Dirt Merchants - questions about hiring a realtor

[Timberridge]

OP, TBH, it sounds like you don't really know what you're doing. If the market there is tough you need even more help regardless of the tools available to the GP these days.

S VT is a bad market right now. Too much inventory and too few buyers. I would bet there are a bunch of sellers waiting for an upturn in the mkt, which if it ever comes will send inventory sky high with new listings.

Comps are hard too. A 1820's farmhouse w/ a dry stone foundation and an off kilter floor might appeal to the nostalgic buyer and completely turn off another. The newer homes and older ones with new additions can be hit or miss with homeowners just building whatever shit comes in their head. You see some weird things when you go to people's homes. I don't think "architect" or "building inspector" is a word there.

Throw in a lack of zoning or enforcement in most towns and "l'll do what I want, it's my property" attitude and you can have a nice house on a nice property, but then your neighbor in the excavation biz parks his dump truck and backhoe in his front yard. Comp that.

[Ted Striker]

Sounds like Whatcom County.

[RootSkier]

Market value of residential real estate includes commissions.

Interesting idea. Did you learn that at the same seminar where they teach you to tell people "I don't negotiate my commissions. In order to obtain the highest possible price for your property, you will need an agent who has powerful negotiation skills, right? Then how effective do you think I would be when negotiating on your behalf if I couldn’t even negotiate a full commission for myself?"

[Danno]

S VT is a bad market right now. Too much inventory and too few buyers. I would bet there are a bunch of sellers waiting for an upturn in the mkt, which if it ever comes will send inventory sky high with new listings.

Comps are hard too. A 1820's farmhouse w/ a dry stone foundation and an off kilter floor might appeal to the nostalgic buyer and completely turn off another. The newer homes and older ones with new additions can be hit or miss with homeowners just building whatever shit comes in their head. You see some weird things when you go to people's homes. I don't think "architect" or "building inspector" is a word there.

Throw in a lack of zoning or enforcement in most towns and "l'll do what I want, it's my property" attitude and you can have a nice house on a nice property, but then your neighbor in the excavation biz parks his dump truck and backhoe in his front yard. Comp that.

Truth. My parents' place is on top of a mountain, with killer views and a bit of acreage. How do you add that in to a comp? Their house is an architect designed one-off built 40 years ago, how do you compare to the 1820s farmhouse? I realize that these are standard problems with determining comps, but in a rural area with few sales and inventory all over the map, it is particularly difficult. In some circumstances, like my parents, it is much more about finding the particular buyer who appreciates the specific things about your property, than it is about square footage and bedrooms and bathrooms.

[Timberridge]

^^Amen, brother Danno.

[Ted Striker]

Interesting idea. Did you learn that at the same seminar where they teach you to tell people "I don't negotiate my commissions. In order to obtain the highest possible price for your property, you will need an agent who has powerful negotiation skills, right? Then how effective do you think I would be when negotiating on your behalf if I couldn’t even negotiate a full commission for myself?"

lol... I'm not an agent, never have been, and I've certainly never been to any fucking get rich seminars.

Let's say you have a house that was built 40 years ago, and sold at the national average price every decade between then and now. Using round numbers, that would be about $75k, $150k, $200k, and $250k. So at 6% that would be $40,500 in commissions. That's built into the market whether you like it or not.

[neufox47]

@ ar
The problem with that logic is that buyers want a discount knowing it's a fsbo. They view the lack of commission as the wiggle room.

When I did it in Mass thru a service most of the REALTORS didn’t know I was fsbo. They thought I was the agent. Not sure if that works that way in other states.

[byates1]

just found out, betrayed.

he's lucky i don't want to spend time in prison.

[PNWbrit]

Real Estate’s Latest Bid: Zillow Wants to Buy Your House

In today’s on-demand digital world, buying and selling a home remains stubbornly, painfully analog. Most sales still begin with a real estate agent (and a 6 percent commission). Most still end in an office, with the two sides signing page after page of legalese.

Silicon Valley wants to change that. Tech companies have begun to nibble away at the edges of the residential real estate industry, offering virtual open houses, digital closings and other services. Now they are coming straight for the real estate transaction itself through “instant buying,” in which companies buy homes, perform some light maintenance and put them back on the market.....

[bagtagley]

If we eliminate the RA, doesn't that eliminate the need for the open house, virtual or otherwise?

[nickwm21]

Real Estate’s Latest Bid: Zillow Wants to Buy Your House

In today’s on-demand digital world, buying and selling a home remains stubbornly, painfully analog. Most sales still begin with a real estate agent (and a 6 percent commission). Most still end in an office, with the two sides signing page after page of legalese.

Silicon Valley wants to change that. Tech companies have begun to nibble away at the edges of the residential real estate industry, offering virtual open houses, digital closings and other services. Now they are coming straight for the real estate transaction itself through “instant buying,” in which companies buy homes, perform some light maintenance and put them back on the market.....

It’s the carmax model. You can get cash in hand in 7 days, but it will be a lot less cash than if you used a REA or FSBO. It’s a good move in the right situations.


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[RootSkier]

Good way to sell a meth-contaminated house. Hell yeah.

[Peruvian]

Realtor interviews commence next week.

[Ted Striker]

Just remember, coffee is for closers only.

[Rideski]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/15/econo...ons/index.html

[Supermoon]

We took a cash offer on our house, and the seller’s agent mis-wrote the timeline for the inspection contingency on the offer. They submitted a few points from the inspection but they were four days past the inspection timeline.

This is apparently a big fuck up on her part, and she’ll probably be eating the cost of the repairs they flagged.

But a good lesson as the buyer or seller to read everything that you sign and make sure you don’t just blindly trust the agent. They could have been screwed if our house wasn’t in generally pretty good shape.

[Kinnikinnick]

It’s the carmax model. You can get cash in hand in 7 days, but it will be a lot less cash than if you used a REA or FSBO. It’s a good move in the right situations.


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What situations?


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[Danno]

Since I know all the Padded Room dirt pimps must be reading this thread, I am gonna ask a general question here. We're considering selling (and buying somewhere else in the general vicinity) and some things on our house need work. There is one interior repair that we simply need to do, as anyone moving in would see it as a requirement, and we're doing that. But our yard looks like shit, and I am not sure what is worth doing to it, if anything.

The front yard is ok right now, pretty green because it's spring, though the quality of our grass isn't great. But I guess that the best thing we can do is just continue to water the shit out of it so it stays green.

The back yard is very shaded, so without a sprinkler system (or a lot of work moving a hose-connected sprinkler around), plus new sod (or seeding), and careful care (we have a 7 month old puppy so "careful care" of the yard seems unlikely), it won't grow grass. It's mostly dirt back there. We have some landscaping/plants around the edges, but not much. For much of the back yard, we have put down weed blocker and have "playground mulch" over that, but it needs a new application of that (at a cost of a few hundred bucks) if it is to look decent (or as decent as a mostly mulched area can look).

What is the general rule of thumb re landscaping? What work is worth doing? It's a seller's market so I'm not worried about whether the house will sell, and I know that as a rule of thumb it's not worth putting a lot of money into landscaping for sale (as in, we wouldn't recoup that money). But I do want it to sell for as much as possible (duh) and I don't want some potential buyers to walk because the backyard doesn't look good. Thoughts?

[Self Jupiter]

I would recommend you do the landscaping work if you were listing here in Massholleville. The moneyput into more / better plantings, lawn care etc is a multiplier for value in our market culture.

[Kinnikinnick]

You won’t in all likelihood “get your money back” from these type of improvements. The question is whether you’ll sell it quickly or buyers will pass you up because they object to the yard and then you end up taking longer and/or lowering the price.

If you want to guarantee the quick sale as soon as you list, then do the landscaping.


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[AdironRider]

Since I know all the Padded Room dirt pimps must be reading this thread, I am gonna ask a general question here. We're considering selling (and buying somewhere else in the general vicinity) and some things on our house need work. There is one interior repair that we simply need to do, as anyone moving in would see it as a requirement, and we're doing that. But our yard looks like shit, and I am not sure what is worth doing to it, if anything.

The front yard is ok right now, pretty green because it's spring, though the quality of our grass isn't great. But I guess that the best thing we can do is just continue to water the shit out of it so it stays green.

The back yard is very shaded, so without a sprinkler system (or a lot of work moving a hose-connected sprinkler around), plus new sod (or seeding), and careful care (we have a 7 month old puppy so "careful care" of the yard seems unlikely), it won't grow grass. It's mostly dirt back there. We have some landscaping/plants around the edges, but not much. For much of the back yard, we have put down weed blocker and have "playground mulch" over that, but it needs a new application of that (at a cost of a few hundred bucks) if it is to look decent (or as decent as a mostly mulched area can look).

What is the general rule of thumb re landscaping? What work is worth doing? It's a seller's market so I'm not worried about whether the house will sell, and I know that as a rule of thumb it's not worth putting a lot of money into landscaping for sale (as in, we wouldn't recoup that money). But I do want it to sell for as much as possible (duh) and I don't want some potential buyers to walk because the backyard doesn't look good. Thoughts?

Landscaping is almost all entirely labor, so it depends how much work you want to do.

If it was me. I'd keep it green at all costs and re-mulch the backyard. It may not actually be much but it will look maintained and the curb appeal will be stronger. Those two things are what most people ultimately care about. For 100 bucks you can put a bag of weed and feed down then overseed it and it'll look better. I don't see how you wouldn't get your money back for an afternoon's work here.

[Danno]

Landscaping is almost all entirely labor, so it depends how much work you want to do.

If it was me. I'd keep it green at all costs and re-mulch the backyard. It may not actually be much but it will look maintained and the curb appeal will be stronger. Those two things are what most people ultimately care about. For 100 bucks you can put a bag of weed and feed down then overseed it and it'll look better. I don't see how you wouldn't get your money back for an afternoon's work here.

Yeah, I think that's the minimum, because as you say the mulch will at least make it look maintained and we can keep the front yard green. But there are other parts of the backyard that need something else, but I'm not sure. There isn't enough time to try and grow grass there.

[AdironRider]

You could try the xeriscape route and put down some rocks and succulents in the other areas? Probably wouldn't cost a ton but moving rocks is the shittiest aspect of landscape labor.

[Danno]

You could try the xeriscape route and put down some rocks and succulents in the other areas? Probably wouldn't cost a ton but moving rocks is the shittiest aspect of landscape labor.

Yeah, that's kind of where we were going with the mulch too, but could use rocks to vary it up and make it a feature, not a bug. I wish we had done more planning ahead, but...

[nickwm21]

Residential flippers will weed wack the bad looking landscaping, put down fabric, and mulch. Hide the issue. Probably the cheapest, easiest route. Lipstick on the pig....