How to Buy w/out a Realtor?

[Anonymous]

The easiest way to avoid the rediculous realtor commissions is for the seller to use a discount agent. When I sold my condo years ago my agent charged .9% and handled all the paperwork, put the property on MLS (most important thing), set up lock box, etc.

The only reason this isn’t “mainstream” is that the public is largely ignorant about this option. You can thank the brainwashing by the real estate lobby for this.

When you sell a property via discount agent the ideal is to find a buyer without an agent therefore the combined fees are only .9%. Unfortunately as I found out it is nearly impossible to find a buyer without an agent. But in those days the MLS wasn’t available to the public via Internet like it is today.

I don’t recall the exact details but for whatever reason the buyers agent was compensated 3% in my transaction, not sure the legalities. But still my fees were 4.9% vs. 6%.

So the point is, in all the examples given in this thread by the realtors it would appear dubious if there is any signifacant price advantage for a buyer to go in without an agent. This may be true in the standard arrangement. However, if the seller is using a discount realtor, then there may be significant price advantage.

My recommendation for a buyer would be to start withoug an agent, use the on-line tools to search for properties and contact the sellers directly to visit the properties of interest. Then later if you are very interested in a property, re-assess the situation. Depending on the nature of the sale, you may decide it is better to go with an agent so you can hire one at that time.

By the way, I have no idea what (if any) benefit these discount agents provide as a buyers agent. Anybody have experience with this?

[drboom]

[quote=matt-waiting]My impression is that asking for a rebate from a good buyer’s agent may be the best way to go, although the good Dr. has shown that a) a buyer’s agent provides little value for a buyer with half a brain … [/quote]

I should repeat that representation during the sale process had definite value for me. It might have been cheaper to hire a lawyer for the services my agent performed, even accounting for the rebate. But I don’t know if the lawyer I ended up with would have been on the deal like a rabid (and very organized) wolverine like my agent was.

Ask for 1.5% pretax (you’ll get a 1099). Net should be around 1% depending on your tax bracket.

YMMV, but it worked well for me. It’s not about beating the system, it’s about not paying for things I actively don’t want. I won’t be scared or bullied into wanting them, either.

[drboom]

[quote=matt-waiting]My impression is that asking for a rebate from a good buyer’s agent may be the best way to go, although the good Dr. has shown that a) a buyer’s agent provides little value for a buyer with half a brain … [/quote]

I should repeat that representation during the sale process had definite value for me. It might have been cheaper to hire a lawyer for the services my agent performed, even accounting for the rebate. But I don’t know if the lawyer I ended up with would have been on the deal like a rabid (and very organized) wolverine like my agent was.

Ask for 1.5% pretax (you’ll get a 1099). Net should be around 1% depending on your tax bracket.

YMMV, but it worked well for me. It’s not about beating the system, it’s about not paying for things I actively don’t want. I won’t be scared or bullied into wanting them, either.

[drboom]

[quote=matt-waiting]My impression is that asking for a rebate from a good buyer’s agent may be the best way to go, although the good Dr. has shown that a) a buyer’s agent provides little value for a buyer with half a brain … [/quote]

I should repeat that representation during the sale process had definite value for me. It might have been cheaper to hire a lawyer for the services my agent performed, even accounting for the rebate. But I don’t know if the lawyer I ended up with would have been on the deal like a rabid (and very organized) wolverine like my agent was.

Ask for 1.5% pretax (you’ll get a 1099). Net should be around 1% depending on your tax bracket.

YMMV, but it worked well for me. It’s not about beating the system, it’s about not paying for things I actively don’t want. I won’t be scared or bullied into wanting them, either.

[drboom]

[quote=matt-waiting]My impression is that asking for a rebate from a good buyer’s agent may be the best way to go, although the good Dr. has shown that a) a buyer’s agent provides little value for a buyer with half a brain … [/quote]

I should repeat that representation during the sale process had definite value for me. It might have been cheaper to hire a lawyer for the services my agent performed, even accounting for the rebate. But I don’t know if the lawyer I ended up with would have been on the deal like a rabid (and very organized) wolverine like my agent was.

Ask for 1.5% pretax (you’ll get a 1099). Net should be around 1% depending on your tax bracket.

YMMV, but it worked well for me. It’s not about beating the system, it’s about not paying for things I actively don’t want. I won’t be scared or bullied into wanting them, either.

[drboom]

[quote=matt-waiting]My impression is that asking for a rebate from a good buyer’s agent may be the best way to go, although the good Dr. has shown that a) a buyer’s agent provides little value for a buyer with half a brain … [/quote]

I should repeat that representation during the sale process had definite value for me. It might have been cheaper to hire a lawyer for the services my agent performed, even accounting for the rebate. But I don’t know if the lawyer I ended up with would have been on the deal like a rabid (and very organized) wolverine like my agent was.

Ask for 1.5% pretax (you’ll get a 1099). Net should be around 1% depending on your tax bracket.

YMMV, but it worked well for me. It’s not about beating the system, it’s about not paying for things I actively don’t want. I won’t be scared or bullied into wanting them, either.

[bearishgurl]

I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.

When a buyer is looking for a property in an area they have lived in all of their lives, a lot more than “just the comps” come into play. Now, we don’t know if drboom has any kids, but here’s a sampling of paragraphs of a FEW of the thoughts a longtime-resident neighborhood-buyer has when considering viewing listings in their home turf. Remember, we’re inside his/her head now and they are actively looking to buy *today*:

“How far away is this place from grandma or Aunt Sue for my 7 year old to walk over to from the school bus after school while I work? Will he/she have to cross any busy streets? Does the school bus make a stop at the end of grandma’s street?”

“Isn’t this listing on the ridge overlooking Jim Schmo’s scrap metal collection he and his elderly dad have had on their 1 AC lot since 1954? Are those two rusty 1958 John Deere’s still sitting there? How about the 1964 Kenwood? The 1962 35′ sailboat?”

“Wasn’t that small tract over there part of the PBT plumbing class action suit of the early ’90’s? I don’t think that homeowner spent his settlement proceeds on plumbing replacement because he’s always working on his motorcycle on my way home from work when I pass by and there’s still suspended plastic crap hanging from the ceiling of his garage.”

“I’m not taking any of the lots on that side of the street. The backyards are too shallow and I watched that dozer “shore up” that hillside in back when I was in HS and spray some crap on the side of it to start growing. They they poured a little asphalt for a horizontal drain and built a “wall” behind the backyards from sticks superglued together with a little patch and “stucco.” It was a joke! When it rains, all the water comes out on the side of Pat C’s lot and she’s not too happy about that . . . lol. When it gets so wet that that tree up there falls (look, it’s already leaning) or an earthquake hits, those 12 houses are toast.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice house but I can’t live on the same street as Uncle Bud. There’s just too much water under the bridge there – better left alone.”

“Yeah, it’s a flipped REO. It’s all window dressing. Gawd, I’ve seen so many folks coming in and out of that joint in the last few days it would make your head spin. That “flipper” only spent a week in there, start to finish and my wife has been watching. There’s never been even one sheet of drywall brought in or delivered. The lady who lost the property had AT LEAST 17 cats (who often roamed the ‘hood) and 3 pit bulls. Me and my kid knocked on the door there last year selling candy for his soccer team and the urine smell just about knocked us out. We stepped in the front entry for just a minute while the lady went to get her purse and noticed that all the walls were brown-stained 2-3 feet up from the floor. I will say the flippers DID fix the fence and filled in the holes under it, even laid sod in the backyard, lol. 3-4 of these lady’s cats are still around here . . . somewhere. Suckers!!”

“My sister-in-law works for the XXX School District and told us she saw an interoffice memorandum last week that said beginning in Fall 2011, all students residing east of BBB Parkway will be moved to the YYY HS attendance area. Just a heads-up – they won’t be putting out the bulletin and notifying the affected families until April. I want my kids to stay in these schools, with their friends.”

“Just two months ago, there was a 100′ high pine tree removed from that postage-stamp front yard two doors down. It took 3 days to remove and 1 whole day to grind the stump out. The guy taking the last chipper load out told me the total weight so far at the dump was 2.7 tons. Those homeowners had the water authority and city sewer out I can’t tell you how many times digging their front yard up, on top of all the Roto Rooter visits. I guarantee you those roots are at least 20′ into their next-door neighbor’s property, too. No thanks on that one.”

“Those six owners downhill sued the city last year for repeated flooding of their lots for lack of storm drains. The city’s been trying to settle with them by harassing the sh*t out of those four uphill properties (2 currently listed) who will not sign over grant deeds for 10’ of frontage of their properties without a fair-market-value payment. It’s such a small city that they haven’t made any offers to these owners and would have to contract out the litigation of an iminent domain lawsuit. My cousin who works down there said it will ask the City Council on 10/5 whether they wish to pay the uphill owners and settle the case or contract out a lawsuit, but the schedule for the CC meetings doesn’t come out until three business days before. Even though those uphill listings have nice lots, I wouldn’t touch them.”

“The beautifully finished expensive high private block wall Mr. Z put up in his backyard masks Friendly Neighborhood Market’s dumpsters. Mr. Z’s been after Joe Schmuck, the market’s owner, to lock them down for years but he hasn’t so everyone and their brother who canceled their trash service of late is using them and piling their trash all over the place. Since those dumpsters are walled from the street but not locked, those sucker looky-loos can’t tell from driving by. When the wind blows just right, it wafts the dumpster smell onto Mr. Z’s property. And the noise from EDCO at 5:30 a.m. wakes everyone up. If I was Mr. Z, I’d sell, too. Of course, showings are by appt only and they seem to be only showing on collection day or the day after, lol. Very smart of you, Mr. Z.”

“I see Alberta is getting on in years and finally decided to list her mom’s old property and move on. The kids from MMM Middle and High School are still using the path on the back third of her lot behind those aspen trees as a shortcut to our street and now to the newer PPP development. I figure it would cost me at least $35K to $40K to fence it off OR I can just let the kids continue to use it, like I did when I went to MMM Schools. What the heck, it’s just a couple of 30 gal cans on a Saturday. I can just get me a dog-waste scooper to pick up their litter once a week. It’s only an hour or so once a week.”

“Wow, now that IS a nice home. Yeah, it’s been totally remodeled in and out, top of the line appls, resurfaced pool, new pump, new heater, new filter and refurbished cabana and built-in barbeque. It looks awesome back there. These guys really did a good job. Two owners ago, a family of six were all found dead in there by a relative. It turned out that the dad shot his wife and kids while they were sleeping and then shot himself. Two of my kids were friends and schoolmates of the middle daughter and went to her beautiful Quinceanera and the second son’s 16th birthday party. This is a really nice ‘hood but it’s never been the same since. Those of us left are still devastated over the scene where the coroner came and removed the bodies. The sheriff had yellow tape around it for over a month. To this day, I still can’t get it out of my head. They were such a nice family and the kids had such nice manners.”

Piggs, this is just the tip of the iceberg that wouldn’t be divulged to a buyer in a transfer disclosure statement, preliminary title report or inspection report (assuming you already wasted time in an escrow).

Now, you’re probably all falling over yourselves laughing over this “dirty dish on the down low” but all of this is “real” and its everywhere, from $200K areas to $2M+ areas. In defense of drboom, this is how “homie” buyers think. It’s NOT NECESSARILY about getting the rock-bottom lowest price or overthinking the “timing” the RE market. UR and sdr are NOT going to “see” any of this on their “stats” or even on a “preview.” Ya gotta give credit to what this type of buyer and/or their neighborhood agent already knows. It’s about getting an acceptable property in a very, very specific location when they are ready to buy. Numbers aren’t everything and they don’t tell the whole story. My biz is “fleshing out the story” and getting the job done.

[bearishgurl]

I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.

When a buyer is looking for a property in an area they have lived in all of their lives, a lot more than “just the comps” come into play. Now, we don’t know if drboom has any kids, but here’s a sampling of paragraphs of a FEW of the thoughts a longtime-resident neighborhood-buyer has when considering viewing listings in their home turf. Remember, we’re inside his/her head now and they are actively looking to buy *today*:

“How far away is this place from grandma or Aunt Sue for my 7 year old to walk over to from the school bus after school while I work? Will he/she have to cross any busy streets? Does the school bus make a stop at the end of grandma’s street?”

“Isn’t this listing on the ridge overlooking Jim Schmo’s scrap metal collection he and his elderly dad have had on their 1 AC lot since 1954? Are those two rusty 1958 John Deere’s still sitting there? How about the 1964 Kenwood? The 1962 35′ sailboat?”

“Wasn’t that small tract over there part of the PBT plumbing class action suit of the early ’90’s? I don’t think that homeowner spent his settlement proceeds on plumbing replacement because he’s always working on his motorcycle on my way home from work when I pass by and there’s still suspended plastic crap hanging from the ceiling of his garage.”

“I’m not taking any of the lots on that side of the street. The backyards are too shallow and I watched that dozer “shore up” that hillside in back when I was in HS and spray some crap on the side of it to start growing. They they poured a little asphalt for a horizontal drain and built a “wall” behind the backyards from sticks superglued together with a little patch and “stucco.” It was a joke! When it rains, all the water comes out on the side of Pat C’s lot and she’s not too happy about that . . . lol. When it gets so wet that that tree up there falls (look, it’s already leaning) or an earthquake hits, those 12 houses are toast.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice house but I can’t live on the same street as Uncle Bud. There’s just too much water under the bridge there – better left alone.”

“Yeah, it’s a flipped REO. It’s all window dressing. Gawd, I’ve seen so many folks coming in and out of that joint in the last few days it would make your head spin. That “flipper” only spent a week in there, start to finish and my wife has been watching. There’s never been even one sheet of drywall brought in or delivered. The lady who lost the property had AT LEAST 17 cats (who often roamed the ‘hood) and 3 pit bulls. Me and my kid knocked on the door there last year selling candy for his soccer team and the urine smell just about knocked us out. We stepped in the front entry for just a minute while the lady went to get her purse and noticed that all the walls were brown-stained 2-3 feet up from the floor. I will say the flippers DID fix the fence and filled in the holes under it, even laid sod in the backyard, lol. 3-4 of these lady’s cats are still around here . . . somewhere. Suckers!!”

“My sister-in-law works for the XXX School District and told us she saw an interoffice memorandum last week that said beginning in Fall 2011, all students residing east of BBB Parkway will be moved to the YYY HS attendance area. Just a heads-up – they won’t be putting out the bulletin and notifying the affected families until April. I want my kids to stay in these schools, with their friends.”

“Just two months ago, there was a 100′ high pine tree removed from that postage-stamp front yard two doors down. It took 3 days to remove and 1 whole day to grind the stump out. The guy taking the last chipper load out told me the total weight so far at the dump was 2.7 tons. Those homeowners had the water authority and city sewer out I can’t tell you how many times digging their front yard up, on top of all the Roto Rooter visits. I guarantee you those roots are at least 20′ into their next-door neighbor’s property, too. No thanks on that one.”

“Those six owners downhill sued the city last year for repeated flooding of their lots for lack of storm drains. The city’s been trying to settle with them by harassing the sh*t out of those four uphill properties (2 currently listed) who will not sign over grant deeds for 10’ of frontage of their properties without a fair-market-value payment. It’s such a small city that they haven’t made any offers to these owners and would have to contract out the litigation of an iminent domain lawsuit. My cousin who works down there said it will ask the City Council on 10/5 whether they wish to pay the uphill owners and settle the case or contract out a lawsuit, but the schedule for the CC meetings doesn’t come out until three business days before. Even though those uphill listings have nice lots, I wouldn’t touch them.”

“The beautifully finished expensive high private block wall Mr. Z put up in his backyard masks Friendly Neighborhood Market’s dumpsters. Mr. Z’s been after Joe Schmuck, the market’s owner, to lock them down for years but he hasn’t so everyone and their brother who canceled their trash service of late is using them and piling their trash all over the place. Since those dumpsters are walled from the street but not locked, those sucker looky-loos can’t tell from driving by. When the wind blows just right, it wafts the dumpster smell onto Mr. Z’s property. And the noise from EDCO at 5:30 a.m. wakes everyone up. If I was Mr. Z, I’d sell, too. Of course, showings are by appt only and they seem to be only showing on collection day or the day after, lol. Very smart of you, Mr. Z.”

“I see Alberta is getting on in years and finally decided to list her mom’s old property and move on. The kids from MMM Middle and High School are still using the path on the back third of her lot behind those aspen trees as a shortcut to our street and now to the newer PPP development. I figure it would cost me at least $35K to $40K to fence it off OR I can just let the kids continue to use it, like I did when I went to MMM Schools. What the heck, it’s just a couple of 30 gal cans on a Saturday. I can just get me a dog-waste scooper to pick up their litter once a week. It’s only an hour or so once a week.”

“Wow, now that IS a nice home. Yeah, it’s been totally remodeled in and out, top of the line appls, resurfaced pool, new pump, new heater, new filter and refurbished cabana and built-in barbeque. It looks awesome back there. These guys really did a good job. Two owners ago, a family of six were all found dead in there by a relative. It turned out that the dad shot his wife and kids while they were sleeping and then shot himself. Two of my kids were friends and schoolmates of the middle daughter and went to her beautiful Quinceanera and the second son’s 16th birthday party. This is a really nice ‘hood but it’s never been the same since. Those of us left are still devastated over the scene where the coroner came and removed the bodies. The sheriff had yellow tape around it for over a month. To this day, I still can’t get it out of my head. They were such a nice family and the kids had such nice manners.”

Piggs, this is just the tip of the iceberg that wouldn’t be divulged to a buyer in a transfer disclosure statement, preliminary title report or inspection report (assuming you already wasted time in an escrow).

Now, you’re probably all falling over yourselves laughing over this “dirty dish on the down low” but all of this is “real” and its everywhere, from $200K areas to $2M+ areas. In defense of drboom, this is how “homie” buyers think. It’s NOT NECESSARILY about getting the rock-bottom lowest price or overthinking the “timing” the RE market. UR and sdr are NOT going to “see” any of this on their “stats” or even on a “preview.” Ya gotta give credit to what this type of buyer and/or their neighborhood agent already knows. It’s about getting an acceptable property in a very, very specific location when they are ready to buy. Numbers aren’t everything and they don’t tell the whole story. My biz is “fleshing out the story” and getting the job done.

[bearishgurl]

I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.

When a buyer is looking for a property in an area they have lived in all of their lives, a lot more than “just the comps” come into play. Now, we don’t know if drboom has any kids, but here’s a sampling of paragraphs of a FEW of the thoughts a longtime-resident neighborhood-buyer has when considering viewing listings in their home turf. Remember, we’re inside his/her head now and they are actively looking to buy *today*:

“How far away is this place from grandma or Aunt Sue for my 7 year old to walk over to from the school bus after school while I work? Will he/she have to cross any busy streets? Does the school bus make a stop at the end of grandma’s street?”

“Isn’t this listing on the ridge overlooking Jim Schmo’s scrap metal collection he and his elderly dad have had on their 1 AC lot since 1954? Are those two rusty 1958 John Deere’s still sitting there? How about the 1964 Kenwood? The 1962 35′ sailboat?”

“Wasn’t that small tract over there part of the PBT plumbing class action suit of the early ’90’s? I don’t think that homeowner spent his settlement proceeds on plumbing replacement because he’s always working on his motorcycle on my way home from work when I pass by and there’s still suspended plastic crap hanging from the ceiling of his garage.”

“I’m not taking any of the lots on that side of the street. The backyards are too shallow and I watched that dozer “shore up” that hillside in back when I was in HS and spray some crap on the side of it to start growing. They they poured a little asphalt for a horizontal drain and built a “wall” behind the backyards from sticks superglued together with a little patch and “stucco.” It was a joke! When it rains, all the water comes out on the side of Pat C’s lot and she’s not too happy about that . . . lol. When it gets so wet that that tree up there falls (look, it’s already leaning) or an earthquake hits, those 12 houses are toast.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice house but I can’t live on the same street as Uncle Bud. There’s just too much water under the bridge there – better left alone.”

“Yeah, it’s a flipped REO. It’s all window dressing. Gawd, I’ve seen so many folks coming in and out of that joint in the last few days it would make your head spin. That “flipper” only spent a week in there, start to finish and my wife has been watching. There’s never been even one sheet of drywall brought in or delivered. The lady who lost the property had AT LEAST 17 cats (who often roamed the ‘hood) and 3 pit bulls. Me and my kid knocked on the door there last year selling candy for his soccer team and the urine smell just about knocked us out. We stepped in the front entry for just a minute while the lady went to get her purse and noticed that all the walls were brown-stained 2-3 feet up from the floor. I will say the flippers DID fix the fence and filled in the holes under it, even laid sod in the backyard, lol. 3-4 of these lady’s cats are still around here . . . somewhere. Suckers!!”

“My sister-in-law works for the XXX School District and told us she saw an interoffice memorandum last week that said beginning in Fall 2011, all students residing east of BBB Parkway will be moved to the YYY HS attendance area. Just a heads-up – they won’t be putting out the bulletin and notifying the affected families until April. I want my kids to stay in these schools, with their friends.”

“Just two months ago, there was a 100′ high pine tree removed from that postage-stamp front yard two doors down. It took 3 days to remove and 1 whole day to grind the stump out. The guy taking the last chipper load out told me the total weight so far at the dump was 2.7 tons. Those homeowners had the water authority and city sewer out I can’t tell you how many times digging their front yard up, on top of all the Roto Rooter visits. I guarantee you those roots are at least 20′ into their next-door neighbor’s property, too. No thanks on that one.”

“Those six owners downhill sued the city last year for repeated flooding of their lots for lack of storm drains. The city’s been trying to settle with them by harassing the sh*t out of those four uphill properties (2 currently listed) who will not sign over grant deeds for 10’ of frontage of their properties without a fair-market-value payment. It’s such a small city that they haven’t made any offers to these owners and would have to contract out the litigation of an iminent domain lawsuit. My cousin who works down there said it will ask the City Council on 10/5 whether they wish to pay the uphill owners and settle the case or contract out a lawsuit, but the schedule for the CC meetings doesn’t come out until three business days before. Even though those uphill listings have nice lots, I wouldn’t touch them.”

“The beautifully finished expensive high private block wall Mr. Z put up in his backyard masks Friendly Neighborhood Market’s dumpsters. Mr. Z’s been after Joe Schmuck, the market’s owner, to lock them down for years but he hasn’t so everyone and their brother who canceled their trash service of late is using them and piling their trash all over the place. Since those dumpsters are walled from the street but not locked, those sucker looky-loos can’t tell from driving by. When the wind blows just right, it wafts the dumpster smell onto Mr. Z’s property. And the noise from EDCO at 5:30 a.m. wakes everyone up. If I was Mr. Z, I’d sell, too. Of course, showings are by appt only and they seem to be only showing on collection day or the day after, lol. Very smart of you, Mr. Z.”

“I see Alberta is getting on in years and finally decided to list her mom’s old property and move on. The kids from MMM Middle and High School are still using the path on the back third of her lot behind those aspen trees as a shortcut to our street and now to the newer PPP development. I figure it would cost me at least $35K to $40K to fence it off OR I can just let the kids continue to use it, like I did when I went to MMM Schools. What the heck, it’s just a couple of 30 gal cans on a Saturday. I can just get me a dog-waste scooper to pick up their litter once a week. It’s only an hour or so once a week.”

“Wow, now that IS a nice home. Yeah, it’s been totally remodeled in and out, top of the line appls, resurfaced pool, new pump, new heater, new filter and refurbished cabana and built-in barbeque. It looks awesome back there. These guys really did a good job. Two owners ago, a family of six were all found dead in there by a relative. It turned out that the dad shot his wife and kids while they were sleeping and then shot himself. Two of my kids were friends and schoolmates of the middle daughter and went to her beautiful Quinceanera and the second son’s 16th birthday party. This is a really nice ‘hood but it’s never been the same since. Those of us left are still devastated over the scene where the coroner came and removed the bodies. The sheriff had yellow tape around it for over a month. To this day, I still can’t get it out of my head. They were such a nice family and the kids had such nice manners.”

Piggs, this is just the tip of the iceberg that wouldn’t be divulged to a buyer in a transfer disclosure statement, preliminary title report or inspection report (assuming you already wasted time in an escrow).

Now, you’re probably all falling over yourselves laughing over this “dirty dish on the down low” but all of this is “real” and its everywhere, from $200K areas to $2M+ areas. In defense of drboom, this is how “homie” buyers think. It’s NOT NECESSARILY about getting the rock-bottom lowest price or overthinking the “timing” the RE market. UR and sdr are NOT going to “see” any of this on their “stats” or even on a “preview.” Ya gotta give credit to what this type of buyer and/or their neighborhood agent already knows. It’s about getting an acceptable property in a very, very specific location when they are ready to buy. Numbers aren’t everything and they don’t tell the whole story. My biz is “fleshing out the story” and getting the job done.

[bearishgurl]

I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.

When a buyer is looking for a property in an area they have lived in all of their lives, a lot more than “just the comps” come into play. Now, we don’t know if drboom has any kids, but here’s a sampling of paragraphs of a FEW of the thoughts a longtime-resident neighborhood-buyer has when considering viewing listings in their home turf. Remember, we’re inside his/her head now and they are actively looking to buy *today*:

“How far away is this place from grandma or Aunt Sue for my 7 year old to walk over to from the school bus after school while I work? Will he/she have to cross any busy streets? Does the school bus make a stop at the end of grandma’s street?”

“Isn’t this listing on the ridge overlooking Jim Schmo’s scrap metal collection he and his elderly dad have had on their 1 AC lot since 1954? Are those two rusty 1958 John Deere’s still sitting there? How about the 1964 Kenwood? The 1962 35′ sailboat?”

“Wasn’t that small tract over there part of the PBT plumbing class action suit of the early ’90’s? I don’t think that homeowner spent his settlement proceeds on plumbing replacement because he’s always working on his motorcycle on my way home from work when I pass by and there’s still suspended plastic crap hanging from the ceiling of his garage.”

“I’m not taking any of the lots on that side of the street. The backyards are too shallow and I watched that dozer “shore up” that hillside in back when I was in HS and spray some crap on the side of it to start growing. They they poured a little asphalt for a horizontal drain and built a “wall” behind the backyards from sticks superglued together with a little patch and “stucco.” It was a joke! When it rains, all the water comes out on the side of Pat C’s lot and she’s not too happy about that . . . lol. When it gets so wet that that tree up there falls (look, it’s already leaning) or an earthquake hits, those 12 houses are toast.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice house but I can’t live on the same street as Uncle Bud. There’s just too much water under the bridge there – better left alone.”

“Yeah, it’s a flipped REO. It’s all window dressing. Gawd, I’ve seen so many folks coming in and out of that joint in the last few days it would make your head spin. That “flipper” only spent a week in there, start to finish and my wife has been watching. There’s never been even one sheet of drywall brought in or delivered. The lady who lost the property had AT LEAST 17 cats (who often roamed the ‘hood) and 3 pit bulls. Me and my kid knocked on the door there last year selling candy for his soccer team and the urine smell just about knocked us out. We stepped in the front entry for just a minute while the lady went to get her purse and noticed that all the walls were brown-stained 2-3 feet up from the floor. I will say the flippers DID fix the fence and filled in the holes under it, even laid sod in the backyard, lol. 3-4 of these lady’s cats are still around here . . . somewhere. Suckers!!”

“My sister-in-law works for the XXX School District and told us she saw an interoffice memorandum last week that said beginning in Fall 2011, all students residing east of BBB Parkway will be moved to the YYY HS attendance area. Just a heads-up – they won’t be putting out the bulletin and notifying the affected families until April. I want my kids to stay in these schools, with their friends.”

“Just two months ago, there was a 100′ high pine tree removed from that postage-stamp front yard two doors down. It took 3 days to remove and 1 whole day to grind the stump out. The guy taking the last chipper load out told me the total weight so far at the dump was 2.7 tons. Those homeowners had the water authority and city sewer out I can’t tell you how many times digging their front yard up, on top of all the Roto Rooter visits. I guarantee you those roots are at least 20′ into their next-door neighbor’s property, too. No thanks on that one.”

“Those six owners downhill sued the city last year for repeated flooding of their lots for lack of storm drains. The city’s been trying to settle with them by harassing the sh*t out of those four uphill properties (2 currently listed) who will not sign over grant deeds for 10’ of frontage of their properties without a fair-market-value payment. It’s such a small city that they haven’t made any offers to these owners and would have to contract out the litigation of an iminent domain lawsuit. My cousin who works down there said it will ask the City Council on 10/5 whether they wish to pay the uphill owners and settle the case or contract out a lawsuit, but the schedule for the CC meetings doesn’t come out until three business days before. Even though those uphill listings have nice lots, I wouldn’t touch them.”

“The beautifully finished expensive high private block wall Mr. Z put up in his backyard masks Friendly Neighborhood Market’s dumpsters. Mr. Z’s been after Joe Schmuck, the market’s owner, to lock them down for years but he hasn’t so everyone and their brother who canceled their trash service of late is using them and piling their trash all over the place. Since those dumpsters are walled from the street but not locked, those sucker looky-loos can’t tell from driving by. When the wind blows just right, it wafts the dumpster smell onto Mr. Z’s property. And the noise from EDCO at 5:30 a.m. wakes everyone up. If I was Mr. Z, I’d sell, too. Of course, showings are by appt only and they seem to be only showing on collection day or the day after, lol. Very smart of you, Mr. Z.”

“I see Alberta is getting on in years and finally decided to list her mom’s old property and move on. The kids from MMM Middle and High School are still using the path on the back third of her lot behind those aspen trees as a shortcut to our street and now to the newer PPP development. I figure it would cost me at least $35K to $40K to fence it off OR I can just let the kids continue to use it, like I did when I went to MMM Schools. What the heck, it’s just a couple of 30 gal cans on a Saturday. I can just get me a dog-waste scooper to pick up their litter once a week. It’s only an hour or so once a week.”

“Wow, now that IS a nice home. Yeah, it’s been totally remodeled in and out, top of the line appls, resurfaced pool, new pump, new heater, new filter and refurbished cabana and built-in barbeque. It looks awesome back there. These guys really did a good job. Two owners ago, a family of six were all found dead in there by a relative. It turned out that the dad shot his wife and kids while they were sleeping and then shot himself. Two of my kids were friends and schoolmates of the middle daughter and went to her beautiful Quinceanera and the second son’s 16th birthday party. This is a really nice ‘hood but it’s never been the same since. Those of us left are still devastated over the scene where the coroner came and removed the bodies. The sheriff had yellow tape around it for over a month. To this day, I still can’t get it out of my head. They were such a nice family and the kids had such nice manners.”

Piggs, this is just the tip of the iceberg that wouldn’t be divulged to a buyer in a transfer disclosure statement, preliminary title report or inspection report (assuming you already wasted time in an escrow).

Now, you’re probably all falling over yourselves laughing over this “dirty dish on the down low” but all of this is “real” and its everywhere, from $200K areas to $2M+ areas. In defense of drboom, this is how “homie” buyers think. It’s NOT NECESSARILY about getting the rock-bottom lowest price or overthinking the “timing” the RE market. UR and sdr are NOT going to “see” any of this on their “stats” or even on a “preview.” Ya gotta give credit to what this type of buyer and/or their neighborhood agent already knows. It’s about getting an acceptable property in a very, very specific location when they are ready to buy. Numbers aren’t everything and they don’t tell the whole story. My biz is “fleshing out the story” and getting the job done.

[bearishgurl]

I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.

When a buyer is looking for a property in an area they have lived in all of their lives, a lot more than “just the comps” come into play. Now, we don’t know if drboom has any kids, but here’s a sampling of paragraphs of a FEW of the thoughts a longtime-resident neighborhood-buyer has when considering viewing listings in their home turf. Remember, we’re inside his/her head now and they are actively looking to buy *today*:

“How far away is this place from grandma or Aunt Sue for my 7 year old to walk over to from the school bus after school while I work? Will he/she have to cross any busy streets? Does the school bus make a stop at the end of grandma’s street?”

“Isn’t this listing on the ridge overlooking Jim Schmo’s scrap metal collection he and his elderly dad have had on their 1 AC lot since 1954? Are those two rusty 1958 John Deere’s still sitting there? How about the 1964 Kenwood? The 1962 35′ sailboat?”

“Wasn’t that small tract over there part of the PBT plumbing class action suit of the early ’90’s? I don’t think that homeowner spent his settlement proceeds on plumbing replacement because he’s always working on his motorcycle on my way home from work when I pass by and there’s still suspended plastic crap hanging from the ceiling of his garage.”

“I’m not taking any of the lots on that side of the street. The backyards are too shallow and I watched that dozer “shore up” that hillside in back when I was in HS and spray some crap on the side of it to start growing. They they poured a little asphalt for a horizontal drain and built a “wall” behind the backyards from sticks superglued together with a little patch and “stucco.” It was a joke! When it rains, all the water comes out on the side of Pat C’s lot and she’s not too happy about that . . . lol. When it gets so wet that that tree up there falls (look, it’s already leaning) or an earthquake hits, those 12 houses are toast.”

“Yeah, that’s a nice house but I can’t live on the same street as Uncle Bud. There’s just too much water under the bridge there – better left alone.”

“Yeah, it’s a flipped REO. It’s all window dressing. Gawd, I’ve seen so many folks coming in and out of that joint in the last few days it would make your head spin. That “flipper” only spent a week in there, start to finish and my wife has been watching. There’s never been even one sheet of drywall brought in or delivered. The lady who lost the property had AT LEAST 17 cats (who often roamed the ‘hood) and 3 pit bulls. Me and my kid knocked on the door there last year selling candy for his soccer team and the urine smell just about knocked us out. We stepped in the front entry for just a minute while the lady went to get her purse and noticed that all the walls were brown-stained 2-3 feet up from the floor. I will say the flippers DID fix the fence and filled in the holes under it, even laid sod in the backyard, lol. 3-4 of these lady’s cats are still around here . . . somewhere. Suckers!!”

“My sister-in-law works for the XXX School District and told us she saw an interoffice memorandum last week that said beginning in Fall 2011, all students residing east of BBB Parkway will be moved to the YYY HS attendance area. Just a heads-up – they won’t be putting out the bulletin and notifying the affected families until April. I want my kids to stay in these schools, with their friends.”

“Just two months ago, there was a 100′ high pine tree removed from that postage-stamp front yard two doors down. It took 3 days to remove and 1 whole day to grind the stump out. The guy taking the last chipper load out told me the total weight so far at the dump was 2.7 tons. Those homeowners had the water authority and city sewer out I can’t tell you how many times digging their front yard up, on top of all the Roto Rooter visits. I guarantee you those roots are at least 20′ into their next-door neighbor’s property, too. No thanks on that one.”

“Those six owners downhill sued the city last year for repeated flooding of their lots for lack of storm drains. The city’s been trying to settle with them by harassing the sh*t out of those four uphill properties (2 currently listed) who will not sign over grant deeds for 10’ of frontage of their properties without a fair-market-value payment. It’s such a small city that they haven’t made any offers to these owners and would have to contract out the litigation of an iminent domain lawsuit. My cousin who works down there said it will ask the City Council on 10/5 whether they wish to pay the uphill owners and settle the case or contract out a lawsuit, but the schedule for the CC meetings doesn’t come out until three business days before. Even though those uphill listings have nice lots, I wouldn’t touch them.”

“The beautifully finished expensive high private block wall Mr. Z put up in his backyard masks Friendly Neighborhood Market’s dumpsters. Mr. Z’s been after Joe Schmuck, the market’s owner, to lock them down for years but he hasn’t so everyone and their brother who canceled their trash service of late is using them and piling their trash all over the place. Since those dumpsters are walled from the street but not locked, those sucker looky-loos can’t tell from driving by. When the wind blows just right, it wafts the dumpster smell onto Mr. Z’s property. And the noise from EDCO at 5:30 a.m. wakes everyone up. If I was Mr. Z, I’d sell, too. Of course, showings are by appt only and they seem to be only showing on collection day or the day after, lol. Very smart of you, Mr. Z.”

“I see Alberta is getting on in years and finally decided to list her mom’s old property and move on. The kids from MMM Middle and High School are still using the path on the back third of her lot behind those aspen trees as a shortcut to our street and now to the newer PPP development. I figure it would cost me at least $35K to $40K to fence it off OR I can just let the kids continue to use it, like I did when I went to MMM Schools. What the heck, it’s just a couple of 30 gal cans on a Saturday. I can just get me a dog-waste scooper to pick up their litter once a week. It’s only an hour or so once a week.”

“Wow, now that IS a nice home. Yeah, it’s been totally remodeled in and out, top of the line appls, resurfaced pool, new pump, new heater, new filter and refurbished cabana and built-in barbeque. It looks awesome back there. These guys really did a good job. Two owners ago, a family of six were all found dead in there by a relative. It turned out that the dad shot his wife and kids while they were sleeping and then shot himself. Two of my kids were friends and schoolmates of the middle daughter and went to her beautiful Quinceanera and the second son’s 16th birthday party. This is a really nice ‘hood but it’s never been the same since. Those of us left are still devastated over the scene where the coroner came and removed the bodies. The sheriff had yellow tape around it for over a month. To this day, I still can’t get it out of my head. They were such a nice family and the kids had such nice manners.”

Piggs, this is just the tip of the iceberg that wouldn’t be divulged to a buyer in a transfer disclosure statement, preliminary title report or inspection report (assuming you already wasted time in an escrow).

Now, you’re probably all falling over yourselves laughing over this “dirty dish on the down low” but all of this is “real” and its everywhere, from $200K areas to $2M+ areas. In defense of drboom, this is how “homie” buyers think. It’s NOT NECESSARILY about getting the rock-bottom lowest price or overthinking the “timing” the RE market. UR and sdr are NOT going to “see” any of this on their “stats” or even on a “preview.” Ya gotta give credit to what this type of buyer and/or their neighborhood agent already knows. It’s about getting an acceptable property in a very, very specific location when they are ready to buy. Numbers aren’t everything and they don’t tell the whole story. My biz is “fleshing out the story” and getting the job done.

[drboom]

[quote=bearishgurl]I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.[/quote]

Applause.

I do in fact have an Aunt Sue, though not in the ‘hood, and I have lots of stories about where to uy and not buy. In my case, I knew a retired geologist who lived down the street. He liked to point out where not to buy a house in this neighborhood (and, generally, what to look out for), and I kept his advice in mind all these years.

[drboom]

[quote=bearishgurl]I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.[/quote]

Applause.

I do in fact have an Aunt Sue, though not in the ‘hood, and I have lots of stories about where to uy and not buy. In my case, I knew a retired geologist who lived down the street. He liked to point out where not to buy a house in this neighborhood (and, generally, what to look out for), and I kept his advice in mind all these years.

[drboom]

[quote=bearishgurl]I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.[/quote]

Applause.

I do in fact have an Aunt Sue, though not in the ‘hood, and I have lots of stories about where to uy and not buy. In my case, I knew a retired geologist who lived down the street. He liked to point out where not to buy a house in this neighborhood (and, generally, what to look out for), and I kept his advice in mind all these years.

[drboom]

[quote=bearishgurl]I want to chime in here to drive home the neighborhood agent concept a little more and give credit where credit is due to longtime resident buyers shopping on their “home turf.”

UR and sdr volunteered to determine if drboom got a “good deal” in his transaction where he recieved a commission rebate from his buyer’s agent. (I’m using this for an example because drboom’s situation was discussed at length here.) They’ve got the statistics on their computer screens and printouts using certain maps out of a particular zip code (i.e. “Fletcher Hills”). Neither agent’s market or “farm” area is Fletcher Hills and they are located 23 and 43 miles away, respectively. I’m not saying here that these agents don’t know what they’re doing. They do, but crunching these “sterile” stats wouldn’t be the be all and end all for drboom.[/quote]

Applause.

I do in fact have an Aunt Sue, though not in the ‘hood, and I have lots of stories about where to uy and not buy. In my case, I knew a retired geologist who lived down the street. He liked to point out where not to buy a house in this neighborhood (and, generally, what to look out for), and I kept his advice in mind all these years.

[Author]

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