How not to appear like a babe in the woods -1st experience w/FSBO
HI BP gang!
Greetings and Happy Spring!
This is my first time posting and I am new to the BP community & new to real estate investing, but have enjoyed listening and reading about Long Distance Investing and everyone's posts here on the forum. I hope to make new friends here and looking forward to connecting with as many investors (near and far) & maybe someday we can meet IRL. Let's connect!
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I have been using the BRRR calculator and assessing various cities/states (because where I live, it's too expensive to make the numbers work) and finally found where the math works out. I found a listing on Trulia/Zillow as For Sale By Owner (FSBO) but "Please No Agents"...and "seller is related to a real estate agent" and "pre-approval and proof of funds is needed". Rather than tell my agent (because it said, "no agents", I called and wanted to learn more about the property (there was only one property photo & I wanted to learn about existing renter, inspections, etc.) What I got was the daughter/agent of the FSBO and she told me that if interested I had to put 35-40% down as non-refundable deposit, and if she were to do the paperwork/representing me as my agent she would require a 2.4% commission and a $599 Broker flat fee commission, "my team allows the $599. to be paid one time per year for investors." I have never heard of the buyer having to pay an "investor fee to the seller's broker" (she belongs to Berkshire Hathaway/Omaha's Elite real estate grp). I don't know if this sounds right and maybe I should ask that brokerage about this investor fee(?), but because I've never dealt with an FSBO I don't understand the process.
I really want this deal to work, but I feel I should get a realtor who can do an inspection for me (and represent me), but mostly my question here is, has anyone heard of a broker flat fee commission on top of a 2.4% commission? And if I don't have an agent writing the agreement up, do I write it up, and then have an Nebraska attorney check it over?
I feel I was getting scammed. Was I?
Thanks everyone,
Lynne