You aren’t worried about being sued by the realtor for tortiously interferring with a contract? I didn’t think you were allowed to contact people with houses listed on the mls with out going through a realtor.
Not true at all. He only has to make sure the Realtor is paid their due commission.
But that does bring up an interesting point. David how are you doing sub2 deals on listed properties without the Realtors getting in the way? I can’t imagine many Realtors having any idea what sub2 means, let alone advising their clients to go for it.
Or are you doing expired listings perhaps?
Ahh, the age old question. How do you deal with Realtors when marketing to houses on the MLS… Guys, totally easy. One, remember that a motivated seller is a motivate seller. Whether they have a realtor contract or not.
Here is exactly what I say when talking to people on the MLS.
“ I understand you have a realtor and I can appreciate that. However, I don’t pay any realtor commissions as I sent YOU a letter and we spoke without any realtor interference. We can handle this a couple of different ways.
- We can wait until your contract with you realtor is expired and go from there
- Be open and honest with your realtor and let them know you are going to sell the house to an investor and would appreciate them letting you out of the contract ( recommend this one )
- If they complain about that, we can have the seller pay the realtor a $500.00 fee on the side outside of the contract
- If the realtor just can’t handle losing a client to a investor, you can speak with the realtor directly and tell them you will pay them 1.5% when we(the investor) sell the property. Now, we like this one because we know we aren’t going to sell the property for 3-5 years. Chances are, the realtor won’t even be a realtor anymore. And if they are, you have them list it as your agent to get it on the MLS for you for free for 1.5 %
In all honesty, guys, I’ve bought 22 houses sub to and have NEVER ran across a realtor who is that hung up on a contract. Most realtors realize it’s hard to move a property in this economy and will give up the listing without ANY fight. Out of the 22 houses I bought, I only had to have the seller give the realtor $500.00 on the side once and back end a percentage once. Besides that, it was smooth sailing.
Great stuff David!
My mentor deals creatively and said that you can have a contract with the seller even if the seller has one with a Realtor. He said that the seller has an agreement with the agent NOT ME, therefore; the seller would have to pay the agent a commission if I buy that house. I also heard that the seller may not even have to pay anything to the agent as it was not the agent who brought a buyer. Could you clarify this?
Great topic !
Yep, that’s true. The seller has the contract and is ultimately responsible… Again, there are some easy work-arounds… Haven’t really had too much of an issue with realtors…