RE: re-listed property. They are tricking the buyers, not the agents. Why would the buyers' agent say that the days on market is manipulated?

I've interacted with dozens of real estate agents on buying my properties, and not a single one has shown any merit. Perhaps I'm unlucky?

RE: creative financing. Yes it takes time to find a something like this. But we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why should it take less time? I've passed up many a property.

EDIT: All of what I'm saying is experience-based.

Where did I state a real estate agent would/could not kickback some of their commission to a client?

What I said was a listing agent, representing a seller on their house would not represent a buyer who had no agent and simply called them up and give them up this 3% to this buyer who had no agent to make a deal go through and roll it off the price for them....this is Fistwhatever dude was saying you could do by not using a buyers agent which is just completely not true, and presents no 'real world' value or experience regarding legal real estate transactions.

Certainly there are scumbag agents out there who do dirty things...but somebody will have to represent this new buyer as an agent on paper and receive a commission on paper to be able to give it to them, and an agent who has a responsibility to the seller cannot do such a thing legally, unless they went into dual agency...this is not even legal in a lot of states and good luck getting a seller to agree to it.

If you want a percentage of your real estate agents commission, simply find one that will kick it back to you for using them, and this is perfectly legal as you are their client and involved in the transaction, otherwise a non-licensed person cannot receive real estate commissions legally.

No, you clearly do not know what you are talking about. Sorry to hear that your only experiences are with a dieing breed of realtors (or that your profession is a dieing breed, i'm not sure which). Everything is negotiable and beyond trivial to change (by mutual agreement) if both parties are interested in getting a deal done.

I have a RE license, it is not my primary income, and I never bought/sold houses as primary job or income FYI. I've been a part of sales, listings, purchases, and leases.

Please explain....if a what offer comes in on what?

Are you implying that people make offers as to what commision will be paid?...makes no sense.

You sit down and you have a contract which states what the split is...period.

6% is the standard and usually 3% listing agent, 3% buyers. This can be anything though.

1% listing, 10% buyers agent...it does not matter. The Real estate industry has locked in the 6% racket and the public are just idiots who abide by it....cant blame them.

So what was your point that makes no sense to me?

I'm saying you can specify that the seller's agent only gets 3%, and if they refuse you can get most of your 3% rebated back to you through a buyers agent that will cooperate. The days of a seller's agent keeping the full 6% to themselves are pretty much over.

You saying that the real estate industry has locked in the 6% rate shows what a joke the industry is (but the more power to you as long as you can still find sheep to fleece), but this is not the norm anymore by any means. They also still sell music albums at Best Buy but not nearly as many.

I do agree that realtors provide value, and should be paid something, but most people agree that even 3% on a 300k home is excessive for the amount of work involved.

OP,

The first thing you should do is figure out how much it would cost to rent an equivalent place.

Right, true.

I agree about the 6% and that most of the public are suckers (Buy high and sell low). Everyone is going to think I am pro RE agent and protecting the business and that is not the case, entirely.

It just tilts me to see uninformed people making blanket statements about RE transactions and trying to cut out the very person who I think they desperately need. A good RE who is worth their weight can be invaluable, and very resourceful. Most investors you talk to do not try and shark their way into Agent commissions....they have someone they work with (if not a bunch) who feed them deals and could care less about their petty commissions.

If you cannot do your own legwork and interview to find a good one, then that is your fault because they exist, but I would have to agree there are more that are terrible then good.

I guess you wouldn't know this until you actually tried though, right?

Until you have actually come out of pocket to advertise a listing, and spent countless hours prepping a house to be sold? Not always cheap, and time is money and most good agents run their business....well, like a business and they have employees and overhead as well and most will invest money into the house if they think it will help to sell it.

At the same time, when things go right it is almost like stealing money.

And yea, they can be very valuable....try moving across the country in a short period of time and needing someone to help not only find a house for you, but provide you with a wealth of information. Go try that all on Zillow.

Between $1,600 - $2,000. Mortgage with taxes would be on the very low end of that most likely.

The agent has been helpful but me and the wife have been very aggressive about finding out about school districts, taxes, crime, neighborhood etc. It's just our nature to be fully informed. Our Agent has been great with finding out and providing info we do not know (That house is across from a duck farm, that one has mold issues etc.) So I'm really glad for that.

We picked one of the top districts on Long Island, so we should be good there.

I was planning on making a new thread but I think I will just ask here. The wife & I are in the same boat. We are looking to purchase our first home. We currently have a 1yr old.

We are looking whats out on the market but are in no rush. I have about 6 months before the pressure sets in when my lease ends on our apartment. If we find something before the 6 months, I just have to pay a small penalty.

We are looking for a house in New Jersey (Bergen County) this area is expensive overall, as it is close to NYC. We are looking in the 350k range for a 3+ bedroom home in specific areas of our town.

We have a RE agent that is a family friend who sends us house listings. I was wondering if someone can school me on buying Short Sales or Foreclosures.

I attended a sheriffs sale just out of curiosity but I was told you have to pay cash.

Redfin is awesome too, especially for recent transactions.

That's not how it works.

To cut out an agent as a buyer in the USA generally means you need to negotiate a representation agreement directly with the listing agent who will refund you X% of the sales price at commission, and act as an intermediary agent in the transaction. Most will begrudgingly agree to rebate you some and do this, but 3% is not guaranteed and a pissy or otherwise high-producing agent may just tell you to go get bent.

Most listing agreements have the seller paying Y% to the LA if it sells, and if there is no buyer's agent then LA keeps all of it. The seller has no choice in the matter once a typical listing is executed.

What % of asking price to offer depends on this house, and what other comparables are selling for in the area, adjusting for differences. Redfin/Zillow/etc do not have actual sales price data for all states (Texas is one such non-disclosure state) so if you're in a state like TX you need an agent or other person with MLS access to provide recent sales data in the area. Tax appraisals are weak indicators of anything pertaining to individual houses.

Around here, offering 75% of ask like advised ITT will severely hamstring your chances of getting the seller's lowest price*, as most are selling for about 96% of ask and very few for less than 90% unless highly distressed plus a quick close all cash buyer no contingencies. Or foreclosures. Most deals go like this here:
offer1: 90-92%
counter1: 98-99
back and forth twice more
bought for 96-98% if at all, ~20% fall out of escrow before sale is closed

A very few go 99-100%, and very few for 90%. Occasional outliers at like 105 or 85.

One thing to make sure you don't screw up is terms if you go it yourself without a BA representing you. For example you ought to know what typical terms are in a deal, who pays the title insurance and transfer fees, how much earnest money to risk, etc. The LA might not to be much help here.

Oh yeah get a home inspection and dont let your realtor refer you to one.

Yea, we are about to put in an offer on one house we like, getting an inspection is first on the list after (if/when) the haggling is done.

Do people buy homes and not inspect?

there are some investors that can get away with it because of their knowledge base

if you do get one, make sure you get a very experienced inspector who does a ton of handyman/fix it stuff for themselves on the side

some of these new guys that have entered the inspection business in the last few years are worthless

Anyone know about Tax credits? Do they still do the first time homebuyer credit or is that gone?

I've always heard homeowners talking about getting money back on their taxes, will that happen?

The tax credit has ended but taxes, points, PMI, and obviously interest are all deductible.

What exactly is points? When we went to get pre-approval from a local bank we were told the bank charges a $1900 fee, nothing about points. Is that a replacement for points?

Points are essentially pre-paid interest. Without knowing more details my guess is they were not referring to points.

Are they a good thing to do? I'm all for making it as cheap as possible over the long term.

It's usually a matter of doing the math. Bring it up next time you talk to your lender.

Gotcha, did some research and it might make sense for us. We don't plan on moving a lot, so I'll have to see what the break even time is.

Here are my general suggestions on buying a home, based on 1 whole experience and no real RE qualifications:

1) Flush every toilet, run every faucet, check to make sure things do what they're supposed to and don't leak. Open and close cabinets, cupboards and so on. Look under the sinks yourself, pay attention to the floors for low or high spots, etc. Test light switches, wall sockets. Look for any signs of pests. Assume the people selling are hiding faults from you because many do.

2) Get a pro inspection, and find a reputable person yourself who has been doing it a long time, they will be more thorough than you.

3) If you find some kind of paneling or any kind of covering somewhere that doesn't quite seem necessary, get a better look. Someone had paneling around the counter around around where our sink was; turned out to be hiding a small leak and mold.

4) Look hard at the windows and test fit, you should see them caulked, and they should open smoothly. We have large windows, and I failed to notice a grey cloudy spot in one. It wasn't long before they started glazing over as the seals were shot (in my case an expensive fix relative to "normal" windows).

5) Always observe the upkeep and general appearance of the neighborhood. When I bought my place 11 years ago, someone half jokingly told me to find a place where I'd have one the worst cars in the neighborhood. If it was one of the better ones, I was in trouble.

6) If you're on the fence about a place and the seller won't budge any more, pass on it, and look at more. There are too many to not find one you're happy to buy. Just be straight with your agent about what you're seeing, and they'll let you know if you're being unrealistic. Dumb lowball offers are as counterproductive as sellers fishing for 2006 prices but you still have room to negotiate.

7) If your agent isn't on the ball, let him or her go and get another. I wasted about 10 days with some airhead part-time type and looked at maybe 5 places in all and 1 was reasonably close to what I wanted. I found a decent agent instead and it was night and day.

That's pretty generic LDO advice I know, but most of it would have saved me some problems had I heard it years ago.

Also before you buy consider what the property tax is, see if there's a homeowner's association and read carefully if there is (because associations usually suck in some way), and read up on insurance. See if your house is in some kind of flood zone or next to a volcano or whatever. Insurance is generally pretty cheap but just something else to evaluate ahead of time.

Solid tips. In addition to the neighborhood ones I would add: Walk around the neighborhood with your wife. You'll get a better feel for what your neighborhood will actually be like. Drive through at different times of the day (and night), to see if you notice anything that you don't think you would like. You might want to do your morning and evening commute from said property to make sure there isn't going to be anything you hate. Go to the nearest wal-mart and gas station. If you feel uncomfortable with the people going in and out you may want to look for a new neighborhood.