. The MLS doesn't publish contract TERMS. The fact that you think you'll be just fine is the red flag.

Well I guess we are all laughing then. I'm laughing at how bad the commercial investment market must be that you stooped yourself to doing resi contract reviews given a resume like the one you outlined here.

And yes, I am a relentless dude, especially when it comes to truth. That's part of what makes me a good broker, and I'm glad you recognized that.

I had multiple people reach out to me today laughing at you. That's another free brokerage lesson for you. Relationships matter.

Here's another one. I've experienced more than one occasion over my career where a seller didn't want to involve brokers but silently had one helping them with the intent of creating terms that were so lopsided towards the seller it was unbelievable. But you think you're good so everything should be fine, right? Your deals you did 25 years ago while Clinton was in office should be relevant to the OP, right?

I'm not going to explain to you how to do your job. It sounds like you've got that under control.

And it also sounds like I will not get you to understand the meaning of the word "relevance" now matter how I say it.

And finally, it also sounds like you don't know what a franchise is or how a brokerage business works. Have you seen any of my agents on this thread since I posted? Your obsession with me is noted once again.

You can pay your Realtor for her services/representation out of your own pocket. Agents don't need to be paid by seller.

Agilaw said:

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Swing and a miss. You must have forgot, I am a broker. You avoided the MARKET TERMS question again! I wonder why? I've come to realize in the Real Estate world, nobody measures up to you - "We're Not Worthy, We're Not Worthy".

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So does the OP need a broker or no?

We are making progress. How many residential deals do you broker a year? How many deals have you broke it in the last three months? Month?

Nope, not progress. Why do you keep deflecting? Let us all know what these MARKET TERMS are, or were you just bloviating?

A market term is a contract term that is market today. If you don't broker enough deals, you will not know what is market and what is not. That does your client a disservice. Good attorneys know this. I have several from this board as clients. I'm not going to tell you what is market today, because that is the job of a good broker to know already.

Now, how many residential deals do you typically broker in a year, counselor? The last three months? Month?

The fact that you of all people, an in house real estate attorney, cannot admit that there are other terms to a contract besides price, is scary. Those other terms matter. And if you aren't doing enough deals to be knowledgeable about what is market today, you are doing your client a disservice.

I'm happy that you acknowledge that at least you need MLS access to know where the comps are pricing out.

Last word. You should pay for a sponsorship like the rest of us hard working brokers since you are one too.

You contacted her directly rather than through your agent who you want to bring in after the fact. Am I reading this right? If I am it's no surprise she doesn't want to deal with or pay your agent.