How to Buy w/out a Realtor?

[sdrealtor]

Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”. IN this business our time is all we have and if we dont use it wisely, we dont earn a living. We dont have anyone cutting us a check each friday, anyone asking us to pay a higher share of benefit costs, fund a share of pensions or paying us for sick/vacation days. Everyday we wake up knowing it is 100% on our shoulders to make it happen. Its not an easy life and I doubt very few if any of you would trade your current work situation with what we do and who we put up with.

CAR
Agreed there are good and bad agents but I know alot of good agents. One issue is that the agent always gets blamed when you dont get the deal or something else goes wrong. Sometimes it is their fault but very often its not but the easiest thing to do is blame it on the “stupid agent”. Of course people arent perfect. Some buyers who were pushed into things during the bubble got crushed. However, some buyers who were pushed into things during the early part of the bubble (i.e. 2002 and early 2003-which I know you consider well into the bubble) still are the beneficiaries of windfall profits. So through their stupidity some of the less than impressive agents pushed their clients into things that made them pretty well off.

Lastly, when I work with clients I explain to them that we are a team in this process. If the buyer is smart, has local knowledge and anything else to add it is awesome. Things turn out even better when we put all our assets, skills and experience together.

[drboom]

I can’t really let this one pass either, can I?

[quote=sdrealtor]Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”.[/quote]

Bad translation, unless you understood that we actually worked with any of the clueless/untrustworthy buyers’ agents we talked to; I can see how you would get that impression from what I wrote. We didn’t. Some listing agents refused to talk to me because I wasn’t an agent.

You’d have to be drooling stupid to not work directly with people like us, however rare we may be, unless your real agenda is to protect the status quo.

[drboom]

I can’t really let this one pass either, can I?

[quote=sdrealtor]Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”.[/quote]

Bad translation, unless you understood that we actually worked with any of the clueless/untrustworthy buyers’ agents we talked to; I can see how you would get that impression from what I wrote. We didn’t. Some listing agents refused to talk to me because I wasn’t an agent.

You’d have to be drooling stupid to not work directly with people like us, however rare we may be, unless your real agenda is to protect the status quo.

[drboom]

I can’t really let this one pass either, can I?

[quote=sdrealtor]Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”.[/quote]

Bad translation, unless you understood that we actually worked with any of the clueless/untrustworthy buyers’ agents we talked to; I can see how you would get that impression from what I wrote. We didn’t. Some listing agents refused to talk to me because I wasn’t an agent.

You’d have to be drooling stupid to not work directly with people like us, however rare we may be, unless your real agenda is to protect the status quo.

[drboom]

I can’t really let this one pass either, can I?

[quote=sdrealtor]Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”.[/quote]

Bad translation, unless you understood that we actually worked with any of the clueless/untrustworthy buyers’ agents we talked to; I can see how you would get that impression from what I wrote. We didn’t. Some listing agents refused to talk to me because I wasn’t an agent.

You’d have to be drooling stupid to not work directly with people like us, however rare we may be, unless your real agenda is to protect the status quo.

[drboom]

I can’t really let this one pass either, can I?

[quote=sdrealtor]Dr B.
Just to counter your counterpoint, you proved my point. Here is what you said “my wife and I had a bunch of buyer’s agents blow smoke up our posteriors, including a member of my wife’s family who is a 20 year RE veteran. We couldn’t trust any of them, so I represented us through our first six months of serious shopping. There were some agents who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Their loss. Others were cool with it and worked with me.”

The most important part was the last sentence but let translate. “Others were cool with it and wasted their time with me”.[/quote]

Bad translation, unless you understood that we actually worked with any of the clueless/untrustworthy buyers’ agents we talked to; I can see how you would get that impression from what I wrote. We didn’t. Some listing agents refused to talk to me because I wasn’t an agent.

You’d have to be drooling stupid to not work directly with people like us, however rare we may be, unless your real agenda is to protect the status quo.

[sdrealtor]

My turn, Good translation but inaccurate statement by you. You said they “worked with me” so I took your claim at face value.

There are always exceptions and if someone called me and my BS alarm did not flash I would work with them but that ararely happens. It has nothing about protecting the status quo and everything to do with protecting my clients interests and my time. If I shrug you off and you sincerely want a property, go find an agent and have them represent you. You would be at no disadvantage.

[sdrealtor]

My turn, Good translation but inaccurate statement by you. You said they “worked with me” so I took your claim at face value.

There are always exceptions and if someone called me and my BS alarm did not flash I would work with them but that ararely happens. It has nothing about protecting the status quo and everything to do with protecting my clients interests and my time. If I shrug you off and you sincerely want a property, go find an agent and have them represent you. You would be at no disadvantage.

[sdrealtor]

My turn, Good translation but inaccurate statement by you. You said they “worked with me” so I took your claim at face value.

There are always exceptions and if someone called me and my BS alarm did not flash I would work with them but that ararely happens. It has nothing about protecting the status quo and everything to do with protecting my clients interests and my time. If I shrug you off and you sincerely want a property, go find an agent and have them represent you. You would be at no disadvantage.

[sdrealtor]

My turn, Good translation but inaccurate statement by you. You said they “worked with me” so I took your claim at face value.

There are always exceptions and if someone called me and my BS alarm did not flash I would work with them but that ararely happens. It has nothing about protecting the status quo and everything to do with protecting my clients interests and my time. If I shrug you off and you sincerely want a property, go find an agent and have them represent you. You would be at no disadvantage.

[sdrealtor]

My turn, Good translation but inaccurate statement by you. You said they “worked with me” so I took your claim at face value.

There are always exceptions and if someone called me and my BS alarm did not flash I would work with them but that ararely happens. It has nothing about protecting the status quo and everything to do with protecting my clients interests and my time. If I shrug you off and you sincerely want a property, go find an agent and have them represent you. You would be at no disadvantage.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=drboom]Long story short, we had a short sale that fell apart in the approval process (stupid BofA: the house is still vacant and on their books 18 months later). The seller’s agent on that deal asked us if we were interested in having him represent us on a 50% commission split; he knew we had the research squared away and that we wouldn’t waste his time. He’d proven himself to be a true professional throughout the deal, so we were happy to engage him. I’ve told the story elsewhere, but the short of it is that he showed us exactly one house and wrote exactly one offer (OK, and one counter) for us. The sale closed three months later (short sale). Easy money.[/quote]

drboom, it appears from your post, above, that you ended up purchasing a property that had been close to default, in default and possibly in default with a trustee sale repeatedly postponed (in order to effect a short sale). The listing agent here had been fvcking with a recalcitrant lender (BofA . . . lol) for the better part of two years trying to sell the listing. Of course, it would depend on the way your original offer to purchase and agency agreement was drafted, but in a standard single-sale agency agreement, he most likely wasn’t allowed to engage you as his client until 181 days after the termination of your escrow due to the “short-sale fallout” or your “ex-Navy RE-agent veteran/relative” would have gotten his commission!

Of course the listing agent offered to split his commission with you! By that time, his listing may have been 22 months or more behind in payments and his client-seller was going to lose the property to foreclosure! Then ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS WORK ON THAT LISTING WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING. You “saved the day” for this agent by agreeing to “go direct.” Obviously, he figured making something after all that time and work was better than making nothing.

I just received an NOD from a client on Wednesday of this week (beneficiary is BofA, just filed by their contract trustee ReconTrust) and requested all their payment stubs which they brought me yesterday. Their last mortgage payment was credited by the lender on 2/13/08. Yes, they are still living there. BofA is very slow on the dime to take back properties, ESPECIALLY properties where they bought (or inherited) the trust deeds (at a discount) from another mortgage lender. BofA often may not have as much “skin in the game” as the face of the underlying trust deed would indicate and/or the properties are not worth the value of the face of the trust deed, anyway, so they let these properties languish longer in limbo while they foreclose and market the ones they can recover a little from.

drboom, I’m happy that you were satisfied in your dealings directly with the seller’s agent. In your case, all the work had already been done and cutting out your wife’s relative as your buyer’s agent was *just enough* to make the short-sale deal fly. If the property you had made a purchase offer on was NOT IN DISTRESS and did NOT have to be SOLD VERY SHORT, you would have closed your purchase the first time around and your wife’s relative/agent would have collected his due commission. If the property had been a “traditional sale” which fell out of escrow for other reasons, I don’t see that listing agent ever approaching you with an offer to give up part of his commission to you. This was a “special circumstance,” a win-win for you and him. The only one that lost here was your buyer’s agent/relative.

Just wondering though . . . How does your wife’s relative feel about you both now after he was cut out of the commission on that deal?

[bearishgurl]

[quote=drboom]Long story short, we had a short sale that fell apart in the approval process (stupid BofA: the house is still vacant and on their books 18 months later). The seller’s agent on that deal asked us if we were interested in having him represent us on a 50% commission split; he knew we had the research squared away and that we wouldn’t waste his time. He’d proven himself to be a true professional throughout the deal, so we were happy to engage him. I’ve told the story elsewhere, but the short of it is that he showed us exactly one house and wrote exactly one offer (OK, and one counter) for us. The sale closed three months later (short sale). Easy money.[/quote]

drboom, it appears from your post, above, that you ended up purchasing a property that had been close to default, in default and possibly in default with a trustee sale repeatedly postponed (in order to effect a short sale). The listing agent here had been fvcking with a recalcitrant lender (BofA . . . lol) for the better part of two years trying to sell the listing. Of course, it would depend on the way your original offer to purchase and agency agreement was drafted, but in a standard single-sale agency agreement, he most likely wasn’t allowed to engage you as his client until 181 days after the termination of your escrow due to the “short-sale fallout” or your “ex-Navy RE-agent veteran/relative” would have gotten his commission!

Of course the listing agent offered to split his commission with you! By that time, his listing may have been 22 months or more behind in payments and his client-seller was going to lose the property to foreclosure! Then ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS WORK ON THAT LISTING WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING. You “saved the day” for this agent by agreeing to “go direct.” Obviously, he figured making something after all that time and work was better than making nothing.

I just received an NOD from a client on Wednesday of this week (beneficiary is BofA, just filed by their contract trustee ReconTrust) and requested all their payment stubs which they brought me yesterday. Their last mortgage payment was credited by the lender on 2/13/08. Yes, they are still living there. BofA is very slow on the dime to take back properties, ESPECIALLY properties where they bought (or inherited) the trust deeds (at a discount) from another mortgage lender. BofA often may not have as much “skin in the game” as the face of the underlying trust deed would indicate and/or the properties are not worth the value of the face of the trust deed, anyway, so they let these properties languish longer in limbo while they foreclose and market the ones they can recover a little from.

drboom, I’m happy that you were satisfied in your dealings directly with the seller’s agent. In your case, all the work had already been done and cutting out your wife’s relative as your buyer’s agent was *just enough* to make the short-sale deal fly. If the property you had made a purchase offer on was NOT IN DISTRESS and did NOT have to be SOLD VERY SHORT, you would have closed your purchase the first time around and your wife’s relative/agent would have collected his due commission. If the property had been a “traditional sale” which fell out of escrow for other reasons, I don’t see that listing agent ever approaching you with an offer to give up part of his commission to you. This was a “special circumstance,” a win-win for you and him. The only one that lost here was your buyer’s agent/relative.

Just wondering though . . . How does your wife’s relative feel about you both now after he was cut out of the commission on that deal?

[bearishgurl]

[quote=drboom]Long story short, we had a short sale that fell apart in the approval process (stupid BofA: the house is still vacant and on their books 18 months later). The seller’s agent on that deal asked us if we were interested in having him represent us on a 50% commission split; he knew we had the research squared away and that we wouldn’t waste his time. He’d proven himself to be a true professional throughout the deal, so we were happy to engage him. I’ve told the story elsewhere, but the short of it is that he showed us exactly one house and wrote exactly one offer (OK, and one counter) for us. The sale closed three months later (short sale). Easy money.[/quote]

drboom, it appears from your post, above, that you ended up purchasing a property that had been close to default, in default and possibly in default with a trustee sale repeatedly postponed (in order to effect a short sale). The listing agent here had been fvcking with a recalcitrant lender (BofA . . . lol) for the better part of two years trying to sell the listing. Of course, it would depend on the way your original offer to purchase and agency agreement was drafted, but in a standard single-sale agency agreement, he most likely wasn’t allowed to engage you as his client until 181 days after the termination of your escrow due to the “short-sale fallout” or your “ex-Navy RE-agent veteran/relative” would have gotten his commission!

Of course the listing agent offered to split his commission with you! By that time, his listing may have been 22 months or more behind in payments and his client-seller was going to lose the property to foreclosure! Then ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS WORK ON THAT LISTING WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING. You “saved the day” for this agent by agreeing to “go direct.” Obviously, he figured making something after all that time and work was better than making nothing.

I just received an NOD from a client on Wednesday of this week (beneficiary is BofA, just filed by their contract trustee ReconTrust) and requested all their payment stubs which they brought me yesterday. Their last mortgage payment was credited by the lender on 2/13/08. Yes, they are still living there. BofA is very slow on the dime to take back properties, ESPECIALLY properties where they bought (or inherited) the trust deeds (at a discount) from another mortgage lender. BofA often may not have as much “skin in the game” as the face of the underlying trust deed would indicate and/or the properties are not worth the value of the face of the trust deed, anyway, so they let these properties languish longer in limbo while they foreclose and market the ones they can recover a little from.

drboom, I’m happy that you were satisfied in your dealings directly with the seller’s agent. In your case, all the work had already been done and cutting out your wife’s relative as your buyer’s agent was *just enough* to make the short-sale deal fly. If the property you had made a purchase offer on was NOT IN DISTRESS and did NOT have to be SOLD VERY SHORT, you would have closed your purchase the first time around and your wife’s relative/agent would have collected his due commission. If the property had been a “traditional sale” which fell out of escrow for other reasons, I don’t see that listing agent ever approaching you with an offer to give up part of his commission to you. This was a “special circumstance,” a win-win for you and him. The only one that lost here was your buyer’s agent/relative.

Just wondering though . . . How does your wife’s relative feel about you both now after he was cut out of the commission on that deal?

[bearishgurl]

[quote=drboom]Long story short, we had a short sale that fell apart in the approval process (stupid BofA: the house is still vacant and on their books 18 months later). The seller’s agent on that deal asked us if we were interested in having him represent us on a 50% commission split; he knew we had the research squared away and that we wouldn’t waste his time. He’d proven himself to be a true professional throughout the deal, so we were happy to engage him. I’ve told the story elsewhere, but the short of it is that he showed us exactly one house and wrote exactly one offer (OK, and one counter) for us. The sale closed three months later (short sale). Easy money.[/quote]

drboom, it appears from your post, above, that you ended up purchasing a property that had been close to default, in default and possibly in default with a trustee sale repeatedly postponed (in order to effect a short sale). The listing agent here had been fvcking with a recalcitrant lender (BofA . . . lol) for the better part of two years trying to sell the listing. Of course, it would depend on the way your original offer to purchase and agency agreement was drafted, but in a standard single-sale agency agreement, he most likely wasn’t allowed to engage you as his client until 181 days after the termination of your escrow due to the “short-sale fallout” or your “ex-Navy RE-agent veteran/relative” would have gotten his commission!

Of course the listing agent offered to split his commission with you! By that time, his listing may have been 22 months or more behind in payments and his client-seller was going to lose the property to foreclosure! Then ALL OF HIS PREVIOUS WORK ON THAT LISTING WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING. You “saved the day” for this agent by agreeing to “go direct.” Obviously, he figured making something after all that time and work was better than making nothing.

I just received an NOD from a client on Wednesday of this week (beneficiary is BofA, just filed by their contract trustee ReconTrust) and requested all their payment stubs which they brought me yesterday. Their last mortgage payment was credited by the lender on 2/13/08. Yes, they are still living there. BofA is very slow on the dime to take back properties, ESPECIALLY properties where they bought (or inherited) the trust deeds (at a discount) from another mortgage lender. BofA often may not have as much “skin in the game” as the face of the underlying trust deed would indicate and/or the properties are not worth the value of the face of the trust deed, anyway, so they let these properties languish longer in limbo while they foreclose and market the ones they can recover a little from.

drboom, I’m happy that you were satisfied in your dealings directly with the seller’s agent. In your case, all the work had already been done and cutting out your wife’s relative as your buyer’s agent was *just enough* to make the short-sale deal fly. If the property you had made a purchase offer on was NOT IN DISTRESS and did NOT have to be SOLD VERY SHORT, you would have closed your purchase the first time around and your wife’s relative/agent would have collected his due commission. If the property had been a “traditional sale” which fell out of escrow for other reasons, I don’t see that listing agent ever approaching you with an offer to give up part of his commission to you. This was a “special circumstance,” a win-win for you and him. The only one that lost here was your buyer’s agent/relative.

Just wondering though . . . How does your wife’s relative feel about you both now after he was cut out of the commission on that deal?

[Author]

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