3rd party fees ; to pay or not to pay, the great debate

  We still continue to hear stories from Realtors over and over, again and again regarding third party negotiation fees on short sales. They ask the Realtors to pay them off the Pre-Lim HUD, and sometimes they are pretty huge fees. But are these third party firms or people really that experienced? Can they really demand these fees in this way? Can they really demand that the sellers pay their fees? Can they sign up these sellers and make them pay fees that are so high that they finance them monthly till way past the closing date?

They say that “Technically” a buyer or seller cannot be made to pay these fees, by an agent or Realtor. Then the argument is that why would a buyer pay more money for a short sale home? They can just buy a different home with no extra fees for any third party middle-man added into the sales price? Does that make any sense at all? The other side is, why a seller would list the property with such a fee. By doing that they could price themselves out of the market. Last but not least we have the lenders that are slowly putting an end to paying any third party fees.

Will we ever get a ruling on this, I doubt it. Why don’t we just pass a Short Sale Tax and have that fee be paid to a “3^rd Party Negotiator”.  If the new incoming Pres does get congress to work on the outstanding issues soon it looks like people may start paying sales tax on property sales next year. But, that’s another story.
Have a Great Day
Paul Antonelli