[drboom]

[quote=sdrealtor]DRB
You are threadskimming. The guy that bought the house in CM was unrepresented and claimed he got a great deal.[/quote]

Good catch, mea culpa. Cold medicine suppresses more than coughs.

But my objection still stands:

[quote](summing up the mid-2003 RB deal) It was my observation, when running the numbers that the buyer had overpaid by a few percent but that this did not qualify as “getting screwed”.[/quote]

How is overpaying by a few percent at a historic high not “getting screwed”? As a high-risk speculative play, it might have worked out great if the buyer was looking to flip the joint a year or two later. Is that our measure of a good deal around here–some kind of real estate day trading?

This relates directly to the issue of whether an agent saves buyers money: if an agent says something is a “good deal”, as the RB (edited from “Clairemont”–I’m fighting with half my brain behind my back) house would have apparently been if it was 5% cheaper, what exactly is the agent saying? Any salesperson’s motivation is to close deals, period. I don’t begrudge someone making a living, but it’s clear that consumers’ and agents’ interests aren’t naturally aligned.

[drboom]

[quote=sdrealtor]DRB
You are threadskimming. The guy that bought the house in CM was unrepresented and claimed he got a great deal.[/quote]

Good catch, mea culpa. Cold medicine suppresses more than coughs.

But my objection still stands:

[quote](summing up the mid-2003 RB deal) It was my observation, when running the numbers that the buyer had overpaid by a few percent but that this did not qualify as “getting screwed”.[/quote]

How is overpaying by a few percent at a historic high not “getting screwed”? As a high-risk speculative play, it might have worked out great if the buyer was looking to flip the joint a year or two later. Is that our measure of a good deal around here–some kind of real estate day trading?

This relates directly to the issue of whether an agent saves buyers money: if an agent says something is a “good deal”, as the RB (edited from “Clairemont”–I’m fighting with half my brain behind my back) house would have apparently been if it was 5% cheaper, what exactly is the agent saying? Any salesperson’s motivation is to close deals, period. I don’t begrudge someone making a living, but it’s clear that consumers’ and agents’ interests aren’t naturally aligned.

[drboom]

Let me get this straight:

Buying a house in Clairemont in mid-2003 was a solid move because it was 5% under the market? Let’s keep in mind that price to income ratio was north of 10:1 at the time–the highest in two generations, according to Rich’s excellent graphs. That’s an interesting assertion to make in this forum.

Seriously, is the guy who bought a downtown condo for a whopping 10% under the comps in mid-2005 a genius?

And people wonder why I want to do my own analysis.

[drboom]

Let me get this straight:

Buying a house in Clairemont in mid-2003 was a solid move because it was 5% under the market? Let’s keep in mind that price to income ratio was north of 10:1 at the time–the highest in two generations, according to Rich’s excellent graphs. That’s an interesting assertion to make in this forum.

Seriously, is the guy who bought a downtown condo for a whopping 10% under the comps in mid-2005 a genius?

And people wonder why I want to do my own analysis.

[drboom]

Let me get this straight:

Buying a house in Clairemont in mid-2003 was a solid move because it was 5% under the market? Let’s keep in mind that price to income ratio was north of 10:1 at the time–the highest in two generations, according to Rich’s excellent graphs. That’s an interesting assertion to make in this forum.

Seriously, is the guy who bought a downtown condo for a whopping 10% under the comps in mid-2005 a genius?

And people wonder why I want to do my own analysis.

[drboom]

Let me get this straight:

Buying a house in Clairemont in mid-2003 was a solid move because it was 5% under the market? Let’s keep in mind that price to income ratio was north of 10:1 at the time–the highest in two generations, according to Rich’s excellent graphs. That’s an interesting assertion to make in this forum.

Seriously, is the guy who bought a downtown condo for a whopping 10% under the comps in mid-2005 a genius?

And people wonder why I want to do my own analysis.

[drboom]

Let me get this straight:

Buying a house in Clairemont in mid-2003 was a solid move because it was 5% under the market? Let’s keep in mind that price to income ratio was north of 10:1 at the time–the highest in two generations, according to Rich’s excellent graphs. That’s an interesting assertion to make in this forum.

Seriously, is the guy who bought a downtown condo for a whopping 10% under the comps in mid-2005 a genius?

And people wonder why I want to do my own analysis.

[drboom]

[quote=deadzone]The system itself is not necessarily the problem, it is the outrageous commissions (5-6%) that the public has been brainwashed to believe are normal and acceptable.[/quote]

If only the effect was really that low.

As I pointed out elsewhere, a 6% commission on a house sold for a 20% “profit” after 7 years of ownership actually eats up a quarter of your gains.

[drboom]

[quote=deadzone]The system itself is not necessarily the problem, it is the outrageous commissions (5-6%) that the public has been brainwashed to believe are normal and acceptable.[/quote]

If only the effect was really that low.

As I pointed out elsewhere, a 6% commission on a house sold for a 20% “profit” after 7 years of ownership actually eats up a quarter of your gains.

[drboom]

[quote=deadzone]The system itself is not necessarily the problem, it is the outrageous commissions (5-6%) that the public has been brainwashed to believe are normal and acceptable.[/quote]

If only the effect was really that low.

As I pointed out elsewhere, a 6% commission on a house sold for a 20% “profit” after 7 years of ownership actually eats up a quarter of your gains.

[drboom]

[quote=deadzone]The system itself is not necessarily the problem, it is the outrageous commissions (5-6%) that the public has been brainwashed to believe are normal and acceptable.[/quote]

If only the effect was really that low.

As I pointed out elsewhere, a 6% commission on a house sold for a 20% “profit” after 7 years of ownership actually eats up a quarter of your gains.

[drboom]

[quote=deadzone]The system itself is not necessarily the problem, it is the outrageous commissions (5-6%) that the public has been brainwashed to believe are normal and acceptable.[/quote]

If only the effect was really that low.

As I pointed out elsewhere, a 6% commission on a house sold for a 20% “profit” after 7 years of ownership actually eats up a quarter of your gains.

[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.

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