Looking for advice on a written offer I made through my real estate agent?

I recently looked at a home that was listing through an agent. I met the seller personally and he showed me the house himself as he's a friend of my family. I made a written offer through my own agent to the sellers listing agent just recently. The seller has not accepted my offer and his contract with his listing agent expires at the end of this month. He contacted me to see if I would be willing to wait till his contract expires and we can make a deal without our realtors to avoid paying the commissions. Is this legal and do I have any obligation to my agent now that I have put in a written offer through him? Thanks.Looking for advice on a written offer I made through my real estate agent?
When you went to an agent to look for homes and if it's the first house sometimes people think the agent who is trying to find you your dream home works for you. That feeling is totally NOT true. You owe the agent exacty $000.00





Under the law the agent you picked and asked to find you a home actually works for the seller. The law in all 50 states is that buyers always have NO obligation to pay one cent in commission to the agent. The seller always pays 100 percent of the commision. Your friend is giving you bad advice, you already do not have to pay any commission.





In private sales the seller dose save on commission but what they really want is for the buyer NOT to hire a lawyer to draw up the offer for the house. It's a common scam, but it is not against the law.





There are some legalities that you should have looked into by a lawyer before making an offer on a house and you should also always always always have your lawyer draw up the offer, not the real-estate agent. The best thing that happened to you is that the seller refused your offer. If you make an offer without any terms and conditions and it is accepted, then the house is sold, you can't change your mind later. You own it as well as all it's problems.





But by hiring a lawyer to make the offer for you he can write terms and conditions on the house. Then your Lawyer has the legal right to act on your behalf and look for things you might not even know about.





Most importantly the lawyer will write a clause in the offer that the house has to pass a building inspection by an inspector of YOUR choice. Your lawyer then writes another clause that says if the inspector finds one thing wrong and you don't like it, then you can nullify the offer. This clause is always written with the words that says that the inspection is for YOUR benefit, not the sellers.





Say you see the perfect house and you want to make an offer. But say you make the offer through your lawyer who writes in terms and conditions into the offer, you can save your self a lot of money and a lot of grief down the road.





Because of the terms and conditions, the lawyer and/or your inspector could find things like the house has liens or multiple mortages on the house or other legal problems such as easements. Does the land come with the house -- sometimes it doesnt.





The building inspector will be abe to find out if there are major problems with the house: the sewer pipes are blocked by roots, the house is not constructed properly to bear the weight of the roof or the second story or the electrical wiring may have to be redone because it's not up to code, the foundation has problems, the basement leaks and worse of all, the house is settling (half the house is sinking), all of which will require real costly repairs.





After you get the reports from your lawyer and building inspector, then you can say the house does not meet the terms and conditions. The lawyer will write a letter that the offer is nullified and since the offer says the terms and conditions are written for your benefit, there is nothing the seller can do and you are fully protected from being sued.





Many States have laws that allow them to inspect the wiring in older houses and the seller of the house may have already received an order to have the house rewired so it meets current code standards. An order to rewire is one of the reasons owners want to sell privately and say that you will save on commission and lawyer's fees to write an offer. They will say to you ';why pay a lawyer to write an offer and why pay a real-estate agent a commision, let's save you the money.';





A lot of people hire a lawyer upon closing. What they should do is hire a lawyer the minute they go house hunting. Sure you save a few hundred dollars, but it might save you many thousands of dollars down the road.





By hiring your lawyer at the offer stage, when you find your dream home, you will know exactly what you are getting for your money. No house is without problems, but you will be reassured that you won't find and real bad problems and nasty surprises later on.





But to answer your question you never had any obligation to the real-estate agent at any time and yes it is legal to sell privately, but the sellers motivation may not be to save money; the odds are is that seller wants you to sign an offer not drawn up by a lawyer. That too is perfectly legal.





What rings alarm bells for me is the words ';our realtors.'; Even though you picked the agent, the agent works for him, period.Looking for advice on a written offer I made through my real estate agent?
Close the transaction with the Realtors. Their commission has been earned. If you don't, the listing agent will sue the seller later - and win. Who will the seller come to? He (your friend) is giving you part of the savings for cutting out the Realtors, right? So he will want you to come up with your share. How will you two figure out how much is yours and how much is his?





BTW - what goes around comes around
Your friend has a contract with that Realtor, and the contract probably states that if somebody buys the house, who saw the house while he had it listed, then he will be paid a commission.





Your friend entered into the contract hoping to sell his house, the Realtor entered into the contract hoping to make money... and spent time and money trying to sell the house.





Is it legal? Maybe. Is it wrong? Yes.
Why not just do the honorable thing and go through with the deal? Realestate agents deserve to make a living too, don't they? This market is tough enough on agents as it is. How would like your boss or customers to renig on you at work, and your paycheck be cancelled at the last moments before payday? You and your friend both made agreements, live up to those. Especially so close to the holidays.
As far as your agent you have no obligations unless you signed a contract with him, the sellers agent can collect commision even after the listing expires if it is sold to someone who viewed during the contract time, all states have diffrent time limits on this so read your contract well
Make sure that you haven't signed a exlusive right to buy from the agent. If you haven't then you have no obligation to them and tell the owner of the house to decline the offer that you made and wait until his contract is up. Also, make sure that he doesn't just end up selling the house to someone else, because that would suck for you. My other recommendation is to have him pay your closing costs, since he's gonna be saving a ton of money by not paying 6% commission to agents...Good luck!
I suppose you could wait until the listing expires and then buy it but the seller would be leaving himself open to a lawsuit by the listing Realtor since you have already made a written offer while it was listed.





It may or may not be legal but what is being proposed certainly isn't ethical.