All Forum Posts by: Carl Schmitt

I agree with George's first post. Most FSBO clients I run into think, "I owe X, and I need Y to move, so I'm going to ask X+Y". Most seem to have NO knowledge of the actual comps in the area. I think the lack of knowledge could actually help in getting a lower offer accepted, unless they owe quite a bit.

Joel,
I focus on commercial/ investment properties, but I'm still building my business so I'm doing both residential and commercial.
I agree that the wife makes the decisions. I'm not debating the fact that they now have a true listing, just the fact that he "listed" the property without any paperwork. As far as the verbage in the original listing, the sellers tell me that they did nothing like that.

The protection period in MA is only for private sales after the listing expires. It does not protect the agent from losing the listing to another agent.

As far as speaking with the seller under contract, you can't speak with the seller at all. You can say, "I'd love to help you buy youre next home..." but you can't even discuss "when the listing expires..."

I'm really only venting. I'm curious what everyone thought about it.

I called an expired listing last week and set up a listing appointment. The next day, the house was relisted. When I called the owners, they said that couldn't be possible because they hadn't even seen the agent for a month and a half. They set up an appointment with the previous agent a day before me. Today, I got a call from the agent telling me to "stop spamming my clients, it's not an open listing". I called the homeowner to find out what was going on because we had an appointment scheduled for this afternoon. He said that his wife wanted to stay with the agent and he wasn't very happy about it. I'm not in the business of crossing contracts, so I only wished them good luck, even though the husband said that he wants to talk to me about our company. I said I'd be glad to help him buy something else, but I can't discuss anything because there is a listing contract in place. So, the listing went active again on the 29th of Dec. They did not sign a new contract until yesterday, the 16th of Jan. The agent has the listing plain and simple, but what happens with the almost 3 weeks that it was "listed" with no agreement. How would you handle this? I'm only upset about this because of how the agent spoke to me. If it was me, I would have been VERY polite to the other agent. After all, I can prove that he was marketing the property without a contract...

Realtyman,
I was wondering the same thing when I first read the post. As an agent, it would help to find investors that buy and sell frequently. Seeing that Shari is a transactional funder, I would say marketing to flippers would be important to finding new business.

Thank you Maryann! I agree that it really doesn't take much to become a licensed agent. It takes a whole lot to be a good agent.
As far as working with investors go, I suppose I try to learn about investing because that's what interests me. I'm not really interested in the color that someone painted there living room...I like cashflow :)
You guys also do 4,5, 10 deals a year. The average person buys a new home every 6 or 7 YEARS. I like my chances with investors. As "illegal and fraudulent" as you may be... Just kidding!

Ted,
That seems to be the general idea here...Present the fact that she is incorrect and if she doesn't understand, move on. It's funny how different the responses depending on who you talk to. Anyone with an investor's mindset says what you said. Other agents, even my broker, have said, "Well, I don't know. Be careful with that..."

I think saying that humans are the reason for climate change is like saying that humans are the reason for economic cycles... You can make it as obvious as you would like, and the majority of the people ignore it, and then look back saying what they "should have done". The housing bubble burst, and everyone looks back and points fingers saying, "I told you that was going to happen". I think everyone can agree that the climate didn't start changing 6 months after Gore put out his movie. However, everyone watches his movie and says, " I told you so". When someone finds a definite answer on how to solve the problem, if it is a problem and not just a cycle, I'd be happy to help. Until then, I'll just let the people on the news tell me what a terrible person I am for driving a car...I'm sure Gore and his rich friends are car pooling their private jets, right?

I'm with Steve! With 500K houses, you're talking 10k in commission, for one side. If you can find 4-6 deals like this a month, that you're the listing agent on, sell to an investor. Then you let the investor list it with you again on the resale side. That's a healthy month if you ask me.

I think to attract a good agent, you're going to need to be doing volume. Like you said, it's probably not going to be a big check, but if you get 4 a month, they add up. That's basically the only option in the market I'm in. With an average home price of 170K, checks aren't huge. It may be tough in CA because of the prices you spoke of.
Good Luck!

I'm not sure how an agent would make money working with a wholesaler. I suppose if you offered compensation for bringing an end buyer, and I can't think of any other ways they would be useful.
As an agent, I would disagree with your comment about prefering retail buyers. From the financial side, some investor clients buy 3,4,5+ properties a year. The average retail homeowner moves every 6-7 years. So, 24 deals in 6 years or 1 deal in 6 years, you decide. I also like investors because they know what they are looking for. If it matches, they buy, if not, they don't. I have a retail buyer that is not willing to pay 250k for a house worth 335k because the master bath only has a shower, not a bath tub.