Good/Bad Insurance Cos?

We just sold our 2 bedroom park slope coop with a broker for $645. The guy we used cut us a deal on commission (2% if he sold directly and 4% if buyers came with their own broker, which is what happened), but the commission is LARGE... FYI, here's the breakdown for our closing costs as SELLERS:

STOCK TRANSFER TAX: $0.50/share so it will be $52 for us
ATTORNEY FEE: approx $2,000
FLIP TAX: if your coop charges a flip tax--ours does not
NYS EQUILIZATION FEE: $75
FILING FEE: $100
NY STATE TRANSFER TAX $4/$1,000 of sale price: approx $2,500 for us
REALTOR FEE (4% for both brokers): $25,800
NYC TRANSFER TAX (for coops): $50
[note: transfer tax is 1% up to $500k and 1.425 above if you own the whole house--we live in a coop so this is no big deal]

So our total closing costs are going to be about $30k. Obviously the broker is a big chunk of this, but I would do it again the same way again. By negoatiating a 4% commission instead of the usual 6% we saved $13,000 off the realtors' fee. And there's no way I would have been happy in the process without a real expert to guide us through, the market is just so shaky and funky right now. He had to ask buyers a lot of tough questions right up front about their finances and contingencies. Also all those open houses, ugh! It was hard enough just keeping the place clean for a month, but we have a baby, so if you don't have kids this might be easier.

Our broker was able to bring us four offers within 5 weeks (we are closing next week) and he managed to bid them against each other to get us the highest price and the buyer best qualified to go the distance. Our buyers are putting 45% down so we felt very secure about the contract. We didn't get our asking price but it was very close.

Pricing the apartment right was hugely important and another thing I was glad to have the broker's expertise on. We had a neighbor who had her apartment on the market for 8 months and had only two shaky offers that both fell through--one who was 90% financing although a very high income (apparently not good enough these days), and another couple who backed out "because of lead paint" which to me means they just decided they were overpaying (she priced her place at $725k--which was well above the last apartment in the building to sell which went for $680k in 2008).

I'd say FSBO if you're ready to be in it for the long haul, and you have the kind of personality which is at once both outgoing and sales-oriented, but also tough as nails negotiator.

Also to consider--you might be losing most of the pool of buyers who work with a broker and are too busy to search the listing themselves.

We got offers from buyers who had brokers, and those who didn't, the ones with brokers were ready to offer tens of thousands more, don't ask me why. I guess they're like retail shoppers, five or ten thousand dollars on a house price just didn't seem to matter to them.

good luck!

Posted by: slopegirl at July 17, 2009 8:17 PM in response to Should we do FSBO?

Read this free report and watch the 2 video's and you'll certainly be selling it yourself: http://www.simsprofits.com/?1008344

Posted by: DanAuito at August 9, 2009 4:15 AM in response to Should we do FSBO?