Sat, 08 Sep 2007 07:02:15 -0400 Mitch Haley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote Subject: Re: [MBZ] populations discussion now killer Farmers Allan Streib wrote: > When we sold our first house with a realtor we saw him when we signed > the listing agreement and not again until he stopped by at the closing > to pick up his check. He did nothing that I could tell to market the > house beyond entering it into the MLS, which is really the only thing > you can't do as a FSBO.
Mitch wrote There are realtors like that. I have three answers: 1) If that's good enough, there are services which charge you a flat fee ($150-500) to put your listing on MLS. Unfortunately, the two in my area charge $300-400 PLUS a percentage of the final deal. They do provide you with signs, brochure tube, and a certain number of printed brochures. It's wanting a commission for admittedly doing no work that kills the deal for me. 2) Interview three listing agents, and check their references. Not 100%, but it helps. 3) Never, ever, sign a listing over 90 days. Let them know that if you think they are doing their job, you will renew until sold. Getting locked in with a loser for 90 days is plenty bad enough, 180 days will leave you tearing your hair out. Mitch. Robert Bigham [EMAIL PROTECTED] sez this: A realtor at mininum knows the way through the process and what it takes to make it go at every point. That can be worth a lot. They also can be the prospective buyer's eyes and ears searching, looking, and listening for the right property to come on the marker. That can also be worth a lot. For sellers, they know or should know the market. That is also worth a lot. There are good hard working ones, lazy ones, incompetent ones, crooked ones, and good lucky ones. Most are trying to make a living without getting their hands dirty or slaving away all day every day at some drone job. They live by their wits. Some do very well indeed; some get by and that's about all. The best ones stick with it and prosper in almost all cases. The first homestead house I bought I made a handshake deal with the owner; no realtor was involved, only two lawyers who each and collectively did almost nothing. There was no title insurance policy, no closing and no settling of accounts. When I called one of the lawyers to ask about my excess earnest money, he feigned ignorance. It cost me about $1,000 to learn in that case. I later got a a realtor to find and help me buy a rent house. We searched for several months before finding the right location, price, and terms. She and I looked at OMG how many houses. Her rate of pay was sub-minimum wage on that deal. When I sold the first homestead house, I listed it with that same realtor, who had a prospect waiting in the wings to buy the house I wanted to sell. It took maybe a week to make a deal. Her rate of pay was very high on that deal. The second homestead house was searched for like the rent house. We wanted features, space, and most important a good assumable note. Interest rates on home mortgages were about 15% then. We earlier actually applied for a mortgage that would have been 17% on the perfect house, which mercifully fell through. We would have had to get paper routes to help pay that note. Work about 12-14 hr/day. How long would that have lasted? Dunno. That owner did not really want to sell, but only wanted to find out what people would pay for the house. On the second homestead house, our first offer was shot down by a better (on its face) offer, which, unbeknownst to us, was not real, but only a way to get occupancy of the house by a mob of people coming from another state where there was a worse recession. Six months later the owner, who did not have a high reading on the clue meter, figured out what was going on, and kicked out the occupants, who were only renting. The realtor was on the phone soon, telling me that house was back on the market. This time we got it and its beautiful 10.5% assumable mortgage. The realtor's rate of pay was OK but not outstanding on that deal. We saved roughly $4.8K a year in interest because we assumed the existing note instead of making a new one. For a while I had two house notes and a bridge note. I had a super banker too. I still own that house, having paid it off in the 1990's. I learned enough to help my son through a buying experience in the late 1990's and saved about $5K for him without considering how much the sellers left lying on the table - which a good realtor could have got for them. But their heads (actually, the wife's head; the poor husband was big time henpecked) were too hard to see if they could be helped by a realtor. Dealing with a good realtor has undoubtedly saved me tens of thousands of dollars over the years. Dealing with a bad one? You don't want to go there. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
