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Anonymous
| Let's say you're working with a buyers agent from (insert name of agency here...Long and Foster, ReMax, etc.). If you are interested in a house that is listed by the same firm in the same county (but agents work out of different offices/towns) is there only so much your negotiating your agent can do, given that he/she works for the same firm as the listing agent of the house for sale? |
Anonymous
| It makes NO DIFFERENCE. There is no company loyalty in real estate, everyone is essentially independant. Remax agents are even 1099s. |
Anonymous
| Most realtors are independant contractors (1099's). Every agent should be working for their client and negotiating the best for them (regardless of who the other agent works for). When you sign with your agent, you should be given a disclosure form to sign that states you are ok with looking at houses listed by the same overall broker and that you understand your agent is working for you. |
Anonymous
| OT, but... looks like buyers have come out in droves... this is like the tenth RE thread in this past month. maybe June will have a surprise pickup and market will get back on track soon. |
Anonymous
Don't hold your breath. The other shoe is just going to drop, summer will be a bust. |
Anonymous
| Why do you think so, PP? Not to get too OT, but we are looking at houses in NOVA and have a DC condo to sell, and I'm always wondering about the timing now. TIA |
Anonymous
| I think that the market's headed up. We were looking to buy a house in Vienna. We looked for 6 weeks, put contracts on 3 houses in May and only got the last one. I'm ok with it because I like the one we got the most, but the process was frustrating. I thought that we had it made...we'd already sold our house (in 3 weeks, no less) and it was a "buyers market." Our price range was around $600k. |
Anonymous
I work in foreclosures and they are just piling up. As long as you have financially distressed homeowners, you are going to have a terrible market. Combined with gas prices and inevidable inflation that is going to come out of that, you have quite the perfect storm. Economics. |
Anonymous
|
FWIW:
"Historically, housing markets recover only after the economy has entered a recession and a combination of falling mortgage interest rates and house prices have improved housing affordability," Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, said in a statement. |
Anonymous
Interesting discussion. Do you think it is a bad time to buy? Or a good time to buy? I'm wonderign if a better time to buy is coming, sice inventory is so low for non-foreclosures and non-short sales--ie, everythign seems to be foreclosures and short sales, and if you don;t want one of those, pickings are slim. |
Anonymous
|
"Most realtors are independant contractors (1099's). Every agent should be working for their client and negotiating the best for them (regardless of who the other agent works for). When you sign with your agent, you should be given a disclosure form to sign that states you are ok with looking at houses listed by the same overall broker and that you understand your agent is working for you"
Wow so untrue. There is a disclosure you sign that identifies for you that the even your agent reqpresents the seller's interest not yours. Unless you have a buyer's agent receiving a flat fee from a non represented company, you need to understand that the realtor is not representing your best interest. Signing with an agent when you are buying will in some cases put you in the position of being pushed toward listings with their company. Many agents avoid for sale by owner when the seller offers a lower commission or no commission. Agents make money from fast sales and turning the property around quickly and the amount of the sale per commission. Everyoe should keep this in mind. Oddly, sometimes the seller's agent can be incentivized the other way. If they drop the price below market, it will sell sooner. The % lost on commission may be smaller than months of carrying a property. |
Anonymous
| We close on a house Wednesday. Whenever we have to go through the buying process again, no way are we using another realtor. We'll hire a real estate attorney for dealing with the contract if we need some help. Every step of the way, every issue that came up, we had to PUSH to have it addressed. Happened the last time we tried to buy a house too (in another state). All they care about is closing the deal and getting their commission. Find a potential deal breaker in the inspection, oh, it'll be okay, just take some money off the price, and don't worry about it affecting your resale down the road. Yeah, right. If we're going to do all the work, why let them take a percentage. The only benefit to using a realtor that I can see is that it's easier to get in to see houses. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PP, our real estate agent was horrible - she did nothing and tried to sell us crappy appliance insurance etc.... |
Anonymous
Its hard to say. Right now money is cheap (interest rates low). I do think prices will be sinking even more after the summer is over. However, if rates go up (which they probably should because we are on the cusp of bad inflation) all that savings will be lost in interest payments. Which medicine do you want to take? However, I think the amount of distressed properties on the market is just going to get greater. Many of these 5yr arms were still being financed in 2004-2006. This means many more bad loans to flush out between 2009-2011. These people with these loans cannot refinance without coming up with a lot of $$$ b/c they are so underwater, they are just sitting on ticking time bombs waiting to be served their papers. Many people in good financial standing are not putting their homes on the market unless completely necessary; they are going to hunker down wait out the storm. It is not a good idea to sell in a down market. I am considering buying another house, investment or home for myself, possibly in the fall and renting my house out. I think it will be a great time to buy, but you just need to keep a close eye to the interest rates. I personally believe that many areas will be looking at pre-2004 prices, maybe even 2003 prices. I think if you are a buyer you will have to deal with distressed properties, this is a fact of this market. From my perspective there are some GREAT deals to be had in foreclosures. Foreclosures priced well in desirable communities, near or far from the city, are selling very fast. Another factor that will keep housing slow is that loans are tougher to get now, which is a good thing. |
Anonymous
I felt I did most of the work the last time we bought, too. However, I think the commission will be paid anyway - the seller's agent will just keep it (unless you negotiate something there). And, you need someone to let you in.... An observation on the market - we're looking to buy and we saw every house worth looking at go under contract in June (while we were foolishly on vacation). We are still dumbfounded - either it's signifying a change in the market or June is just a big month for home sales. |