Another real estate story..... (Long Beach, Madison: for sale, lawyer, houses)

[momix5]

Last summer I had my house for sale with a local realtor, okay so it did not sell, today I started using a new oil company, and the delivery guy says to us, oh did you just buy this house, and we sad no why he went on to tell us that last year he came to one of the open houses, that the real estate had for us, and he asked if we were negotiable, he told us the real estate told him not at all. WE WERE 20,000 negotiable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and the best part was that when we asked if anyone came we were told no, that no one had come at all. Then these people wonder why they have such a horrible reputation, and one more thing I noticed today when looking on the MLS some houses that real estates are listing have the wrong school districts on them, they are listed in better districts!!!!!!!!!!!! So, if I decide to sell again it is FSBO for me.

[okaydorothy]

Gosh, then they wonder why people think so badly of them.
We had ours for sale last year ; nov thru feb and we had not one showing. Not one open house at all.

The realtor said she had pneumonia thru the hols. But still, dont you think someone in her office would have taken over??

Its so hard to sell.
dorothy

[autumngal]

Originally Posted by momix5

So, if I decide to sell again it is FSBO for me.

CNN Money had an article today how the people of Madison Wisconsin are kicking out the Realtors and doing FSBO's. Mentioning it takes a little longer,
but they do sell. I kind of think in slow market areas enough people doing FSBO it will become the norm and people will not mind as much buying that way.

[autumngal]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Gosh, then they wonder why people think so badly of them.
We had ours for sale last year ; nov thru feb and we had not one showing. Not one open house at all.

The realtor said she had pneumonia thru the hols. But still, dont you think someone in her office would have taken over??

Its so hard to sell.
dorothy

In 4 states I lived in and sold it is not uncommon for another Realtor from the same office to hold the Open House, usually those Realtors just starting out will jump to do it.

[momix5]

You know what is crazy is that one real estate we interviewed said he did no advertising other than the mls. He continued to say his commision was 6%, and if we wanted to he would print up flyers that we could hand out, Yeah right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I am doing all the leg work so you can make 17,000 on the commision? I don't get why buyers shy away from FSBO when you need to get an engineer to look at the house anyway or do they just believe the realtors? I think we should all boycott them because most of them s**k.

[Patch2007]

I have bought and sold a home in MD and bought one on NY. I HATED with NY realtors. They lied to us and mislead us SO MUCH. (Yes, still very angry 5 years later). We went through 3 realtor before we ended up using my husbands mothers friend, big mistake there. I asked to look at the house again after we were in contract and she told me it is not allowed. During our walk through she told us that it only had to be broom swept. What about all the holes in the wall from the previous owner literally pulling the shelves out of the wall. All of the dishes in the dishwasher. The dirty towels in the bathroom. And, the garbage at least 3 months worth in the backyard. It cost us over $2,500 to repair the walls, clean out almost all of the previous owners belongings and remove the 3 months of grass clippings, diapers, and trash from the side and backyard. Our realtor told us that these are normal and the house is "As Is" . Yeah, but the garbage and holes were not there when we went to contract. At our closing the realtor stayed and bolted as soon as she got her commissoin check. And, the house was not "As Is"
We are planning to put our home for sale at the end of the summer and I will definetly be doing FSBO. Not to save money but because I do not trust realtors. If a buyer wants to use a realtor, that is fine with me. But, I will give not them the standard 1/2 commission (about 2-3%) and I will not talk to them about anything that I did not talk to the buyer about. The buyer will need to deal with me the seller.

On a side note my realtor in North Carolina is GREAT.

[NY652]

We are going the FSBO route for all those reasons people give for not wanting to deal with realtors. The internet makes it simple and the fact you DO need a lawyer in this part of the country (not elsewhere) makes it easy to skip the realtors. We certainly agree they do NOT earn their money. We also feel the realtors who are telling people to come down, down, down, in pricing are feeding the frenzy of those who ARE buying simply because the constant dropping of prices just makes the buyer do a "wait and see, how low will they go??" While many homes are over-priced, those who are priced fairly and not willing to give it away should be given the chance to negotiate. After all, the price is just a number, right? Why can't we sell VALUE? Do your homework, compare yourself with the competition, do the decluttering, depersonalizing, clean, clean, and clean some more, etc. and the one person you need WILL come along and make you an offer you can't refuse. I also don't agree with realtors who make a big deal about days on the market; there is a buyer for EVERY home - you just might need to wait awhile for them to find you. Do-it-yourself FSBO's WILL be the norm in the not too distant future !

[baylovers]

I've been trying to sell for 18 months now.... but I do have to say that my realtor has worked hard for me. Many, many open houses and ads in the papers & r/e books.

Anyone looking for bayfront property in Long Beach??

[baylovers]

I will pay the first year's taxes!!

[ihateny]

although most realtors are pretty shady, you can find a good one, look around use your best judgment not all of us are evil, it will be hard though.