Realty Reality
The wife and I are actively passively looking into buying a new home. Not a new one, per se, though that may happen, but a different one than the one we live in.
Oh, the one we have is okay for us, but we’re at a point where we’d like a few other things out of a house:
- A basement (me)
- A bigger kitchen (wife)
We don’t have any real pre-requisites, but the main goal of this is to move closer to town and to be somewhat closer for the wife to drive to work.
As such, we’d also like to maintain a few things that we already have, like 2 bathrooms, a two car attached garage, and a nice sized master bedroom.
Since we’re not in any particular hurry, we can be quite selective, which we have.
However, this blog isn’t about us and buying a home. It’s about the process.
You see, thus far every realtor who has shown us houses hasn’t really tried to sell us on them. They don’t seem to do anything other than unlock the door. The lady last night, well, she did turn every light on in the house she could find. But, then she couldn’t find all of the switches to turn them back off, which meant that I had to go back through the whole house and do it for her. The previous two realtors that showed us houses just kind of opened the door and didn’t say much.
I wonder if they think that two punk kids like us couldn’t afford a new house and are just wasting their time.
But what REALLY boggles my mind in all of this is how pathetic the information about the houses is. I mean, if you’re trying to sell a house, you should have flyers out front, the MLS number easily accessible, and lots of pictures on the website. It completely amazes me that the majority of the houses available have no pictures available, no flyers out front. How am I supposed to know how much it costs? I’m supposed to call a realtor? That’s effort, and 80% of people looking at houses aren’t going to exert it.
A lot of ForSaleByOwner homes are no different. Our neighbor across the street just put theirs up for sale. The extent of that is a “for sale” sign out from with a phone number. No flyers. No pictures. No information about how much the house costs. Already they’ve alienated themselves from 80% of the market. I’d recommend they get a realtor, but from what we’ve seen already there’s no guarantee that the realtor is going to service them any better.
The wife and I have already been making flyers and a website with lots of pictures. We’ll put them out just as soon as we find a house we want to buy, which could be tomorrow or could be next year. We’re not in any hurry. But we are READY.
It just amazes me, for how lucrative real estate selling can be that there isn’t more emphasis on trying to capitalize on the sale.
March 14th, 2006 at 7:37 am
I think we already proved, scientifically, that realtors are a trach.
March 14th, 2006 at 8:49 am
This is some serious contanister bait.
March 14th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Isn’t Pavey a reator now?
Also, when I started looking for a house, I didn’t want to put much effort into it. I called a realtor and told her what I wanted and then told her how much I was pre-approved to spend. That busted the “this kid can’t afford a nice house” myth.
Then, realtor would call and say she had a house I should look at. I would then ask all the important questions (2-car garage? basement? >= 1 acre, etc.). If any answer was NO, then I didn’t look at the house. That worked out well. After about the 3st or 4rd time that she tried to get me to look at a house that didn’t have all I wanted, I offered to find a realtor that would not bother me with houses that I would not want. After that little discussion, the process worked very well and I got a house.
Realtors don’t want it easy for you to do the research. It takes makes their existance much less important.
http://www.realtor.com is a handy site, though.
March 14th, 2006 at 11:02 am
realtors are a trach, and teh best evidence is their average earnings have been declining year by year. I would not expect this trend to reverse itself anytim soon.
There are some good tech-savy ones out there. Usually they are cheap, too, because they’re into the whole “efficiency” thing.
March 14th, 2006 at 11:07 am
I would also add that it seems that there are more realtors entering the market every year, as evidenced by the fact that there are at least 150 of them working in the Columbus area for a market of only 30000 or so homes.
March 14th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I’ll agree with Grenert’s point about getting pre-approved. That can make a HUGE difference in how seriously a Realtor takes you. I recently worked with a Realtor who was very helpful. Of course, I took a lot of guesswork out of the equation because I told her the EXACT neighborhood I wanted, which incidentally was the same one where she lives.
I think the biggest benefit of a good Realtor is the help they can provide with the necessary financial and legal documents - especially for first-time-buyers (like me). Granted, a purchase agreement form isn’t rocket science, but it’s been VERY helpful to have someone who knows the process intimately.
Good luck with the selling and buying process!
March 14th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Sold my house in the haute sans realtor by putting a sign in the front yard with some flyers in a tube attached to the sign.
Went to Staples and spent $15 for a purchase agreement. The purchase agreement had numbered blanks to fill in, along with an explanation next to each number.
Title company did 100% of the remaining paperwork.
Conclusion, realtors is a scam.
March 14th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Caleb and I would prefer to sell the current house sans realtor. So I’m not quite sure how much help we would get from a realtor since they won’t be listing our house.
As a realtor, do you make more for listing the house or selling the house? Anyone know the percentages?
March 14th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Selling, you get 7%.
If the buyer uses an agent, you have to give them a portion of your commission (assuming you=selling agent).
March 14th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
yeah, total realtor take is 7%. part goes to listing agent. part goes to selling agent. part goes to listing agency. obviously you make the most money if you sell a house you list, but if you sell houses other people list or only list houses, you can make pretty good money without having to do ALL the work. we’re listing ours with my aunt mainly because the land we’re planning to buy isn’t with a realtor, so she wouldn’t get any money from that, and when i bought this house, it wasn’t listed, so she didn’t get any money from that, so i feel kinda bad.
April 11th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
did you ever consider there might be a good reason why a realtor chooses not to put fliers out in front of thier listing? perhaps it’s to find out the level of acitivity in the neighborhood as far as lookers are concerned. If you give a potential buyer ALL the information up front they do not have a need to call. If you don’t talk to them how can you find out WHAT they are looking for and relay that information back to your client? after all there IS a strategy involved in selling real estate. A buyer who does not want to put any “effort” into it by picking up the phone for information is not a serious buyer in my opinion. additionally, you would be surprised how many people buy a home that does not match what they originally said they wanted. Buyer’s should not rule out homes that do not have “everything” on the want list. Or, they should not rule out homes because they did’nt like the pictures. In most cases it’s very difficult to efectively “capture” the architectural design, spaciousness and feel of the home through pictures.
Think about how much money it costs a realtor to be in this business. Cell phone expense, ink expense for printers, lockboxes, signs, advertising, gas, office costs, web site cost, lisencing cost, continuing education and board dues…….I could go on and on.
Nobody likes to waste thier time you should’nt expect realtors to on unqualified buyers or buyers who are not serious or ready.
I hope Corbins aunt make something out of the deal after all the work I’m sure she’s going to put into it.
As far as “tech savy” realtors being cheap…..YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
April 12th, 2006 at 7:33 am
but why should i pay all that money when i can’t even get the realtor to schedule a closing date or tell me when we get possesion of the house.
April 12th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Ross, you make no sense.
“If you give a potential buyer ALL the information up front they do not have a need to call.” - If they like the house, they will call. If they don’t, I dont want them to call. That’s the difference - you DO want them to call, just so you can try to get a foot in the door for selling them another property.
Dooley only paid $15, and he seems to have gotten quite a bit.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
My assertion is that they won’t call if they see a realtor’s sign in the yard. Then you just have to talk to a realtor, who is probably not in, and get the run-a-around. People do not want to waste their time talking to sub-humans, or ‘realtors’, as they are known in the parlance of our time, man.
April 12th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
If you’re in the market to buy a home you should have a buyer’s agent, which cost you nothing because the seller pays all the comm. If you’re out driving around and see a house you like, have the listing agent show you the house, submit an offer with the listing agent then YOU, as a buyer, will not have any representation and the listing agent gets paid all the money. I guess I don’t get why buyer’s look for houses without an agent, when it does not cost them anything, and attempt to buy a house without any representation. The problems or frustrations your having are because you do not have a buyer’s agent working for you. You’re just calling off signs when your driving by and the chances of the listing agent picking up the call are pretty slim. Even if she/he does she/he are out of the office with a client or driving around themselves and do not have the file with them.
Bean, you’re right, if a realtor can’t sell you that house that you called about then they are going to try to sell you another. What’s so wrong wiith that? It’s called taking advantage of all the opportunities that come your way and trying to make the best of them. It’s trying to turn a prospect into a buyer. Any of you have sales experience?
My recommendation is if your serious about buying a house then find yourself an experienced realtor to do the work and represent YOU as a buyer. IT COST YOU NOTHING in most states. If you commit to ONE realtor and that realtor knows it then that realtor will take care of YOU. When you buy directly from the listing agent that agent cannot give you any opinions or advice on how to structure your offer or any other advice. So why would’nt you want representation from a buyer’s agent? Again it cost you nothing in most states.
In response to reds question:
Are you the seller or the buyer? Why are you paying comm if your the buyer?
Either way-the Title company schedules closing. In many cases the closing date will be scheduled and rescheduled and possibly rescheduled again. It has nothing to do with the realtors. The reason this happens it because the Title company has to have everything needed to close. If they are waiting on any docs from the lender then the closing date is up in the air until they receive what they are waiting for. Unfortunately this is the way it is and it is frustrating for everyone. Did your realtor not explain? Typically you get possesion of the house when it closes and funds (or whatever was negotiated), When the lender (your mortgage company) wires the money to the title company. It could be several hours after closing.