Biggest RE lessons learned/mistakes made

[Anonymous]

no polybutalyne pipes

[Anonymous]

Trust your gut. Things that gave me pause at first glance became big annoyances after settling in.

[Anonymous]

Test the water pressure before putting in an offer - don't wait for the inspection.

[Anonymous]

This didn't happen to me, but I am aware of cases where people didn't get a new survey when they bought a house. The old survey they were given by the developer turned out to be wrong, and the house was partially built on someone else's land. In the state where this happened, title insurance didn't cover it, and the buyer couldn't pursue an action against the surveyor, because they weren't privy to contract with the surveyor (the builder was). They were SOL (the builder was long gone).

Short version -- when they ask you if you want your own survey, it's no time to cheap out.

[Anonymous]

Don't use the home inspector recommended/pushed by tour realtor.

Look at your neighbors' yards/upkeep.

DRive your work commute 1x or 2x from your new house as a test run. I had no idea how short the light cycles were on the main road or how long it would take to make a left out of the subdivision. Added a good 20 min to my commute despite the office not really that far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not trust realtors. Even if you've done extreme due diligence, interviewed a few, and picked one that comes with great referrals from people you know. Just don't trust them. They are playing with your money, and their incentive is much more to push you fast and to either bid high (if you're a buyer) or accept a low offer (if you're a seller). Get their input, but verify it is what is actually best for you.

Read the chapter in Freakonomics about realtors if you want proof.

You mean the chapter comparing real estate agents to the Ku Klux Klan and stating that real estate agents, like the Klan, would become extinct? That book was published in 2005 and real estate agents -- and as we have seen recently -- the Klan still exist.

If you base anything you do on a faux economic philosophy, you are easily duped by -- anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This didn't happen to me, but I am aware of cases where people didn't get a new survey when they bought a house. The old survey they were given by the developer turned out to be wrong, and the house was partially built on someone else's land. In the state where this happened, title insurance didn't cover it, and the buyer couldn't pursue an action against the surveyor, because they weren't privy to contract with the surveyor (the builder was). They were SOL (the builder was long gone).

Short version -- when they ask you if you want your own survey, it's no time to cheap out.

I was about to post to always get a survey (except for a condo) and particularly for a townhouse. If my buyers won't spend $350-$400 for a survey, I will pay for it. I don't want the type of issue the poster described to come back to haunt me. Also, insist that the settlement company get the survey as soon as possible and give it to you well before settlement. Settlement companies try to pooh pooh a fence "meandering" two feet into your property or the neighbor's shed that encroaches a few feet onto your property and urge you to "be nice" to the neighbor. These are things that need to be resolved well before the settlement date with the seller. Do no inherit someone else's problem. Whatever you do, do not take a survey from the seller that could have been done 20 years earlier as correct. Easements appear, trees and shrubbery grow, regulations change. If a builder of a new home gets a survey, ask that it be updated. I once had buyers walk away at the settlement table because the updated survey we had showed that the garage was built several feet within the building restriction line. It could not be fixed without tearing down part of the garage and reconfiguring the house. Two weeks later, someone else bought the house and they are now sitting on a time bomb waiting for either the County or the next buyer do point out the problem with their property.

[Anonymous]

Hire your own home inspector- not one recommended by the realtor.
Ask for a home inspection before you make an offer.
There is no such thing as a perfect house (or perfect spouse) but before you buy you should know what the issues are.
Don't even consider a house in a poorly rated school zone, even if you don't have or plan to have kids. Better school districts always have better returns than poor ones.

[Anonymous]

Drive the commute from your prospective new home during rush hour before you buy.

[Anonymous]

If it's a fairly small city/town with its own government/council check what are recent changes and new laws and regulations. The city might be changing how it operates and the feel of the city will change too. We and many of our neighbors moved after re-zoning changed the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Avoid buying a house with big trees on the lot. Huge hassle and expense keeping them trimmed, dealing not just with leaves in the fall but branches and debris falling year round.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not trust realtors. Even if you've done extreme due diligence, interviewed a few, and picked one that comes with great referrals from people you know. Just don't trust them. They are playing with your money, and their incentive is much more to push you fast and to either bid high (if you're a buyer) or accept a low offer (if you're a seller). Get their input, but verify it is what is actually best for you.

Read the chapter in Freakonomics about realtors if you want proof.

You mean the chapter comparing real estate agents to the Ku Klux Klan and stating that real estate agents, like the Klan, would become extinct? That book was published in 2005 and real estate agents -- and as we have seen recently -- the Klan still exist.

If you base anything you do on a faux economic philosophy, you are easily duped by -- anyone.

Alright, realtor. As you know, technology is on the brink of destroying the traditional realtor model. And the research on how they price and sit on their properties is excellent.

Realtors, as a group, are half a step above used car salesman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't use the home inspector recommended/pushed by tour realtor.

Look at your neighbors' yards/upkeep.

DRive your work commute 1x or 2x from your new house as a test run. I had no idea how short the light cycles were on the main road or how long it would take to make a left out of the subdivision. Added a good 20 min to my commute despite the office not really that far.

+1 for hiring your own independent home inspector. We made the mistake of using the one recommended by our realtor and there were a few structural items that they missed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not trust realtors. Even if you've done extreme due diligence, interviewed a few, and picked one that comes with great referrals from people you know. Just don't trust them. They are playing with your money, and their incentive is much more to push you fast and to either bid high (if you're a buyer) or accept a low offer (if you're a seller). Get their input, but verify it is what is actually best for you.

Read the chapter in Freakonomics about realtors if you want proof.

You mean the chapter comparing real estate agents to the Ku Klux Klan and stating that real estate agents, like the Klan, would become extinct? That book was published in 2005 and real estate agents -- and as we have seen recently -- the Klan still exist.

If you base anything you do on a faux economic philosophy, you are easily duped by -- anyone.

Alright, realtor. As you know, technology is on the brink of destroying the traditional realtor model. And the research on how they price and sit on their properties is excellent.

Realtors, as a group, are half a step above used car salesman.

Actually, an economist, but you seem wrong about many things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not trust realtors. Even if you've done extreme due diligence, interviewed a few, and picked one that comes with great referrals from people you know. Just don't trust them. They are playing with your money, and their incentive is much more to push you fast and to either bid high (if you're a buyer) or accept a low offer (if you're a seller). Get their input, but verify it is what is actually best for you.

Read the chapter in Freakonomics about realtors if you want proof.

Way to generalize. And you're a broken record about the Freakonomics book. See Norm Scheiber's evisceration of it. The chapter you refer to concerns Chicago real estate market -- all real estate markets are local. In relation to this particular Chicago analysis, Leavitt doesn't consider the mentality of the two groups of sellers. Simply put, most clients of agents are motivated to sell quickly themselves due to a change in life circumstances while agents can afford to sit and wait because they simply want to upgrade. So please try to think a little more critically, stop being so gullible and parroting this book like it's anything more than the junk science it is.