Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
for all the reasons you stated, no you do not need a realtor to buy.. we never use one.. it's more trouble than it's worth.. and yes, we see listings before they do.. even before the listing agent! We have a great real estate attorney.. sold our house w/o realtor.. buyers did not have one either.. never had a smoother sale!
To keep you from making uninformed decisions.. to have your back.
2011 couple view home at open house. Beautiful house.. with all the bells and whistles, inground pool, poolhouse, 3 car garage... priced extremely well per sold comps. Love the house. Put in offer that afternon with the listing agent which was accepted by the seller.
Didn't think to ask what was being built on the other side of the woods (woods approx. 250 feet deep).
Surprise...........the new water treatment facility. Goes into operation late 2012.
The stink.
House on market for $200,000 less then paid. They are willing to take the loss to get away from the stink.
you could use this same argument for why do i need a ......... ?
mechanic, plumber, tiler, electrician, doctor (yes doctor!), lawyer, etc, etc...
thanks to youtube and the rest of the internet, I have been able to perform all of the above tasks (except I haven't had the need to be a lawyer)... but this was all for just small-fry stuff
It's different if I'm going to spend a couple hundred grand or there is something larger at stake. I would much rather shift any liability to a certified professional
To keep you from making uninformed decisions.. to have your back.
2011 couple view home at open house. Beautiful house.. with all the bells and whistles, inground pool, poolhouse, 3 car garage... priced extremely well per sold comps. Love the house. Put in offer that afternon with the listing agent which was accepted by the seller.
Didn't think to ask what was being built on the other side of the woods (woods approx. 250 feet deep).
Surprise...........the new water treatment facility. Goes into operation late 2012.
The stink.
House on market for $200,000 less then paid. They are willing to take the loss to get away from the stink.
that is exactly why we do our own homework.. asking neighbors, checking with Village re. flooding issues, etc. We looked at a nice new construction home on a block directly next to where we knew there was 5 feet of water in the street every big rain .. to where you cannot even get out of your driveway. You think the listing realtor said a word about it ? NO. I brought up flooding in that area several times and she totally ignored and changed topic. Outrageous. The people next door lost everything in their basement incl. furnace, water heater.
that is exactly why we do our own homework.. asking neighbors, checking with Village re. flooding issues, etc. We looked at a nice new construction home on a block directly next to where we knew there was 5 feet of water in the street every big rain .. to where you cannot even get out of your driveway. You think the listing realtor said a word about it ? NO. I brought up flooding in that area several times and she totally ignored and changed topic. Outrageous. The people next door lost everything in their basement incl. furnace, water heater.
Why waste time looking at a house where you know there is a HISTORY of flooding around the neighborhood? And you asked the listing agent.
If you moved to my community you would know nothing about standing water issues (history), rerouting of bridge traffic (future), probable retirement of the seaweed harvester (future), wind turbines (future), or my favorite: State/Local RFP's out for widening roadways! None of that would be on seller disclosure.... and my state disclosurers are very comprehensive.
that is exactly why we do our own homework.. asking neighbors, checking with Village re. flooding issues, etc. We looked at a nice new construction home on a block directly next to where we knew there was 5 feet of water in the street every big rain .. to where you cannot even get out of your driveway. You think the listing realtor said a word about it ? NO. I brought up flooding in that area several times and she totally ignored and changed topic. Outrageous. The people next door lost everything in their basement incl. furnace, water heater.
This only works if you are from the area. Relocating buyers rely heavily on their agents to let them know everything that is going on. I mean we have a new construction neighborhood going in that will be under a bridge at some point in the future, if it gets built. All I have to say is that neighborhood would be under a four lane traffic bridge over the river if the current plan gets passed. Needless to say I haven't sold any homes in that neighborhood.
A relocating buyer just wouldn't know that. Homes have sold in there so I know that some home owners will get a rude awakening if the bridge gets funded.
for all the reasons you stated, no you do not need a realtor to buy.. we never use one.. it's more trouble than it's worth.. and yes, we see listings before they do.. even before the listing agent! We have a great real estate attorney.. sold our house w/o realtor.. buyers did not have one either.. never had a smoother sale!
I'm not sure where you live but over here a real estate lawyer gets paid regardless of closing on the property and a realtor doesn't...
Usually a lawyer gets paid by the hour and they don't care if the property you want will close or not since they get paid anyway.
On top of that there are bad lawyers aside from the good one and one lawyer over here who owns 2 or perhaps 3 title companis has a least 2 Bar reprimendations and we just run into another title that was clouded due to his office doing the wrong thing in the past...that was the 3 rd time we had to deal with his title company and in all 3 cases things were wrong. He was also hired by a crazy client we had last year and who hired him to scare me...I won and the lawyer let his client go just prior to going to court and was replaced by a better lawyer who happely took more of this dumb clients money, only to end up on the losing end of the stick and since this was small claims court the client tried to have her lawyer get me to pay for her legal fees (very funny to me especially after that client losing the case) and the judge never even reopened the case, but I guess between the 2 real estate lawyers it must have cost her at least $ 1500.
Not all lawyers are interested in winning since over here outcome of lawsuits are not disclosed so a client doesn't easily know which lawyer is ever in court for a trial and which lawyers only settle cases and make the most money that way....
A realtor has to work hard to get a deal done...perhaps in a few cases it is different but mostly it is not so easy nowadays.
Where we are there are lots of issues with flood zones, sink holes, items no being disclosed, etc....
Of course some people can easily do it themselves and take the risk if something goes wrong or having the choice of getting a professional that can save a lot of money and to advise what is allowed and what isn't to avoid financial issues later.
One seller we never took on since he wanted to nickle and dime us and most important he didn't want to disclose the sinkhole that was determined on his property. He wanted that to kept of the disclosures and him being a licensed home inspector he believed people would believe him when he would say that they house is perfect...
I can't wait to see him end up in court after his house gets sold without disclosing that part...
Reason being simple. Apparently around here initiating a bidding auction on the house is common practice. And THAT is why I fired mine. I simply do NOT get into auction style buying. It's a principle.
I'm not sure what this means. Who initiated a bidding auction? Was it just the fact that two buyers wanted the same house? If that's the case, and the SELLER and LISTING agent asked each potential buyer to "bid", what do you think your buyers agent should have done?
we see listings before they do.. even before the listing agent!
Explain how this occurs other than in the one-off situation where you happen to know someone who is about to put their home on the market. It doesn't, of course, so you can't say it's a general occurrence. I'm not going to tell you you NEED to hire a real estate agent, but your statement above is NOT justification for felling you can do it without at no loss. NO ONE has faster access to new listings than agents who participate in the MLS.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
