All Forum Posts by: Jacob Bindler

As a general rule do not use people who have other services "in house" or have a "prior relationships" unless you do not mind paying more. Example from above: attorney with "in house" title company. In 95% of the time the title people paying kickbacks to the attorney. If you just google title companies in your area and collect quotes you will save your self few hundred. 
You will see the comments here that the fees are state mandated and there is no reason to shop title companies, but if you do not do it you will see a bunch of phony search and recording fees (which are not mandated) at closing. 

I am running the site that put the sellers together with people that would help them to sell without agents, but buyers can also find some useful info. 

I run a site that connect home sellers to vendors helping them in their selling process and need to find a person who is able to advice one of my clients on cost/benefits of pre sale remodeling.

The client is selling an apartment in downtown Seattle. He is considering some pre sale renovation and is seeking an input from a person with relevant experience. The client will provide pictures and background info on the area. He is looking for fixed price consultation. You can replay here.

hi Albert,

I am developing an online platform where home sellers like yourself can find vendors (for staging, pictures, showings and so on) bypassing the agent altogether. the site is domovendo (dot) com It is free unless you are hiring someone. Then we would get commission. However, i will wave our commission for members of biggerpockets.  If you try the site i will work with you and try to organise the competition from the vendors to serve you.

 Have you consider virtual staging like taking pictures and photo shopping them? There are vendors that would do that very economically. there are also 3D tours options. We can find people to draw floor plans and do 3d models based on the measurements and pictures that you take (people are overseas, so they are inexpensive. Lots of interesting options.

We are just rolling out, so you will get our full attention.

I would not rely on an agent to do this for you. You should dig current and past listinings for comps yourself: too important to leave to people who are trying to sell you something. 

Amelia,

I am trying to launch a service that helps people sell properties without an agent. You can call it FSBO, but I call it FSBT (For Sale by Team). A market place where sellers would be able to find vendors that would be their sell team. I am in a very beginning of my set up, but would like to somehow get people on board and use the services. I would help you out myself and will find other vendors at no cost to you. I commissioned a legal checklist and other legal documents needed in NY. You can download them here https://app.box.com/s/im9emnnxv4qsknc4x4r52b962yfr...

If your property is not in NY we can use the same person i used for NY and NJ and create copies for your state. We can split the cost. if you are interested we can take it from there. You are already way ahead of the game because you have a potential buyer, but I would still try to make sure there is competition. Let's connect. I will do my best to help. 

Thanks  

why do you need an agent to begin with, especially if you are buyer? Agents are of negative value. Go directly to the listing agent on a property and make a deal. I posted a couple postings on my experience with buy side agents. In short: there is negative value in hiring one. You will either lose money or property. Now, do not get wrong there are stil a lot of tasks to take carevof, but between yourself, your attorney, home inspector, Zillow, and tittle company you got absolutely everything you would ever need and more. I see sites like Zillow eventually killing buy side agents. They do not want to advertise it because they depends on their dollars and have not figure out alternative way to revenues, but that is the reality. Seller's agents are different animal. I started the service to remove them from the process. Hopefully folks will getvon board.

I know this question could be old, but still: in 2014 i bought 7 properties, and ALL of them without buy side agent. Main point when you do that: the seller's agent will get all the commission if he/she sells the property to you and not to a guy with the agent. Now, here is my EXPERIENCE.

• In three of the cases there were multiple bids, but i got the properties because the agents wanted me to get the properties. They did not allow for the properties to go to the second rounds and make sure the sellers went with me. I knew what to bid and topped the second bidders by just nominal amounts. Conclusion: good deal for me.
• in two properties where there were no multiple bids i got credits from the agents that were less than 3% that they would have given to the buyer's agent, but more than nothing. We are talking about close to 1%. They were not obligated to do that, but I negotiated.
• In two other properties i took my time closing the deal while the agents pacified the sellers. We are talking they keeping properties off the market for months. Again: good for me.

I am not passing judgment on the whole profession, just letting you know that the compensation structure is bad for the seller, so you as a buyer can take an advantage.

My advice: If you are serious about investing and buying real estate you should do it without buying agent. You have to know the market, location and property anyway. Agent will not help you. you have to learn now to negotiate. You have to do your homework. Ditch the agent. As a matter of fact i was so outraged by the conflict of interest on part of the listing agent, that i started service to help people to sell without an agent. FSBO on steroids: i am trying to create a marketplace where people would find independent vendors who would help them sell properties. One day i will be looking toward selling my properties, and i do not want to be screwed by listing agents in a way agents i worked with screwed my sellers.

Let say you are a buy side agent, and there is an advertising to conduct a 4 hour open house for a seller who sells on his/her own. Let's also assume that you are familiar with the area and have time on this particular day. Let's say the owner conducted preparation for the house on his own and wants you to 1) relay the info about the property to prospective buyers, 2) collect their info, and 3) pass this info to the owner. You are free to contract the buyers and represent (if they come unrepresented) them for any other properties. The owner will spend 30 min with you before the event disclosing info about the house and you would need 30 min after the event to write down the notes. 

Multiple choice question:

I will do it for 300.

I will do it for 500.

I will do it for 800.

I will not do it in principle. 

I obviously appreciate the comments too :) 

I've started the service connecting home sellers to vendors (predominately not agents) that are willing to work on a per task/per hour basis. Will be interested to learn different opinions on the subject. 

Thanks Kevin and Russell,,

Excellent points. I would not have bothered if i thought exclusively of agents.  What is the selling process could be sliced to small discrete tasks and these are performed by unlicensed people? Taking photographs, virtual tours, secretary assistance,  and handholding on legal process are easy and obvious, but what is we can do the same with showings, open houses and negotiations? The tasks that need licensing could be done by the owner. To tell the truth i am not sure how it might evolve, but my goal is to built a platform that would enable the creativity.