confused about realtor games...

suzuki2000

suzuki2000

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Recently we put our house on the market. I know I will hear all kinds of comments re lower price etc.. but honestly, we have the house at a very fair price and live I a reasonably desirable area. We have researched our market and we are in line with any houses that have sold and there is little inventory. In two weeks the house has been up we have had a great deal of activity. We got one stupid lowballer try and offer, we countered and they went away. I am not disappointed. Realize we do not need to sell, but will work with buyers. On the weekend we had an open house where one couple fell in love and even called their agent to meet them to draft an offer. They even put him on the phone with our agent. We didn't hear back and the next day the agent sends a message to ours that they aren't going to do an offer now and are going to look at other options. They are closing this week on their house and told our agent they have been looking for 3 years. Last night the agents partner contacts our agent to say he wants to bring a couple through this evening. we oblige, and they don't show. We know this. Our agent calls the agent that booked the viewing to follow up on the no show and he claims they were there, no card left and he referred to some incorrect things about the house. So I am very confused, people wanted the house, agent seems to have talked them out of it and now seems to be playing some game and lying about many things.... Anybody care to offer up what the game might be? I am at a loss.
 
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a real estate rep that doesn't BS? :lol: right up there with used car salesman.

Real estate agents are the most overpaid people on this planet. (IMHO)


Thats why I just sell it myself. Cut through the crap, and screen your own potential buyers….. best way is to just screen their emails and answer their silly questions at your leisure, but once it moves on to phone calls, you can determine how serious they are before you go out of your way to show the house and go through all that crap. Hint : when they come see your house a second time for a showing, consider it sold.

All that commission money you save by selling it yourself can buy you a shiny new motorcycle. :)
 
its not really a game, its just people that cant make up thier mind on anything. There are folks out there that couldn't organize a pissup in a brewery, and they looked at your house. Your selling something really expensive to people buying something really expensive, there will be a bit of tomfoolery in the process.
 
Our real estate guy I trust implicitly, there are reasons. He is not exactly a hired gun.
 
So you said the house has been in the market for 2 weeks? Or longer?

Two weeks is nothing ... just saying.
 
OP ever try to sell a motorcycle?
If for every bike that costs under 10 grand 9 out of 10 people are flakes, what do you think is going to happen when you are selling something that's worth 100s of thousands of dollars?
 
I can share some recent experience as I'm in the process of helping my parents buy a house. In my opinion, it really depends on the buyer and their previous life. Let me explain: when I was buying my house several years ago, we always lived in a small apartment before that. We bought our house after viewing only 2-3 houses as far as I remember. Every single one was an improvement over a two bedroom apartment, and yeah, when we saw the soon to be our house with this huge backyard and big inground pool---we were sold in an instance. Now, 5 years later, I see things that I wish were different...was kinda blinded by the pool and backyard I guess..

With my parents---you have no idea how many things come in consideration during our search. Apart from the major requirements, such as being in the same neighbourhood, relatively big sunny backyard for a big veggie garden, garage---there are a bunch of little things that we learned along the way while checking houses out. For instance, my mom is short, so the kitchen window should be low enough for her to see outside; not more than one staircase, given that in time they'll be old enough and will probably need a stairs lift; at least one bedroom on the main floor; one 4-piece + one 3-piece is better than two 4-piece bathrooms (my mom hates taking a shower in a tub); general layout of the house; obviously the condition, and how much repairs will need to be done in order to sit back and relax in it and be happy. Many other little things, trust me--many. It is really difficult to pre-screen some houses based on pictures alone, hence a person needs to visit.

I don't know if I make sense, but I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't be offended by people not making offers. There is the right house for everyone, and if somebody is to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, they want to feel its their home from the moment they enter the front door.

As for agents---I totally trust ours, in fact he's really breaking a good sweat with our lookin. One house we almost bought: went to an open house, my folks really liked it, fully renovated, etc. Asking price was 365k, we made an offer for 345k, that's after finding out that it was bought 6 months ago for 245k, fixed up with new windows, floors, etc, couple of walls removed, new deck, new kitchen, etc.---many would call this lowballing, but you make an offer for what its worth to you---in this case it didn't have a garage, and we estimated about 20k to build one + the risk of not getting a permit...also most houses in that particular area sold for 310 at the most, yet we though---ok, bunch of things are fixed (not at all worth 100k markup), but obviously the seller needs to make some profit...anyway, offer was not accepted, got a counter. Before acting on that, we went for a second viewing, this time with our agent. He revealed a bunch of things we didn't notice. Like the kitchen cabinets---advertised as new, but had signs of long use. A/C advertised as new---agent took down the number and checked---i think it was 10 year old A/C or something like that... Other little things, suddenly we saw a house that was far from perfect, which we thought. We walked off... my agent could have made a quick buck right then and there, he knew it, yet he didn't choose to do that. So, 2nd viewing is not a guaranteed sale.

..or another case---a really nice house, just next door down the street. Great condition inside and out, with the only disadvantage of it being a corner house (apparently a big no for my folks), and an inground pool taking up a huge chunk of the yard. My folks decided it was worth it and my mom felt in love with the insides, so they thought about making an offer for it, and it was going to be exactly 10k less than the listing (got a quote for pool removal to that amount---10k, as my folks don't want to have that, they know from me the costs and time this takes to maintain). It's like "we don't want this house at any cost, but for X dollars, we'd have it). Well, while thinking and waiting on the pool removal estimate, the house was sold (for 8k less of asking price).

Anyway, you get the point. I think it's wrong to be offended by lower offers or people coming and leaving. That is not indicative as to whether people think your house sucks or not. There are way too many other variables, and everybody is looking for something specific, unless they are desperate...or come from living in an apartment all their life ;)

Good luck, I'm sure the right offer will come sooner or later. Hopefully soon!
 
SunnY S said:
a real estate rep that doesn't BS? :lol: right up there with used car salesman.

Real estate agents are the most overpaid people on this planet. (IMHO)


Thats why I just sell it myself. Cut through the crap, and screen your own potential buyers….. best way is to just screen their emails and answer their silly questions at your leisure, but once it moves on to phone calls, you can determine how serious they are before you go out of your way to show the house and go through all that crap. Hint : when they come see your house a second time for a showing, consider it sold.

All that commission money you save by selling it yourself can buy you a shiny new motorcycle. :)
Click to expand...

How many homes have you sold and/or bought without an agent involved?
 
SunnY S said:
a real estate rep that doesn't BS? :lol: right up there with used car salesman.

Real estate agents are the most overpaid people on this planet. (IMHO)


Thats why I just sell it myself. Cut through the crap, and screen your own potential buyers….. best way is to just screen their emails and answer their silly questions at your leisure, but once it moves on to phone calls, you can determine how serious they are before you go out of your way to show the house and go through all that crap. Hint : when they come see your house a second time for a showing, consider it sold.

All that commission money you save by selling it yourself can buy you a shiny new motorcycle. :)
Click to expand...

...
 
raginduck said:
How many homes have you sold and/or bought without an agent involved?
Click to expand...

In 10 years, three.

comfree.com


Real estate people (IMHO), are the laziest and overpaid people around. They only want easy sales, and will pressure you to list your house as low as possible so they can make a quicker sale.

My first foray into selling myself was when I tried to use a "trusted" acquaintance to sell my house. He kept pushing me off, and wouldn't list my house because he said it was "overbuilt" for the area and nobody wants it. Told him to recommend me someone for my area then to list it, and got the brush off. So I sold it myself and told the guy to go screw off.

Same happened with my 2nd house, when I used another acquaintance who provided me a lot of business in the past. I thought I would return him the favour and get him to list my house. He did, but when the listing expired, I told him to renew, and he kept heeing and hawing and brushing me off. So I sold it myself, and watched his jaw drop to the floor.

My 3rd house sold had 3 viewings in the first week, and sold after the second week, and was one of the easiest sales I ever made.

Now to current times, I have a commercial building for lease, I called 3 different real estate agents to list the building for potential lease. 2 have not returned my calls after more than 1 day, and the other 1 walked through the building 2 days ago, and I haven't heard from him since.

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy, and OVERPAID. Just looking for the easy listing.

Needless to say, I put a sign up along with Kijiji listing and will be finding my own people to lease the building.
 
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Amen ^

When I was selling my place I had agents calling all the time like a bunch of ******* snakes. They were trying to sell me their service and talk as if it was impossible to sell without their expertise. I told them all the same thing: bring a buyer, I sign 24 hour agreement and you get 2%, take it or leave it.

Most of them scoffed, as if the thousands of dollars I was offering them for next to no work was insulting. Bunch of morons. One nice lady actually came through with what I offered her and we got it done. 5% my balls.
 
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OP - the people that came by twice probably saw a few more things which they didn't see the first time which maybe didn't look as nice the second time around. Or they got cold feet. It's not always the real estate agent...

Also, selling yourself is definitely the good option because of the savings, and it's not really that difficult. As some have said agents will call and say 'well then I won't bring my clients to see your house'...ok so don't. My buddy ended up selling his house privately, and buying a house privately within 2 weeks of one another. Said it was a hassle to deal with all the BS, but overall the amount of money he saved he put fixed up a sweet garage and went on a trip.

Good luck.
 
to clarify...

my expectations when we listed the house:
- tire kickers would be at the door

- people will try and low ball, the one that we had submit a price came to the hosue 3 times, offered that our house was well priced and lowballed, I dopnt take offence to that they should, but if serious, come back. After we countered, they were told we were not desperate which surprised them and they went away completely. Maybe they wre not low ballers but bottom feeders?

- we have been up just over two weeks, we have had immense traffic, perhaps this is an indicator of price? I dont think so, the most recent comparable sold at $2000 under our list. We live in an area that does not have high turnover.

like I said we had one couple calling their agent from an open house to draft a deal, maybe they got cold feet? But you would think an industry that rely's on commission, they would not derail a deal, whch appears to have happened here.

I have no issues with our agent, listing privately would not save much in fees, buyers agents still want a cut

the process is tiring... In nearly 2 weeks I have hardly had a meal at home due to buyers coming in and two open houses that have attracted probably over 50 groups of potential buyers and tire kickers. Surpisingly noe have ben my neighbours. All in, I wouuld say we have had more then 75 viwings in just over two weeks including a number of second viewings.
 
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It's a funny thing about low ballers. I was recently buying commercial property and I didn't want to go back and forth on price. It was priced high and I told the seller I don't want to go back and forth. Explained the market price and said this is fair. He agreed and asked us to make an offer to show that we are serious. I made it at the price we agreed and he came back to a price closer to his about 400k higher. They expect us to negotiate no matter what.

There are also the dishonest agents. They make fake offers with prices and say look we already had offers but seller won't accept if he doesn't get his price.

I hate the whole process and find it absolutely disgusting.
 
LiNK666 said:
There are also the dishonest agents. They make fake offers with prices and say look we already had offers but seller won't accept if he doesn't get his price.
Click to expand...

That's disgusting...I wouldn't have ever imagined that they would go down to that level. I know about the multiple listings, ******** info on properties and such...but I never heard or thought they would throw out fake offers...

And to think I actually thought of becoming an agent...
 
My agent was OK, I only picked her because she was smoking hot, and if I'm going to get screwed it may as well be a hot chick. You will get low offers, screwed around no mater how you list, comfree or with agent. It turned out my lawyer screwed me around more than her....go figure.
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