Biggest RE lessons learned/mistakes made

[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.


What is hard is that you can't really separate the wheat from the chaff until you've signed the contract and started working with an agent. This from a recent buyer whose buyer's agent did a great job representing the seller of our current home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


What is hard is that you can't really separate the wheat from the chaff until you've signed the contract and started working with an agent. This from a recent buyer whose buyer's agent did a great job representing the seller of our current home.

Of course they did. A buyer's agent is in name only... they know where their commission check is coming from.

70% idiots, 25% crooks, 5% ethical and helpful professionals - that's about my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't like the "feel" of a neighborhood, that is a perfectly good reason to reject it, even if it fits all of your other criteria. You are going to live in this place, so you should feel good about it!

+1

If there is too much anything, bypass this house and continue looking in a different neighborhood. Your gut knows!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


What is hard is that you can't really separate the wheat from the chaff until you've signed the contract and started working with an agent. This from a recent buyer whose buyer's agent did a great job representing the seller of our current home.

Of course they did. A buyer's agent is in name only... they know where their commission check is coming from.

70% idiots, 25% crooks, 5% ethical and helpful professionals - that's about my experience.

Wow, sorry you have been burned so badly! Did you go with the "neighborhood" relator? That is usually a bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't buy a house near any kind of water, even small tiny creeks. I did, and that creek turned into a lake that completely flooded my house to the roof. Now I live on a house on a hill far away from any water. Never again.

And airplane flight path.

And anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


What is hard is that you can't really separate the wheat from the chaff until you've signed the contract and started working with an agent. This from a recent buyer whose buyer's agent did a great job representing the seller of our current home.

Of course they did. A buyer's agent is in name only... they know where their commission check is coming from.

70% idiots, 25% crooks, 5% ethical and helpful professionals - that's about my experience.

Realtor and my experience too

[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.

My neighbor, a realtor, pretended to be a friend for 8 years while I lived in the house. I figured I would use him to sell when ready.

After I signed the paperwork, he began pushing for selling to the latest/lowest bidder. Day of closing, he somehow altered the contract to include some additional BS fees. I called him out on it, his face turned red, and everyone around the table was disappointed in him. terrible experience.


After the house sold, both him and his wife gave me the cold shoulder as if we are now strangers. what a long con he played.

+1

Thank you fro bringing this up. This is a very common problem. NEVER hire a "friend" or neighbor as your realtor. Ever.

Agreed. You'll be surprised at how many of the people around you are agents or trying to be. Dh and I toyed with moving for a few years and if ever it came up, agents appeared out of nowhere. People I wouldn't trust the care of plants were pushing to be our agent. Every other sahm I know is trying to do real estate. So many people will push themselves or a relative on you. Don't do it!
It ruined my relationship with my salon guy because I wouldn't consider his brother who has exactly 1 real estate transaction. Because of the nature of the work, agents, particularly those starting out, have the deportment of a late night tv telemarketer or televangelist.

[Anonymous]

Never waive the inspection. We'd been looking for a while and just wanted to get it over with so we did that to sweeten the offer.

Turns out the previous owners of our house were DIYers with who weren't as skilled as they thought, but boy did they know how to cover shit up with paint!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Oh good lord. This is just stupid. What would you recommend? Bradford pears?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never waive the inspection. We'd been looking for a while and just wanted to get it over with so we did that to sweeten the offer.

Turns out the previous owners of our house were DIYers with who weren't as skilled as they thought, but boy did they know how to cover shit up with paint!

PP again. Also, in re: the bolded bit above, sit down ahead of time with your spouse/cohabitant and figure out what you both want, what are your "must haves", what are your dealbreakers, etc. One reason our search took so long, allowing us to get impatient and "settle," is because besides 4 walls, a roof and decent schools, spouse and I had very different ideas of what we were looking for.

[Anonymous]

I should have known not to settle on location. If you want Bethesda/McLean, don't settle for someplace "similar". There is no substitute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I should have known not to settle on location. If you want Bethesda/McLean, don't settle for someplace "similar". There is no substitute.

LOL. No. Not this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My neighbor, a realtor, pretended to be a friend for 8 years while I lived in the house. I figured I would use him to sell when ready.

After I signed the paperwork, he began pushing for selling to the latest/lowest bidder. Day of closing, he somehow altered the contract to include some additional BS fees. I called him out on it, his face turned red, and everyone around the table was disappointed in him. terrible experience.


After the house sold, both him and his wife gave me the cold shoulder as if we are now strangers. what a long con he played.

+1

Thank you fro bringing this up. This is a very common problem. NEVER hire a "friend" or neighbor as your realtor. Ever.

Agreed. You'll be surprised at how many of the people around you are agents or trying to be. Dh and I toyed with moving for a few years and if ever it came up, agents appeared out of nowhere. People I wouldn't trust the care of plants were pushing to be our agent. Every other sahm I know is trying to do real estate. So many people will push themselves or a relative on you. Don't do it!
It ruined my relationship with my salon guy because I wouldn't consider his brother who has exactly 1 real estate transaction. Because of the nature of the work, agents, particularly those starting out, have the deportment of a late night tv telemarketer or televangelist.

+1

Every SAHM is a "realtor". No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


What is hard is that you can't really separate the wheat from the chaff until you've signed the contract and started working with an agent. This from a recent buyer whose buyer's agent did a great job representing the seller of our current home.

Of course they did. A buyer's agent is in name only... they know where their commission check is coming from.

70% idiots, 25% crooks, 5% ethical and helpful professionals - that's about my experience.

Realtor and my experience too

+1, and I am a realtor as well. I am consistently amazed by the poor service in this field. I just sold a 1.5 million dollar home, and the buyer's agent let the radon contingency lapse. We are not jerks, so we still allowed them to do the radon test, but they ended up paying for it themselves, as well as the mitigation. Her laziness cost them $1000, just like that. Every time I called her, she was "out to dinner" and could never talk to me. What? If I am out to dinner and you send me a counter offer for my clients to initial, I'm getting up from dinner and getting some initials so we can get the house! Her clients lived in Potomac, and she was on the older side, but she had NO HUSTLE whatsoever. The younger agents have some hustle, but no experience. Most Redfin agents that I have worked with (and I bought my third investment property with Redfin) are the worst. The realtor I worked with didn't even own a home - I was teaching her stuff (it was at that point that I got my own license). Personally, I am a licensed attorney, I own multiple properties, I am a landlord, I have built properties from the ground up, and when it comes down to it, I just have a great instinct for real estate and truly love doing it. I have a lot of hustle and am a bit of a bulldog, and that is why I have successful buyers in this crazy market. I'll never forget a listing agent saying to me, "we had a better offer, but because you were so responsive and professional, we went with you guys." My listings are cleaned, staged, professionally photographed, and marketed beautifully. I don't understand why some (MANY) realtors allow such crappy photos of their listings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My neighbor, a realtor, pretended to be a friend for 8 years while I lived in the house. I figured I would use him to sell when ready.

After I signed the paperwork, he began pushing for selling to the latest/lowest bidder. Day of closing, he somehow altered the contract to include some additional BS fees. I called him out on it, his face turned red, and everyone around the table was disappointed in him. terrible experience.


After the house sold, both him and his wife gave me the cold shoulder as if we are now strangers. what a long con he played.

+1

Thank you fro bringing this up. This is a very common problem. NEVER hire a "friend" or neighbor as your realtor. Ever.

Agreed. You'll be surprised at how many of the people around you are agents or trying to be. Dh and I toyed with moving for a few years and if ever it came up, agents appeared out of nowhere. People I wouldn't trust the care of plants were pushing to be our agent. Every other sahm I know is trying to do real estate. So many people will push themselves or a relative on you. Don't do it!
It ruined my relationship with my salon guy because I wouldn't consider his brother who has exactly 1 real estate transaction. Because of the nature of the work, agents, particularly those starting out, have the deportment of a late night tv telemarketer or televangelist.

+1

Every SAHM is a "realtor". No thanks.

But only after they fail at MLM and staging