- I dropped my agent for being a weak negotiator and it was a great decision. Here is the problem... I can't tell if my former agent was actually a poor negotiator or she just wanted me to buy a home that costs more money so she get a bigger commission check.
- Having a totally different experience with our realtor: this guy is sharp!
- Kentucky Multifamily
- What are your tips to help first time home buyers “watch the market?”
- Pest inspection came back with termites. What to do?
- Buying older mobiles to live in
- Portland Multifamily
- Friend who owns a house with his sister for this quitclaim deed in the mail. We’re unsure what it means??
- Currently trying to sell my house that I’m living in. My realtor says all of the feedback was bad because the house was a mess but she doesn’t have anything on paper that she can show me so I can fix it.
- Flood insurance, what am I in for?
- Properties with terrible schools - do they hold value?
- Question for RE Agents
- Something shady going on?
- They edited their Zillow description after accepting our offer. What the heck?
- [CA] What happened to real estate prices in the '08 recession in areas surrounding CA (or big cities)?
- As a first time potential home buyer, is it better to use the services of a real estate "agent" or a real estate "broker"... and how should we go about selecting one?
- Realtor advertising house in flood zone- going on and on about "River views"
- Feeling Rushed on Inspection
- Viewing Foreclosure with Open Septic Repair Permit
- How much money should I earn on rent?
- Structuring a home purchase via inheritance
- Ways to make down payment on next house.
- Buying / selling a home with furniture included
- Are realtor fees factored into house value estimates?
- Seller's agent is homeowner
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 07:44 AM PDT TL;DR - My agent was extremely negative about price negotiations and on several occasions told me it was a seller's market and that it was a waste of time to offer as we were at risk of offending them. I didn't buy it, so I fired my agent, did my own negotiating, got a great deal and the seller's agent made a killing (though not crazy about that last part lol) So, I am not a realty expert, but was my 6th property I have purchased and the 3rd one working with this realtor, so I basically understand the gist of how everything works. Anyway, we'd been looking at homes and on occasion I have asked the realtor, on houses I deemed overpriced, "Do you think if we offered this, they would go for it?" I have gotten almost every single time I have asked from a mild, "Probably not worth making that offer, but if you really want to I can try," to a "They might feel insulted by that offer," or even "It's a sellers market." My offers were NOT that outrageous. I was getting pushback from the agent on just undercutting a $325k home with $305k with a "Oh, they might be insulted by that." What!? Now, I know negotiations. I do business to business contracts professionally and often times it is me with a business owner across from each other hammering out details and negotiating and I sure as hell know there is a lot more to negotiating something than just the dollar line value at the end of the paper. My former agent was 100% focused on "This is a sellers market" and "price per sq/ft," and I was just chalking it up to my lack of comfort zone in realty and just trusting my agent as the expert. I mean, my agent does 70-80+ houses a year. She must know what she is talking about. However, this attitude was really starting to bug me because I noticed a couple of properties we liked, they'd end up under a pending sale and an eventual sale often severely undercutting the listing price and within range of what I wanted to negotiate. Not always, and sometimes it sold even higher, but I just always got such a negative vibe from the agent when I wanted to negotiate and it was always like "Hrmm... are you sure? Not sure they'll take it." It was just like negative Nancy negotiator. So, we dropped her, or I should say, I personally dropped her when my wife was feeling guilty about the work she had done with us, like we owed her loyalty or something. We had literally only done 2 ride-alongs and all she did was send us recommended properties on MLS (not including the 2 previous deals we ran with her, but this round she had done almost nothing). This, coupled with the lack of negotiating effort, I was not impressed. She was disappointed but "understood" and wanted to recommend me to, no joke, one of her Keller Williams colleagues (downline agent?). I said no thanks. Anyway, my wife and I see this house listed we really liked but was being filtered out because all the properties we were looking at were $325k or less blocked out by the filter the agent was giving us. It was listed at at about $25,000 more than we want to spend, but ok. It's 3100 sq.ft, 5 bedrooms, decent landscaping, and most importantly, on a street that ends in a Cul-de-sac (which we love) in an upscale neighborhood just outside city boundaries. Fantastic area. Not that old (built 1995). Guy is asking $348k. This house was not worth that. Now, this is Arizona and houses aren't too pricey here for what you get. But, comparable properties were maybe going for what we wanted to spend, no more than $325k, and really, I think the house was worth maybe 315k. I look on Zillow and I noticed the guy bought the place 2 years previous for $279k. It's now a vacant home. It has been listed for > 200 days, so I often wonder, what's the catch? Well, the guy was just asking for too much money. So, I personally reached out to the agent and I received a callback same day. I talk to the agent and I asked her why, if he was listed for over 200 days, how come there was no price drop recently (there was only one from 350 to 348 like 4 months back). This agent told me some BS about being in no rush and then I KNOW she straight-up lied to me and told me she got an offer that week for 335k and they turned it down. I did not make any offer or tell this agent what I was willing to spend, I just decided to ask to forward a message to the owner to give me a call when he had a chance. The owner's agent did NOT seem to like this, I could tell, but she at least passed along the message. I did find out that the guy was now living in another state due to a transfer, hence why it was an empty home for sale... but this agent of his had it listed for far too much money and apparently was not entertaining reasonable offers. I get a call from the owner of the home and we chatted for a bit. I initially just talked about the area, that we really liked the location and I basically just mentioned how I really just wanted to get his personal knowledge on the area and how it would be for a family with young kids before we made any big decisions, and basically just groundwork negotiating in building rapport and so on. I won't get into all of the little negotiating details, but I eventually ended with that we really wanted to move into this area, but the price range was a too high for us. I told him that I understood if we were looking at the wrong house, but if he would entertain what he originally paid for it, $280,000, we would buy it right away, contingent that there was nothing major wrong with it that we didn't know about, which he assured me there was not (he seemed trustworthy, but not like I had to trust him thanks to inspection, right?). Note, I fully expected a counter, and I was probably willing to go to 300-310k, but by placing the price at what he paid, knowing he's been paying 2 years, knowing he probably just wants to be rid of the house 200+ days later, it was worth a try to underbid where we wanted to end up. He paused for a moment thinking, asked me if we were already approved (we were, conventional loan), and he didn't even negotiate back, said he completely agreed, 280k it is. He actually seemed excited to be rid of the house not disappointed in my offer, happy with who his buyers were (not that it matters that much, but it can help get a better deal if a person likes you). Agent got me the offer paperwork the next morning with the contingent I requested on inspections. I used a real-estate attorney involved which cost about $600, and there were some additional costs involved with inspection and so on, like normal closing costs with title co., but it was not bad. I should note, he was already in a new home so he was paying 2 mortgages and was not happy about the situation he was in. Knowing this after talking with him briefly really helped put me in a stronger position on making an offer. I WISH I could've used an agent I trusted to do all of this work so I didn't have to. I am not averse to using a real-estate agent. But holy hell, it feels like there is this major conflict of interest in negotiating on behalf of the buyer/seller. Funny enough, the seller's contract stipulated they got any leftover commission on the deal if there was no buyer's agent, so they actually made more money off of this deal than if they had sold at full price giving up the other 3%. The worthless seller's agent got 6% commission. I personally find that kind of contract jacked up though and completely not in the best interest of the seller at all. I will tell you this, I will NEVER sign a seller's contract that stipulates such a condition. Anyway, this happened about a year ago, but I wanted to share my experience here. [link] [comments]  |
| Having a totally different experience with our realtor: this guy is sharp! Posted: 19 Oct 2019 09:06 AM PDT We just cleared due diligence on a house we are selling and i am so pleased to report we have a realtor who has 100% changed my view on real estate agents. I told him up front about my general distrust of realtors given lazy/self-serving/worthless past experiences. He assured me he would change my mind and he has. From guidance on prepping to sell, partnering with us on pricing by bringing strong professional recommendations driven by data, and some of the best negotiating skills I have seen out of all of my real estate transactions (this is my 8th). I am confident we will clear the final contingencies easily and be on our way to closing in less than a month. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:16 PM PDT Hey guys I had a post earlier about POR but I was mistaken and thinking KENTUCKY Anyone familiar with multifamily in Kentucky prices for 100k? [link] [comments]  |
| What are your tips to help first time home buyers “watch the market?” Posted: 19 Oct 2019 05:53 PM PDT We're hoping the purchase a house sometime in the next couple years. We have a wonderful and hard-working agent who helped a family member find a wonderful home at a great price, so we feel great about that. We live in a very high cost of living city on the west coast. Assuming we have at least a year to learn and "watch" the market, what are some good strategies and best practices to enable us to feel confident in our purchase process? Edit: this is for a single family home. [link] [comments]  |
| Pest inspection came back with termites. What to do? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:13 PM PDT I've got an accepted offer on a duplex and the pest inspection says it has termites and they recommend the bait method to get rid of them. Three questions, does that method really work? What method have you found to work best? And would you walk away based on that only? I'm worried the bones aren't good. About the property, located in Northern California, will be a rental property, age of home is 1972, and much of the home was remodeled after a fire three years ago. Sorry for the noob questions, I was prepared to make decisions based on roof issues and other maintenance factors, but not termites. [link] [comments]  |
| Buying older mobiles to live in Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:42 PM PDT I'm a single guy who would to have his own space but doesn't need anything large. There's a lot of mobile home parks in my area and people often own the home but pay lot rent which averages $175-200ish. Does anyone here have experience in purchasing mobile homes set up in a park whether it be living in or investing? I realize there is some risk including the park owner being in control and lot rents fluctuate. I'm considering this since older mobile homes that need work often go for pretty cheap in my area. However I'm having trouble finding listings other than Facebook marketplace. I also think trailers just make a cool project. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:15 PM PDT Anyone with experience in POR multifamily ? I hear like quadplex for 100k? Is that accurate? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:40 PM PDT Link to paperwork: https://m.imgur.com/gallery/D91G5Fz We're confused as to what this means? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:00 PM PDT I believe she's deflecting because she's been in Tampa for the last month and hasn't given much effort but I'm not experienced in selling houses so I don't know. I keep the house clean not cluttered and everything is either in closets or tucked in our addition. Idk if she just doesn't want to sell our house because it's more difficult but she's mentioned that we can drop her if we want. Is it that much more difficult to sell if I'm still living in the house ? I do have 2 kids and my gf as well as one more person. She originally listed our house as a 3/2 but is actually a 3/1 with an addition that has the plumbing for a bathroom. [link] [comments]  |
| Flood insurance, what am I in for? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:02 PM PDT Anyone with experience with properties requiring flood insurance? [Oregon] I'm under contract to buy a house on a river, it's rated as a 1 per 100 year risk. Says I have to insure the purchase price minus the value of the land. Purchase price is $400k, I'm putting $150k down, tax assessment values are: $198,240 buildings, $290,250 land. Fixed up it'd be worth that but currently assessment is $100k higher than it's worth, based on listing price and highest offer (mine). Would the mortgage lender base the land value (to subtract from purchase price) from the tax amount, or from appraisal done for the mortgage? Will the appraiser separate value of land/house or just say "it's worth $400k". I'm thinking I probably have to get flood insurance for $250k. Maybe less if I'm lucky. The house is not worth $200k, closer to $100k, it needs a bit of everything. [link] [comments]  |
| Properties with terrible schools - do they hold value? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 05:47 PM PDT Have any of you guys had experience owning properties like these where the schools are so bad there might as well not be any schools at all? Will these areas hold value worse, especially in a recession compared to areas with okay or good schools? I am not sending kids to school or anything, so I don't care about them at all except what their effect would be on my property value in the upcoming recession. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 05:43 PM PDT Okay I'm asking for new(er) agents in the field. I just passed my prelicensing course for my state (KY). I am now studying on Compucram for the licensing portion. Did anybody else do this? I struggled on my final exam and got it on my third try. I want to go in and make sure I get it right the first time. How hard is the state/national test? Im sure it varies on a state by state basis. I will be one of the youngest real estate agents in my state, and want to jump into the business as soon as I can [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:33 PM PDT We put in an offered for a duplex for 350k that was listed at 380k in California. The property was on the market for 60 days. Within 24 hours of our offer, our agent told us that someone submitted a bit of 355k and advise us to move on from the property. 24 hours after that we were told the seller accepted the offer of 355. Fast forward 45 days later, I got curious and looked up the public records for the property and it was sold for 330k. Is this typical or was there something shady going on? [link] [comments]  |
| They edited their Zillow description after accepting our offer. What the heck? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 05:03 PM PDT The previous description, which I unfortunately didn't screenshot, said that a new roof was installed in 2016. Two days ago our offer was accepted and the inspection was scheduled for Monday. Today, the description was edited to say that the new roof was actually only installed on the back half of the house. I know this because it says "wording amended 10/19/19". Is this something we should bring up? How should we handle this? To me, it seems deceitful and sketchy, but maybe it was a slip up....? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 04:51 PM PDT It seems to me that if a big city is "over extended", that a recession could cause surrounding areas to actually see growth. For instance, a lot of small rural cities in the mid west are experiencing a lot of growth right now due to an eflux from places like CA, and the PNW. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 04:08 PM PDT |
| Realtor advertising house in flood zone- going on and on about "River views" Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:43 PM PDT Does this seem crazy to anyone else? House backs up to a river, and in a 100 year flood plain. The street occasionally will flood. Once or twice a decade I would say (lifelong resident). Flood insurance is required. Got a letter in the mail today advertising this house (which is $40k overpriced for what it is irregardless of flooding) and they are showing a picture of the lake as one of like 4 pictures on the postcard. Look it up online and more pictures of the lake and the description is talking about the river views... Just think this is funny. They are trying to spin the river like a positve, yet its going to cost you over $1000 a year in insurance plus flood your house and ruin many of your possessions every 7 or 8 years... Anyone seen this before? I suppose it might be a good strategy if selling the house to a moron [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:41 PM PDT Today is Saturday 10-16. Seller accepted our offer 3 days ago. Our realtor didn't call us but sent an email saying that an inspector would be in contact with us. She asked us when we'd like to close and without thinking I said 30 days since the holidays are approaching. I assume that an inspector would reach out to us to schedule - but instead I just get another email saying inspection is scheduled for Monday at 8am - which sent us scrambling. I can't find any info on the inspector. Every piece of advice says to do some interviewing of the inspector... but our ten day contingency window closes 10-26... We initially loved our realtor, but there's been a definite lack of communication here. I feel like just giving in here and going along to get along but there's also a voice that says WTF. [link] [comments]  |
| Viewing Foreclosure with Open Septic Repair Permit Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:54 PM PDT Going to view a house tomorrow that appears it is in foreclosure or heading to foreclosure. My real estate agent told me it currently has an open permit for outstanding septic work. The house has been on the market since early July. The price has been steadily dropping by about $10k a month since. What are some things I should be on the lookout for when I view tomorrow? I'll be asking my agent the same question tomorrow and be getting a septic/sewer line inspection if I decide to put an offer on the house, but I've seen so much knowledge and experience in this thread I wanted to extend my question here. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How much money should I earn on rent? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:36 PM PDT I have a home I wish to sell. I have flirted with the idea of renting. The home has about 35k to 50k in equity dependent on the sales price. I would not have to pay capital gains. The problem is I have flirted with the idea of renting it. This would be my first time ever doing this. If I refinanced and rent the house out I think I can make an extra 350 a month. Hopefully more as I have to pay for pool maintenance. That excess would go straight to savings for repairs and future upgrades but it seems very minimal. Is there a rule of thumb of how much money you should make in excess of the mortgage ? [link] [comments]  |
| Structuring a home purchase via inheritance Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:48 AM PDT Hi all, my grandmother passed away last year and my mother and uncle are looking to sell the house and split the proceeds. My brother has interest in purchasing the house and my mother has offered her share of it as his inheritance so all he has to do is finance the share owed to my uncle. For this post's sake, let's say the value of the house is $700k. It needs about $100k in improvements. For argument's sake, let's say my brothers inheritance would be $300-350k. Uncle and mom are willing to work with him and maybe even offer him a discount. The big catch is that my mother still has many years to live and while she's not cashless, this cash would be good for her to fix her own house and a few other things. Last thing my brother wants to do it to put my mother in this state. What creative financing options are there so that my uncle gets his share (let's say $300k) and my mother gets some money ($100k) from my brother? In summary, My brother would have to finance this transaction by paying my uncle ($300k), mother ($100k) and reno costs ($100k). [link] [comments]  |
| Ways to make down payment on next house. Posted: 19 Oct 2019 10:10 AM PDT We've finally decided to pull the trigger and move into a bigger house and I'd love some feedback on which path to take for coming up with the new down payment. We'll need at least $58.5k for the down payment on the new home and have $20k in liquid cash available currently. Our current house will conservatively sell for 280k, and we owe 155k on it. We'd like to be able use the equity in our current home for the down payment on the new one which we're offering 385k for. The lender we are pre-approved with has said we can make a 15% down payment on the new house without having to pay PMI, which would be 58.5k. I have discussed opening a HELOC with them since our house is not on the market yet, and it would start at a variable rate of 3.99%, with no closing costs, no annual fee. However, should our home take longer than anticipated to sell, we would be facing making payment on current home, payment on HELOC, and payment on new home every month until current home sells, which would not be ideal to say the least. The lender offered the alternative of taking a bridge loan, which would cost $595 to originate, which they roll into the principal of the loan instead of having us pay out of pocket. It would be at a fixed rate of 2.99% with no payments required for a year. Interest would begin accruing when they wire the funds for the down payment to the title company on the closing date of the new home. Once our home sells, we can pay off the bridge loan with no prepayment penalties and the lender will allow us to also put any lump sum amount against the principal of our new mortgage and they will recast the loan with a new monthly payment based on that principal amount without a fee or our APR changing. This description is making me lean towards the bridge loan option, but I feel like the usual advice is to use a HELOC in this scenario. I'd much rather pay $595 once if it gave me the peace of mind that I won't be making payments on essentially three mortgages while selling our current house, and the bridge loan interest rate is actually (currently) lower than the HELOC. If anyone could chime in, I'd really appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Buying / selling a home with furniture included Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:36 PM PDT Hi all, We have the opportunity to buy a model home in a neighborhood we've been eyeing. A big part of the draw is that all the furniture and decorations in the model home are included. Both my wife and I are terrible at decorating, and also hate trying to do it. So being able to just move into a gorgeous turnkey house is a pretty huge quality-of-life improvement that we're willing to pay somewhat of a premium for. But then it raises the question of what to do with our existing furniture. One thought we had was to sell the house with the furniture included. Is this a common practice, and would it justify a higher sale price? Or am I getting too clever for my own good here and should just sell the furniture separately? [link] [comments]  |
| Are realtor fees factored into house value estimates? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 08:24 AM PDT My husband and I are going to be buying my sister's house. We've agreed that we're going to do an average of all the estimates we can find as well as the appraisal. What we haven't figured out is whether to subtract realtor fees or not. Realtor fees would normally be 6%, we're just not sure if that is factored into those estimates? Or are those strictly the estimate for the house, not the sale of the house. Any thoughts would be appreciated, if you need any more information we can supply. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:23 PM PDT We found a home we love. Problem is the seller's agent is the homeowner. How will this affect negotiations? Anything else I should take into consideration due to this? [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from HomeOwners & Investors. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment