Is a realtor essential in a hot market?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house in 22201 last year. That is as hot as it gets, real-estate wise.

We would not have been able to get this (wonderful) house without our agent. She was excellent in finding comps and estimating the competing offers.

Yes, it's expensive to use a non-Redfin buyer's agent but without it we would still be looking for a home.

Do you think this applies to 20814 and 20815 too. We've been looking there unsuccessfully for months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just sold my home two weeks ago to a buyer using Redfin and it has been a disaster. Neither the first time homebuyer nor his redfin agent know what they are doing. The redfin agent dropped the ball and the buyer missed the deadline for the inspection contingency and has now lost the right to ask us to make repairs for issues that were found. My realtor is doing much of the work and has had to educate the redfin realtor who has no clue what she is doing. I would not advise anyone to use redfin when buying a home. According to my realtor, he has seen the redfin agents lose deals for their clients time and time again. After this experience, I would never take a bid from a redfin buyer. It's not worth the headache.

I don't believe this. Anyone who can read a contract could figure out deadlines. I've bought two homes without realtors at all and didn't have any issues. I've also worked with Redfin. They didn't have one agent helping me, they had a team. Your realtor is making this up to make you think you're lucky to pay her 3%

Oh, my God, the Redfin boosters are so ridiculous. I totally believe it. Experience counts for everything in real estate, and yes, people have trouble meeting deadlines even when they're stated in a contract. You're going to need to come up with a better retort for critics of Redfin than "you must be an agent" or "your agent must be trying to justify himself/herself to you." It's very, very tired. Quit looking at Redfin through rose-colored glasses. In life, you really often do get what you pay for. You want cheap representation? You'll get cheap representation.

No, not an agent. Just an experienced home buyer.

How cute, you think the real estate agent is your representation.

They have no fiduciary responsibility to you; they represent their deal, and their cut of it.

Since you don't realize that, it's obvious you are not an agent, don't worry.

[Anonymous]

Another very happy Redfin user. The whole thing was very pleasant and worked well in our very hot market neighborhood. We have used both realtors and the Redfin agent. I have to say the Redfin agent was actually less annoying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are the buyer in a hot market, yes you need a GOOD realtor. Especially ones that are very well connected and know enough other realtors in particular areas to know about "pocket listings" before they are listed or will get you into a unit before an open house. I just sold in a very hot market and had an awesome realtor who managed 8 offers on the house. He only did pre showings to realtors he knew were serious and not just on a wild goose chase with clueless clients. he was worth every penny. And I got 40k over asking for a condo. So no complaints.

Your post make no sense.
You are saying your agent only showed your house to other agents ?
You sold a house or a condo ?
What make you think your house or condo would not has sold for much if it has been listed in the market ?
Your agent underpriced your place by at least 40k - you understand that if buyers are willing to put more than the asking price it has nothing to do with the realtor. They are not selling carpets here.

[Anonymous]

We are in the process of buying with Redfin and I have been extremely impressed so far. And I'm getting a ton of money back from them. Maybe we got lucky with our agent, but the whole team seems to be top-notch so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are the buyer in a hot market, yes you need a GOOD realtor. Especially ones that are very well connected and know enough other realtors in particular areas to know about "pocket listings" before they are listed or will get you into a unit before an open house. I just sold in a very hot market and had an awesome realtor who managed 8 offers on the house. He only did pre showings to realtors he knew were serious and not just on a wild goose chase with clueless clients. he was worth every penny. And I got 40k over asking for a condo. So no complaints.

Your post make no sense.
You are saying your agent only showed your house to other agents ?
You sold a house or a condo ?
What make you think your house or condo would not has sold for much if it has been listed in the market ?
Your agent underpriced your place by at least 40k - you understand that if buyers are willing to put more than the asking price it has nothing to do with the realtor. They are not selling carpets here.

My post makes sense. I beleive a good realtor manages a lot of the BS of gawkers who just like to troll open houses, he spots weaknesses in offers, definitely stays on top of every single issue and deadline, managed all the contracting for staging the unit, had professional photos taken (and I think this does increase interest in what was otherwise a bland building). I think he added a lot of value. My husband is a lawyer so yes we could have sold this on our own but our time is valuable and I don't want dozens of calls from random people fishing, or sitting around in an open house, or pouring through a dozen offers to find the legit 8 decent ones etc... I do think he added to the extra 40k we made and we essentially DOUBLED our investment in our hot neighborhood. Some people have more free time to manage that much interest in a unit they are selling. I don't. Worth every single penny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are the buyer in a hot market, yes you need a GOOD realtor. Especially ones that are very well connected and know enough other realtors in particular areas to know about "pocket listings" before they are listed or will get you into a unit before an open house. I just sold in a very hot market and had an awesome realtor who managed 8 offers on the house. He only did pre showings to realtors he knew were serious and not just on a wild goose chase with clueless clients. he was worth every penny. And I got 40k over asking for a condo. So no complaints.

Your post make no sense.
You are saying your agent only showed your house to other agents ?
You sold a house or a condo ?
What make you think your house or condo would not has sold for much if it has been listed in the market ?
Your agent underpriced your place by at least 40k - you understand that if buyers are willing to put more than the asking price it has nothing to do with the realtor. They are not selling carpets here.

My post makes sense. I beleive a good realtor manages a lot of the BS of gawkers who just like to troll open houses, he spots weaknesses in offers, definitely stays on top of every single issue and deadline, managed all the contracting for staging the unit, had professional photos taken (and I think this does increase interest in what was otherwise a bland building). I think he added a lot of value. My husband is a lawyer so yes we could have sold this on our own but our time is valuable and I don't want dozens of calls from random people fishing, or sitting around in an open house, or pouring through a dozen offers to find the legit 8 decent ones etc... I do think he added to the extra 40k we made and we essentially DOUBLED our investment in our hot neighborhood. Some people have more free time to manage that much interest in a unit they are selling. I don't. Worth every single penny.

A lawyer's wife who is a bonafide real estate expert. Word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are the buyer in a hot market, yes you need a GOOD realtor. Especially ones that are very well connected and know enough other realtors in particular areas to know about "pocket listings" before they are listed or will get you into a unit before an open house. I just sold in a very hot market and had an awesome realtor who managed 8 offers on the house. He only did pre showings to realtors he knew were serious and not just on a wild goose chase with clueless clients. he was worth every penny. And I got 40k over asking for a condo. So no complaints.

Your post make no sense.
You are saying your agent only showed your house to other agents ?
You sold a house or a condo ?
What make you think your house or condo would not has sold for much if it has been listed in the market ?
Your agent underpriced your place by at least 40k - you understand that if buyers are willing to put more than the asking price it has nothing to do with the realtor. They are not selling carpets here.

My post makes sense. I beleive a good realtor manages a lot of the BS of gawkers who just like to troll open houses, he spots weaknesses in offers, definitely stays on top of every single issue and deadline, managed all the contracting for staging the unit, had professional photos taken (and I think this does increase interest in what was otherwise a bland building). I think he added a lot of value. My husband is a lawyer so yes we could have sold this on our own but our time is valuable and I don't want dozens of calls from random people fishing, or sitting around in an open house, or pouring through a dozen offers to find the legit 8 decent ones etc... I do think he added to the extra 40k we made and we essentially DOUBLED our investment in our hot neighborhood. Some people have more free time to manage that much interest in a unit they are selling. I don't. Worth every single penny.

A lawyer's wife who is a bonafide real estate expert. Word.

I mean they doubled their investment, b/c of their incredible business acumen. Not dump luck, oh no.

[Anonymous]

We had one agent when buying who was on the phone with another client or his family every time we looked properties and we only saw houses over 3 evenings. The final house we chose was one that we found ourselves. He also didn't realize the owner's signature was invalid even though 3 days earlier when writing the contract we had a lengthy discussing that the children owned the property instead of the mother. When we were selling out house, a different realtor insisted that we repaint the front of our unit and also persuade the upstairs tenant in a 2 over 2 unit to repaint the front of their portion prior to listing it. We listed it FSBO and it was sold in 2 months without any new exterior paint. In fact the buyer's agent for that house would have missed a deadline, so we had to step in to help the buyer complete his financing to allow him to purchase the house $2000 over his original limit. Not a fan of realtors.