I think a gift card would be appropriate. They are under no obligation to pay a realtor‘s fee to an agent who is in no way involved with this transactio. If they can buy directly from the family friend it may be a win win situation.

I wonder if the agent is prohibited from accepting payment outside of contract? At any rate, I do think a gift card or special item she might enjoy would be generous and appropriate, but would not offer money.

The property seller pays a commission. If your daughter did not have a separate buyer's agent contract, then it comes down to a nice gift certificate. And I'm not talking about a $25 Starbucks card, either. I'd go as far as $500 depending on value of houses being considered.

I disagree. This happens, and there was no ill will. I don't think a family friend would even be comfortable accepting it.

I am a former realtor. You win some and you lose some. It is part of the business.

Do they have someone representing them in this contract? In NY, my job as a realtor was to help negotiate the price and terms and to know where the pitfalls might be. Then everything was sent to the buyer or seller's attorney for review. I was shocked that in PA no one uses lawyers. Seems crazy to me. They don't even review contracts. My point is that you could always hire her on an hourly basis to help with drawing up the offer and the back and forth with the other owner. It is easier to negotiate when it isn't a personal friend.

Best of luck to them.

They should pay a real estate attorney to draft the offer and purchase documents. The sellers might be friends, but this is still a large transaction.

There isn’t a contract yet. There isn’t even an offer yet. This is such a seller’s market, that I doubt there will be negotiations on the price. However, there are nearly always negotiations concerning defects discovered by a competent inspection. But I agree, there needs to be a buffer between the sellers and the buyers, especially considering the closeness of the 2 families.

I found my home myself and negotiated a very small commission with a realtor to represent me in negotiating the price and get through the inspection and paperwork. I was upfront with the seller (who had not yet listed) and they paid the commission.

If this real estate agent is the buyers’ agent for your DD and DSIL, then are they even allowed to buy except through her? The standard contract and the state laws may be different in your state, but generally the buyers’ agent represents the buyer under the agreement in my state.

Business and friends/family can get awkward. In your case, I would give a gift card to express my thanks.

Jojoco: I have purchased 2 homes in Pennsylvania and always secured my own attorney.

Since the house they are buying is not represented on either side by an agent, they did not need to bring their agent in. Since she is a friend, and took the time to show them 25 houses in a month, I would do something. Money/check is not an option, IMO, since she works for a RE company.. It would be unethical of her to accept. A gift card would be appropriate, but nothing extravagant. A token gift, as Men said.

We worked extensively with a realtor to find our cottage and ended up buying privately. Because he had invested many hours with us and made a few offers on our behalf, we wrote him a fairly substantial check when we went private. We use him a lot in the family and wanted to preserve the relationship.

(OT, in California no one uses attorneys for routine home real estate transactions. The contracts are very standardized. Maybe for extremely expensive properties, or certainly commercial, or ones that involve taxation issue, maybe then. But for ordinary home buying/selling? Nope, no attorneys.)

ETA: this is for transactions using a real estate agent and using approved forms. No idea what happens when people do not use agents at all, maybe they use attorneys. But there are few "real estate attorneys" except those who deal with very large issues.

We used a real estate agent in CA recommended by my sister. She had worked with him when buying her last 2 houses(each 1.5M+). He showed us at least 25 homes(in our much more modest budget!). We also went to many open houses on our own. He assisted us with two offers on homes on which we were outbid.

We eventually saw a sign while driving around a community we were particularly interested in. It wasn't on the MLS, being sold by the out of the area real estate agent brother of the owner. He insisted that he would only sell to us if we were not represented by an agent. He wouldn't pay any real estate fees to our agent. Our agent never accompanied us on our 2 or 3 visits to the house. He was very gracious and spent phone time with me going over the particulars of the sale and the laws governing CA real estate sales. We offered to pay him a buyers fee but he declined. We have used him for the past 3 years in renting our house during the 6 months we are not there. So he has gotten that commission. It would have been awkward to give him a gift.

This agent is not a “buyer’s agent.” There is absolutely no contract of any sort between DD & DSIL and the agent. I suspect that the plan was for any fee to come from the sellers in a transaction where the house was listed for sale. The current situation is that the house is not on the market, not even as a FSBO. It is owned by a family friend who is planning to move. DD & DSIL contacted the friend and asked if they would be willing to sell sooner than they had planned to. Friend answered affirmatively. Although DD & DSIL had seen the house as guests, they went to look at the house as buyers unaccompanied by the agent. They liked what they saw. And here we are.

As to agent being unable to take cash because of a duty owed to the agency owner, agent is the owner of the business.

As I said initially, Agent has been involved in the sale/purchase of 3 properties for our family. And we always send referrals to him/her.

After showing 25 houses, I would at least give a $500 fee. I'm thinking you could ask your friend/agent if it's legal to write a purchaser agreement and put in the $500 in the appropriate place on the form. Just to make it legal, if it isn't. My sister is an agent and even though she may not expect anything, I would-that is a lot of houses to show!

I would do the same thing Ollie Jane suggests, if not on principle then at least in recognition of the time spent showing 25 houses. Where we live some agents will do the contract and any amendments and help with a checklist of required inspections (radon, termites, etc) for a flat fee of $2500. In FSBO sales the buyer and seller often split the cost.

To address the rationale that the agent has been paid for previous transactions: it’s a moot point. No one would mow your lawn six times then do it for free once in hopes that he might be paid the next time.

@Kswl, I believe a spammer has entered into this conversation. But for the record, DD and DSIL gave the agent a nice check for her efforts. She gave it back saying she could not accept it.

I didn't see the comments, thankfully. And your DD did the right thing for the right reasons (of course she would!) so that settles things nicely between them. Money has a way of coming between friends in situations like that, and the fact that it was offered and refused puts everybody back on an equal footing.