Re: Has anyone had a Real Estate agent....
 

There are also no deer, which are personally responsible for at least three of my cars giving up the ghost here in Wisconsin!

We'll have a little bit of grass for the dogs, but not much. It still needs to be mowed though believe it or not....

Re: Has anyone had a Real Estate agent....
 

Nice place, Randy. I hope you get it!

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We're trying not to get emotionally invested in a single place -yet. Truth be told, there are several places we saw that we liked, and plan on touring a few more on top of it.

Also, we seriously considering the strategy of taking our 3rd pick and making a REALLY low-ball offer. If they (likely) walk away, we move to our 2nd and repeat (low but not quite as low-ball), then if needed, seriously go for our 1st choice.
If they accept either the 3rd or 2nd choice, then we still end up with a "nice" home but at a super bargain.

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I think you should do that just to make your agent earn her commission. Make her use her negotiation skills. :)

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Yep we sure did. Our agent was very good. We bought our first house with her help and she told us to bid $100 more then the asking price because their were two others putting in bids at the same time. We won the bid.

Our second home that we bought last fall we almost lost because the people were selling for less than what they owed on it. The bank wouldn't take a cut so she took a cut in commission and talked the their agent into taking a cut to make the sale happen.

She worked with us for about a month each time finding and showing us homes that she thought we might like.

Then when we used someone else to sell our other home after we just this one, we got burned by a lazy agent. Lesson learned and we went to our favorite buying agent. In two months (about three weeks ago) she had our home sold which was a big relief. Don't and I repeat don't ever buy a more expensive home without selling your current home in a down market! We almost didn't make it, but God is good and it sold just in time.

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Where are you moving to?

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We're moving to the Phoenix valley. Our home will either be in Chandler, Gilbert, or Mesa.

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That's some high end real estate out there.

I thought if you were moving to DFW, I could help you out. McKinney, Frisco, Plano, Flower Mound, Texas. All top ten fastest growing cities in US.

My wife had a long time cyber-friend, who lived in Mission Valejo, CA. She and her husband came to visit us in '06. On their way home they decided to move to Texas. I work with a lot of Real Estate agents, so I recomended one, who promptly found them a house they liked, just a mile from where we live. They lived in CA all their lives, then boom, just like that, they moved to Texas.

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The Phoenix valley is set in stone for us -not that we mind since we both love it. My wife signed a one-year contract with a pharmacy chain down there.

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Well I do understand your delimina. I actually found our house on the internet and signed the contract today. However, I did not know IF it was in a good area since I am not in that city.

But I agree I think they get a lot more money than the work they put into it. But they want to eat on the days they don't get a sale. :)

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I think they get a lot more money NOW then they deserve. The free market really needs to shake out the Realtor/seller system. People are now able to do most of the work that the Realtor agent used to do for them. Yet, they are expecting the same commission as days gone by.

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Not so brother, they are expecting MORE!

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My husband deserves every penny he gets for the hard work he does.
You can't speak of what you don't know. There are some very hardworking agents out there.

I find those comments kind of offensive.. since Real Estate is literally our bread and butter and the roof over our heads.

Please don't say things about people's honest livelihoods.

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...

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Again, as far as our agent being there to open doors and show us homes, that service is valuable and needed. She just isn't doing anything else.

Should she receive the same commission % that she would have received 10-20 years ago when she would have done all the leg work?

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Your particular agent may not, but many agents do. The statements made were referring to all agents in general. My husband is one, as I stated earlier.

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I wasn't buying but I had the help of a great real estate agent from my church, He was a great help and I am very satisfied with my new home.

I think if you get one, get one who is saved. Great work ethic and will go out of their way to get you what you need.

Blessings

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We are not taking anything away from the fact your husband works hard. Most of us do.

If you notice RW was talking about the amount of legwork that agents USED to do is NOT what it is today.

I found my house. Not the realtor. I had two realtors looking but they didn't find anything for me to look at that I had not already done the research on.

So basically I am paying them to show me the house and do the paper work. Is that really worth nearly 10,000.00???

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.....or in our case, 20 thousand.

"I think NOT!"

Granted, that "20 thousand" is being split between her and the larger agency she works for, but still....

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There are several "services" and jobs who's cost no longer reflects the value it once did. Besides the Real estate agent, the first to come to mind is the travel agent. At one point, they had access to information that was very hard for the normal Joe to come across. Now anyone can go to Expedia or Travelocity and book the exact same vacation, for less, that a person in a shop used to.
Stock brokers are another job who's price is no longer worth the service they do -since the normal person can do it all themselves! Just 15 or 20 years ago, you couldn't even watch streaming real-time stock quotes. It was something you had to pay BIG $$$ for, which is what the broker did.

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Well, I thank God every day that no one has shut down the real estate offices.

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Randy, I suggest fireing your agent. it sounds to me like the agent is bad, not the concept.

Also in Texas (and other places I believe) ALL Agents are agents of the seller. NOT the buyer. this is a legal position, even if you are working with an agent to buy a house, that agent has a legal responsibility to the seller.

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Actually, that changes from location to location. Our agent IS an agent of the buyer in our case.

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I sold real estate for for several years and worked as a "buyer's agent" quite extensively. If you are not happy with what you getting dump her find a new one. I can guarantee you that if you start looking you will find one who will be a real benefit to you.

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speakin of lawyers. it was so cold this morning i say 2 lawyers walking down the street with there hands in there own pockets

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I agree.

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And again, we are under an employer contract with our agent. She is "it" until late July.

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You might be able to get out of that if you really wanted to. Have you told her you are very interested in that specific house yet? If not.. I'd head down to see her boss. At the firm she works for she'd have a broker over her... I'd have a little sit down with him and tell him she hasn't been all you'd expected and you'd like to be released from your contract with her. See if you can. Up here you can often get out of contracts because agents really don't want to pay big lawyer bills to go to court over things.


It's worth a shot anyway.

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Our agent helped us find a home that was a VA-repo....a hidden little jewl.

We made an offer that day. We were first time buyers and She helped us every step of the way.

Now the money lenders were a different story........

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We are looking at a lot of foreclosure places. A mortgage office for Wells Fargo gave us their web site with all the properties that the bank owns. There are some GREAT place. We plan on seeing one MONSTER home that is selling for a relative song. This is a place that was briefly on the market for $750 a year and a half ago -just before the bubble burst in that area. Lets just say it is going for just a bit over half that now.

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Update

I finally sent an email (hopefully it wasn't so much 'nasty' as it was serious) saying that we either change the commission rate or we are waiting until the day after the contract is up to buy.
By the end of the day, we had a new contract with the lower rate. Of course NOW it is what it should have been in the first place but at least we're not feeling like we were taken.

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Good for you!
You have to stand up for yourself sometimes, I'm glad it worked out.

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Good job!

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WE have only dealt with realtors just recently and I am not pleased at all.

We found the perfect house and after negotiating our offer was accepted. The sellers then told us that they had decided not to sell. Although we were upset we understood that it could happen.

WE found out yesterday that they lied to us. They got a higher offer and went with that.

I know THAT can't be legal.

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That is in no way legal.

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We have hit another snag in our home. According to our insurance agent in the town I live in the house is in a high flood zone, witht the rates being 2500.00.

We are waiting to hear from a local agent if this is indeed true. My husband talked to the lady that lives next door and she said the place has never flooded and the water has only come up to the fence with is a long way from the house.

BTW...what is a fair rate for selling your home for the realtor fee?

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Depends on who you ask :toofunny

In my area the going rate is 5%-6% depending on the agent or the office.
My husband does 5%... 2.5 goes to the listing agent, 2.5 goes to the selling agent. If he does both ends I dance extra hard on Sunday (kidding... )

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Does he consider it is his responsiblity to let his buyer know if they are buying in a flood zone?

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He would tell them that if he knew.. that's certain. He feels terrible when things happen in homes he's sold... basements leaking etc. He loses sleep but not all agents would, that's for sure.
But it's not technically his responsibility to, no. Mostly because, how could he personally know if the property has been flooded, having never lived there. Only the sellers can do that.

There is a property disclosure statement that must be signed by the seller, stating problems the property has encountered in the past... if they've had flooding and don't disclose that they can be liable. Big time.

But that would be between the buyer and the seller after the house is sold.

That is how it is here... I'm not sure if the rules are the same in the U.S.

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The sellers relator is an independant agent--and also their dad. And apparently a crook.

We don't even know WHAT we can do.