This can work out very well for all concerned, just don't skip any of the steps. Getting an appraisal done to provide a basis for pricing is probably worthwhile. Most realtors will want their 6% if they touch the sale in any way, so tread carefully there. A realtor can provide help in pricing, but at a stiff cost to you. A good real estate attorney can handle everything that's needed to carry out the transaction at a much lower cost. We sold to a friend and saved considerable money, but had the advantage that it was a corporate relo and the relo company provided the appraisal and pricing services that a REA might have. Plus we got paid a bonus for not using an agent, a nice deal.

Hmmmmm..... So your agent sent you that info, but did not provide the name of the attorney....This is information that should be provided to you immediately. Call her and ask again. If she does not provide the name and contact info call her broker. I was previously an agent and not providing you with this info is beyond ridiculous. I suspect there is another piece to this that has not yet been told to you. My guess is that is has to do with when you will receive the proceeds from the sale. Sorry... This maybe a requirement of the lender. The lender has a stake in seeing that the property is transferred correctly. I have run into that scenario in the past, but it would be very unusual that a lender would demand you close with an attorney. The only other thing I can think of is some sort of title insurance requirement. Is the closing attorney doing the title work? Even if there is some specific requirement by the title insurance company on how the closing will occur, title insurance companies typically provide several means of meeting those requirements. They do need to make sure everything is properly signed and notarized. The other thing might be this: perhaps the closing attorney wants to send your check in the same set of documents, but wants it held by another attorney until he/she gets the okay to release the funds to you. The way around that is to have him/her wire the funds to your account after closing or to simply send the check later.

1. The commission how much is to much? Commissions usually are 5 to 7% - depending on where you are. What I've always looked for when trying to find an agent is one that splits the commission in 1/2, or in addition will lower the commission for an "in house" sale, when one of their agents bring the buyer. 8. What is required of the realtor? Should my realtor be an agent only for the seller? In other words not a dual agent for both buyer and seller? She became a dual agent in the middle of the deal and I signed accepting that. Should I have objected? I didn't know what to do when that happened. *I am not a fan of dual agency, and I say this though I allowed it on my last sale - and my agent is my best friend! You had the right to say no. Had you said no, they could have found the buyer their own agent within the firm or else where. You have to figure out what is right for you. Things to think of - in this market with nothing selling in most places, you have to ask yourself if you think your agent will "take sides" just to get a sale. When we sold in May, the buyer had their own agent that was a grandfather to one of the buyers, he was also retired & not acting in his MLS area. When the inspection came, we were sitting & waiting. Our agent said, well, that's good, they know they get 7 days to list demands and haven't. We didn't feel right, we knew the other agent probably didn't know this, so after the time limit our agent called them, of course they had no clue & immediately faxed the demands. I always held firm we had no intention of repairing, nor crediting unless something was safety related & we fixed the flu.. There was another issue we were going to attempt to get estimates for but not fix. At some point our agent appeared to change sides, us getting estimates was then us fixing it. We ended up hiring someone, gave them a deposit and made a deal that we would pay for it but the buyer would have it done after moving in; our agent knew this but when push came to shove in the end he said he had no clue why we'd give a deposit. He then wanted us to eat the deposit ($300) and pay them the full amount at closing.. I told him to eat it out of his commission, he laughed. Had he been a dual agent, I don't think we'd have closed because we would have told everyone to stick it. We were so stressed, feeling that the agent wasn't looking out for our interests but theirs. I actually don't know how I'd do it when the time comes to sell this house. 9. Should I have it put in the new contract that she can not be a dual agent? Isn't that a conflict of interest? *not if they act in both their client's best interest. It does limit how far they can 'push' for you though. IMO, it's best for each to have their own agent. Joyce, I have a few posts that might be of interest to you - Agent Interview Questions for sellers if you decide to look for another agent Sellers, what are you doing to prep? - if you have time to read through it, you might get some ideas on dressing up the house a little. Things like grass seed, a few plants, even changing light switches and lighting help. Do you feel the house is priced right? When was the last time the agent did a market analysis?

Make sure you get a survey too even though you are paying cash. You want to know exactly what you are buying and in order to remove MANY title exceptions, you need a survey. Since you plan to build anyway, you will need a survey. Survey's are good for a long time. I think 10 years but it could be longer. Read the title commitment too. Make sure you read the entire commitment and ask for the cover of the title insurance policy to review because that is where the standard conditions are in addition to Exhibits A and B. Make sure you understand the exceptions. Make sure the title company removes the survey restrictions prior to closing if you get the survey. I have seen title companies fail to do that and it is not a good thing. Best advice above...get an attorney to represent you in this purchase. Another inexpensive solution to the problem of "you don't know what you don't know".