I know nothing about real estate. I own half of an acre near lake gaston. I put it on the market through a local realtor last year. He stated his commission is 10% to sell. Recently I got an email saying the listing expired and asking if I want to renew. The form they sent doesn't really say anything about cost, only the asking price. I have emailed and gotten no response, but I am wondering is the 10% for a year, and it's another 10% to have it listed for another year. I know he has a listing in the local MLS paper so he has some cost involved. Thanks for the help.

He gets 10% of the sales price if and when it sells.

That seems a little high to me. I don't know that market, but check into it.

10% is customary for unimproved land in Whackyland, less if it is very large, like $15 million.

It is 10% of the sales price, not per year, cumulative.

Never bought in NC (assuming you mean Lake Gaston in NC), but have bought 6 times in 4 different states. 6% is typically split (3% each) between the seller's and buyer's realtors.

Dad sold 1.3 acres in the Upper midwest, and magically right before quarterly contract renewal someone would be interested but the deal would fall apart. At the 1 year mark, Dad elected not to renew, knocked on the door of the nearest neighbor, and sold it himself. Selling price was slightly less than asking price, but he netted more since there were no realtor costs.

Between not selling in 1 year, the high commission, and the not returning e-mails I certainly would not renew.

EDIT: Just searched a real estate website, and there is an extreme variability ($35,000 to $330,000) on lot costs when searching .4 to .6 acre lots on Lake Gaston. If you're at the low end, then I could see a little higher realtor commission. Still doesn't excuse the poor communication.

quote:

Originally posted by buddy357:
I know nothing about real estate. I own half of an acre near lake gaston. I put it on the market through a local realtor last year. He stated his commission is 10% to sell. Recently I got an email saying the listing expired and asking if I want to renew. The form they sent doesn't really say anything about cost, only the asking price. I have emailed and gotten no response, but I am wondering is the 10% for a year, and it's another 10% to have it listed for another year. I know he has a listing in the local MLS paper so he has some cost involved. Thanks for the help.

Without more info on the property, and the market where it is located, it is tough to tell if you are being overcharged or not. That is a high percentage fee, but if it is a very small dollar property then it may take a high percentage to make it worthwhile to handle it.

It sounds to me like your Realtor is not really wanting to handle the property. You should be getting much better service and communication from someone you are paying to provide a service. Again, if it is a small dollar difficult property to sell, difficult to show, then you may find most brokers do not want to handle it, but they owe it to you to be honest about that if that is the case. There should be someone new in the business, local to the property and hungry for clients that will give you better service.

Do not renew your listing until you do some research into other brokers.

Talk to several brokers. Ask what they charge. What do they think the market value is? Where would they list it?

As to why it didn't sell in a year, it's hard to say. Usually, that is Mr. Market telling you the asking price is too high. Brokers have a tendency to list high, to get the listing, figuring offers will come in lower and reality will eventually sink in with the seller.

It is easy to come down, impossible to go up, although I did have a guy sit with a house on the market for $290k, no action, then upped the listing to $310k and sold it within 60 days.

That's the standard rate around here for raw land. 6% is the usual for homes.

The work is the same regardless of if you are selling a $10,000 lot and a $200,000 lot so you are not likely to get much interest if yours is on the low end. Same work, much lower payday.

The commission is split between the buyers agent and the sellers agent when the property sells.
If you are paying below what most others are, guess which property the sellers agent will be showing first?

my buddy is a realtor in NC, and I am about 45min away from Lake Gaston...

6% is standard around the area and east of I95... that's 3% for the seller and 3% for the buyer's agents...


DUMP THEM

find another agent in the area

they are trying to bleed you for little to no work

10% can be normal for low value land...

If the sales price is $10K, the commission is only $1K. It may be hard to entice realtors to spend any time marketing your property for only $300 (Their half of $600). Especially if they're having to share it with other brokers or a group...which is common.

Now if the sales price of the land is more than $10K....I'd be re-thinking.

Anytime you're going to consider renewing a contract with a real estate agent/broker, have them quantify what they did during the previous contract period to market the property. How many showings did they facilitate? What is their opinion of why they were unable to sell it within the contracted time period? If you don't like the answers....move on.

Just remember that everything, including commissions, are negotiable.

I'm not an expert. I do live in NC. I've bought land, 3 homes and sold two homes here. I've never paid more than 6%

I wasn't as concerned about the percentage as the process and if it were going to be an additional 10% for an additional year.

I approached three different realtors and two didn't return my call until the third started advertising it. The property isn't worth much and may never sell even though it's up for 3/4 of assessed value, and I'd likely have taken 1/2 just to get rid of it. Rumor is undeveloped properties in the Norcarva area aren't selling well. That's what I have, .56 acres in Norcarva subdivision, assessed from 26-16k over the years. Last year was a little over 16k.

A big part of my reason is I received the property from my adopted mom for a very low price 13-14 years ago. Was an incentive to come home and build on when I got out of service. Her grandson lived on the lot directly behind it (next street) in a trailer and her hope was since we were close we'd raise families there. Since then she passed on, I was told by her family to never come around anymore cause I'm not "real" family and he now lives in her home miles away. I am divorced now and have no intention of living in small town NC where not only would I run into the adopted mom's family, but the ex-wife and her family on a regular basis. There are also not many jobs there and I live in Baltimore for my current job. I don't need the money, but the property doesn't seem to have a place in my plans, so I thought i'd sell it.

My current plans include either finding a way to move to WV, NOVA (but still drive-able to here) when my lease expires next year or if I am lucky, getting another area to work in central VA when one of the older guys retires, but he doesn't plan to retire til 2020.

10 percent is the traditional commission for selling undeveloped land. Selling land takes much longer than selling a house so real estate agents want a larger commission.

Lower the price and get rid of it. Having to pay property taxes on it each year, and it doesn't sound like a desirable piece of property..... or call the ex's family and tell them you're going to put a trailer on it and move their if it doesn't sell, they might buy it from ya!