[djrobsd]

First of all, I don’t think you understand what my beef with this guy is, let me summarize.

He stated something along the lines of “it’s just a standard DRE contract”, but yet there was a $695 fee in there that if you did not scan closely with your eyes, you would probably miss, and then be subject to pay. That’s not a “Standard” fee in the real estate business, it’s something typically found with a discount broker, not a full service broker that’s charging 6% commission.

To me, if a realtor is going to make a promise on TV such as “you can cancel at any time if you’re not satisfied” which is what he USED to say, but I don’t think he’s saying any more, and then he automatically puts a $995 cancellation fee in his contract, he’s contradicting himself, and should not be given the time of day.

I do business the old fashioned way, which is you disclose everything up front to the person you are doing business with, and not try and hide anything. If you tell me “it’s just the standard contract”, and then you add in some hidden costs to the “Standard” contract, then you’re not very ethical.

So for me, this is not just the fact that he was pushy, it’s also an ethical question. If they are this unethical in signing a deal with me, then what are they going to do during the sales and negotiation process?

And for the record, I did tell him I wasn’t willing to pay the fee, and he said “if that’s your only concern, i’ll remove it.”

[djrobsd]

Thought I’d share my experience from last night, and thanks for all the responses so far…

One of their agents showed up at my door to talk to me about listing my house with them. He was dressed in a 3 piece suit, sharp as a tack, and carried a fancy tablet PC with him.

He gave me the whole sales pitch again about the Battiata way of selling real estate, and told me some interesting things about their company:

-They need to sell 8 homes a month to pay for their advertising expenses!!!

-They don’t put flyers out
-They don’t do open houses
-They don’t do broker caravans

Granted, none of these things usually sell a house, but I guess when you’re a real estate factory, you don’t have time to do open houses, or put flyers out, so to me “it doesn’t sell the home” is just a cop out for being too lazy to do it.

All that aside, we get to the contract part. He starts getting a little put pushy, like he might be in a hurry to get to another apointment or what have you, and that’s where I really start to feel uncomfortable.

I asked him “please email me the contract, i’ll look it over and let you know if I decide to go with your company”… At which point, he begins asking “So what are your reservations”… “Are there any other agents you’re talking to?” “What would I need to do to ease your concerns”….

I then asked him if I could see the contract, and so he pulls it up on his tablet PC. He says “it’s just standard boiler plate real estate contract material”, and starts scrolling through the DRE contract. I notice, however, on “Other Compensation to Broker”, they have a $695 “Transaction Coordinator Fee” to be paid by Seller. He quickly scrolled past that part, and then skips through the pages real fast, and he gets to the end, and there is a “Seller may not cancel this agreement prior to 90 days. Cancellation of this agreement will result in a $995 fee to cover Broker’s expenses.”

He quickly Put a big X over that and initialed it, and then he was all “See, I already made it easier for you by removing the cancellation clause”… And so then I proceed to ask him about the transaction coordinator fee, and he gives me this huge song and dance about “you need to protect yourself from getting sued, and the transaction coordinator is there to make sure all the ducks are in a row to make sure the transaction closes smoothly and to make sure all the paperwork is filed correctly so they can’t sue you later”.

That was the biggest WAD of BS I’ve ever heard in my life. First of all, it’s a realtor’s job to be the transaction coordinator, or at least someone in their office is. That’s what the 3% commission to them pays for! Secondly, it doesn’t matter WHO handles the transaction or HOW the transaction is handled. If a buyer decides to sue you because of something you didn’t disclose, a transaction coordinator is not going to prevent or stop that from happening. And what’s to say their transaction coordinator doesn’t make mistakes or slip up from time to time.

So, in summary, I felt like i was being taken for a ride by a fast talking salesman, for that reason I would never consider using them to sell my house.

[djrobsd]

Thought I’d share my experience from last night, and thanks for all the responses so far…

One of their agents showed up at my door to talk to me about listing my house with them. He was dressed in a 3 piece suit, sharp as a tack, and carried a fancy tablet PC with him.

He gave me the whole sales pitch again about the Battiata way of selling real estate, and told me some interesting things about their company:

-They need to sell 8 homes a month to pay for their advertising expenses!!!

-They don’t put flyers out
-They don’t do open houses
-They don’t do broker caravans

Granted, none of these things usually sell a house, but I guess when you’re a real estate factory, you don’t have time to do open houses, or put flyers out, so to me “it doesn’t sell the home” is just a cop out for being too lazy to do it.

All that aside, we get to the contract part. He starts getting a little put pushy, like he might be in a hurry to get to another apointment or what have you, and that’s where I really start to feel uncomfortable.

I asked him “please email me the contract, i’ll look it over and let you know if I decide to go with your company”… At which point, he begins asking “So what are your reservations”… “Are there any other agents you’re talking to?” “What would I need to do to ease your concerns”….

I then asked him if I could see the contract, and so he pulls it up on his tablet PC. He says “it’s just standard boiler plate real estate contract material”, and starts scrolling through the DRE contract. I notice, however, on “Other Compensation to Broker”, they have a $695 “Transaction Coordinator Fee” to be paid by Seller. He quickly scrolled past that part, and then skips through the pages real fast, and he gets to the end, and there is a “Seller may not cancel this agreement prior to 90 days. Cancellation of this agreement will result in a $995 fee to cover Broker’s expenses.”

He quickly Put a big X over that and initialed it, and then he was all “See, I already made it easier for you by removing the cancellation clause”… And so then I proceed to ask him about the transaction coordinator fee, and he gives me this huge song and dance about “you need to protect yourself from getting sued, and the transaction coordinator is there to make sure all the ducks are in a row to make sure the transaction closes smoothly and to make sure all the paperwork is filed correctly so they can’t sue you later”.

That was the biggest WAD of BS I’ve ever heard in my life. First of all, it’s a realtor’s job to be the transaction coordinator, or at least someone in their office is. That’s what the 3% commission to them pays for! Secondly, it doesn’t matter WHO handles the transaction or HOW the transaction is handled. If a buyer decides to sue you because of something you didn’t disclose, a transaction coordinator is not going to prevent or stop that from happening. And what’s to say their transaction coordinator doesn’t make mistakes or slip up from time to time.

So, in summary, I felt like i was being taken for a ride by a fast talking salesman, for that reason I would never consider using them to sell my house.

[djrobsd]

Haha.. You should see how many lockboxes are on the left side of the egyptian in hillcrest where the parking entry is!!!

[djrobsd]

Haha.. You should see how many lockboxes are on the left side of the egyptian in hillcrest where the parking entry is!!!

[djrobsd]

They paid 355k for it. Considering that, they probably wouldn’t take your offer for 376k, unless their ARM is going up and they are desperate to sell.

[djrobsd]

They paid 355k for it. Considering that, they probably wouldn’t take your offer for 376k, unless their ARM is going up and they are desperate to sell.

[djrobsd]

There’s only one hole in your plan. How are they going to get a mortgage on the second property when they still have the mortgage on the first one? The bank is going to see the other mortgage, and decline the loan, unless they have enough debt to income ratio to support paying BOTH mortgages, or they have 20% to put down on the second property and declare it as an investment property. It seems to me though that the bank would look long and hard at your first property before loaning you money on another one…. At least I would!

[djrobsd]

There’s only one hole in your plan. How are they going to get a mortgage on the second property when they still have the mortgage on the first one? The bank is going to see the other mortgage, and decline the loan, unless they have enough debt to income ratio to support paying BOTH mortgages, or they have 20% to put down on the second property and declare it as an investment property. It seems to me though that the bank would look long and hard at your first property before loaning you money on another one…. At least I would!

[djrobsd]

I live in Liberty Station, and I can certainly say that it is an awesome place to live, as long as you can get used to the airplanes taking off at Lindbergh field from 6am to 11:30pm at night. I’m not being sarcastic at all, it took me a good 3 months to get to the point where it doesn’t irritate me, and it has just become background noise.

With that said, it’s a very walkable neighborhood (except on Sunday when thousands of cars invade our neighborhood for the Rock Church)… There is Trader Joe’s, Starbucks (2 actually!), Vons will open in a couple weeks (major grocery chain here in So Cal), Panera Bread, La Salsa, Wine Steals (upscale wine bar), Subway, Massage Envy, etc. There is a small inlet which connects directly into the San Diego Bay right at the end of our park, where if you like to kayak you can just drop your kayak right into the water and stroll around the bay…. The water front park is going to be like 43 acres when finished, but even the current park now is huge.

I’ve watched the values go up, and level off, and now they are starting to slip. I think that the values are dramatically different around the neighborhood because they are all brand new construction, and many home buyers bought upgrades in excess of 100k of their purchase price, while others bought the “Stock” models with the white tile counter tops, cheap cabinets, and linoleum floors in the bath and kitchens. In addition, a small number of the units face the park and have a beautiful view of downtown and the water, while others have no view at all. Corner units also carry a premium since they are the largest ones and have the best floor plan layout.

It’s really hard to say what will happen. No neighborhood is bullet proof, but if you love liberty station, try renting here first. Last time I saw a story in the Trib about it, about 30-40% of the units were purchased as “investment” properties, and are rentals, so you should be able to find a nice unit for rent. I’m not sure what rents are, I’m guessing probably at least $2000 a month for a 3 bedroom 2 bath unit, but I could be wrong.

In summary, pros of LS:

-Walk to grocery stores and restaurants
-Easy access to the San Diego Bay
-Beautiful park
-Friendly neighbors
-Easy access to ocean, sunset cliffs, etc (5 minutes away)

Cons:

-Airport noise
-Price to buy ($550-750k for most of the condos (which are more laid out like townhouses), 850-950k for the row homes, and 1million+ for the detached homes with a SMALL yard)
-Church traffic on Sundays, thousands of cars, over 7000 people driving up and down the streets every Sunday!

[djrobsd]

I live in Liberty Station, and I can certainly say that it is an awesome place to live, as long as you can get used to the airplanes taking off at Lindbergh field from 6am to 11:30pm at night. I’m not being sarcastic at all, it took me a good 3 months to get to the point where it doesn’t irritate me, and it has just become background noise.

With that said, it’s a very walkable neighborhood (except on Sunday when thousands of cars invade our neighborhood for the Rock Church)… There is Trader Joe’s, Starbucks (2 actually!), Vons will open in a couple weeks (major grocery chain here in So Cal), Panera Bread, La Salsa, Wine Steals (upscale wine bar), Subway, Massage Envy, etc. There is a small inlet which connects directly into the San Diego Bay right at the end of our park, where if you like to kayak you can just drop your kayak right into the water and stroll around the bay…. The water front park is going to be like 43 acres when finished, but even the current park now is huge.

I’ve watched the values go up, and level off, and now they are starting to slip. I think that the values are dramatically different around the neighborhood because they are all brand new construction, and many home buyers bought upgrades in excess of 100k of their purchase price, while others bought the “Stock” models with the white tile counter tops, cheap cabinets, and linoleum floors in the bath and kitchens. In addition, a small number of the units face the park and have a beautiful view of downtown and the water, while others have no view at all. Corner units also carry a premium since they are the largest ones and have the best floor plan layout.

It’s really hard to say what will happen. No neighborhood is bullet proof, but if you love liberty station, try renting here first. Last time I saw a story in the Trib about it, about 30-40% of the units were purchased as “investment” properties, and are rentals, so you should be able to find a nice unit for rent. I’m not sure what rents are, I’m guessing probably at least $2000 a month for a 3 bedroom 2 bath unit, but I could be wrong.

In summary, pros of LS:

-Walk to grocery stores and restaurants
-Easy access to the San Diego Bay
-Beautiful park
-Friendly neighbors
-Easy access to ocean, sunset cliffs, etc (5 minutes away)

Cons:

-Airport noise
-Price to buy ($550-750k for most of the condos (which are more laid out like townhouses), 850-950k for the row homes, and 1million+ for the detached homes with a SMALL yard)
-Church traffic on Sundays, thousands of cars, over 7000 people driving up and down the streets every Sunday!

[djrobsd]

iPayone just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When they are only working for 1% commission, it’s hard for them to make a profit when the market is so slow. Besides, it costs a lot of money to build a company, and you have to pay computer programmers, web hosting companies, etc to get your infrustructure built and in place.

Ultimately, I think iPayone is a great idea. They are going against the grain, and trying to break down the traditional 6% real estate commission model. In yesterday’s market, where the average price of a home was in the $200,000 range, the 5-6% commissions were more apropriate, but in today’s market where homes are selling for half a million to 1 million bucks, 5-6% is way too much to pay to sell your home, especially when you consider that many people owe more then what their homes are worth with the decline in the real estate market.

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