Evaluate my real estate negotiation in real time!

[Thremp]

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our realtor agreed to kick back $1,000 of the commission.

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This could be illegal. I'm not entirely certain off the top of my head. But pretty sure.

[SteveOMS]

Kickback of a real estate brokers commission to the selling party is NOT illegal at all. Many companies advertise that in fact even as an incentive. Its just him giving you a discount on his fee. Only thing that would be illegal is if you didn't claim it on your taxes. It would be illegal if the broker took/gave kickbacks on items like title insurance and the like.

SteveOMS

[maxtower]

Not only is it legal, but in the current environment of slowing real estate sales, you should ask your realtor for a rebate. They need your business right now and will deal in order to keep you from using another agent.

[gonebroke2]

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Playing games over a few dollars just got the OP $7500 more for his home. Do you think the better play is to just accept their offer? I hope I buy my home from someone with that mentality.

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I believe he was referring to the current market environment. Everyone wants to sell and little or no buyers. Also, it is very difficult to get a loan these days, especially a jumbo loan. I would be hitting the bid if I wanted out of real estate. I think it would be foolish to chase away a potential buyer for such a small amount like 7500. In the real estate game, that is peanuts.

[Fishhead24]

gonebroke2---Thank you......exactly my point.

Do you realize how many individuals have lost tens of thousands in the last year trying to sell their house at a certain price...........only to see it drop in value by well over 10%.

If their house was 300,000, thats a 30,000+ loss they are staring at.......and more importantly, many are still in a place they don't really want to be.

[SomethingClever]

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gonebroke2---Thank you......exactly my point.

Do you realize how many individuals have lost tens of thousands in the last year trying to sell their house at a certain price...........only to see it drop in value by well over 10%.

If their house was 300,000, thats a 30,000+ loss they are staring at.......and more importantly, many are still in a place they don't really want to be.

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I understand your point, but it's no big deal if we couldn't have gotten the price we wanted. We would have just rented it out and ridden out the market downswing.

We like the house, our mortgage is very reasonable and we could have lived here longer.

But we ended up getting an offer that I'm pretty happy with so it all worked out.

We live in Portland Oregon, FWIW. We're in a desireable neighborhood that's close-in, in a unique house with a lot of charm. If it does dip in value somewhat while the market is stagnant, it won't be a whole ton IMO.

[Fishhead24]

Nice area, lived in Beaverton for 13 days.

[black_russian]

Its most likely is not a kickback, just a reduction in the commission. Nothing close to illegal about that.

['Chair]

OP, congrats on the sell. did the buyer include a 'point' in the closing costs or was their some property tax figured in? $8500 seems high

[SomethingClever]

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OP, congrats on the sell. did the buyer include a 'point' in the closing costs or was their some property tax figured in? $8500 seems high

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I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter to me. All that matters is our net.

Also, someone mentioned that the $1k we're getting from our realtor is taxable. Pretty sure that's not true since the profit on our house isn't taxable (we've been here longer than 2 years), and the $1k is a reduction of a fee we're paying, not some sort of other credit.