All Forum Posts by: Derek Wheeler

Your Realtor is there to help you. We don't make the choices, nor should we judge our clients for doing what you feel you want/need in a transaction. Our only obligation is to help you purchase/sell a home with your best interest (and the law) in mind. If a realty agent has a problem submitting a low offer, he/she is worrying too much about the other party who are consenting adults under the law and can make their own decisions and research to decline, accept, or counter the offer. If a home is sitting on the market for more than a month or so, go ahead and offer lower. Why not? The worst thing is that they decline it. Maybe they'll shoot back a counter for lower than their asking, or maybe they'll even accept. You don't know everyone's situation. Maybe the seller is in deep with too many bills and has to sell quick and will take anything that is offered but doesn't want to offer it low in case someone is willing to pay more. Real estate is a numbers game. Keep playing - you'll win at some point.

Jerry W. Not sure how it is in your state, but in Texas, pre-foreclosures are public information. How much is owed on a note is viewable by anyone.

Bob Johnson I would suggest, when you get your agent license, to get more than 1 transaction a year under your belt. Being a broker, you take on a lot of legal responsibility. You should contracts and deals inside and out before you get to that step. Most of that stuff you won't learn from the books or classes. Real world experience will save you tons of time later on when you're a broker and probably keep you safe from litigation as well.

I'm not sure about CA, but here in Texas, in order to become a broker, you need to have your real estate license, which the exam can't be bypassed. You have to take enough schooling, pass the state exam, work enough deals that earn you points on your license, do more schooling... a lot more, and be an active agent for something like 3 years. The requirements to be a broker are strict, at least in Texas. I hear CA is easier to become an agent - I'm not sure about broker though.

Mary Yoo I wouldn't trust any of the real estate internet companies (Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com) to give proper value estimates. Become friends with a local Realtor and get free CMAs. Or find one that'll do it for you for like $20. Don't really know the going rate for CMAs - my wife and I do them for free for our investors. Also, which price would be correct would depend on a lot - location, size, materials used during reno, comps, local investments (new mall or something of the sort propped up), previous price, etc etc. There is no telling which price is correct, unless you view the outside variables.

I haven't tried Zillow, but my wife and I have done Realtor.com. My suggestion about Realtor.com - don't touch them with a 10 foot pole. They put us in a 12 month contract for $400/month (I hear most people pay a lot more) for a zip code that is supposed to produce an "average of $757,000 leads" due to the average property price there. We've been in it now for 4 months, paid $1,600, received 27 of our contractual 48 leads and the highest lead we've got was $120,000. Most people already had agents, some were just browsing, others owned the property they were inquiring about and wanted to test the site. All of these leads came out of our 48-50 leads we are promised a year. We tried to cancel our contract due to it not being anything as advertised and $1,600 is a lot to us. We have two toddlers and another due in December. We thought it would be doable if it gave us business, but so far we have flushed that money away. We called to cancel and they said short of death, we can't get out of the contract. The "customer service rep" laughed at my wife when she complained about our service we were getting. I understand that lead quality can't be guaranteed, but don't sell us something, put an average number on it, we get no where near that number, and not let us back out. We filed a complaint with the BBB. We've requested our contract for us to send to our lawyer 4 times. They've yet to send it. Realtor.com feels like a business ran by the mob. Anyways, sorry for the rant... just be wary. If Zillow is anything like that, God help you. I've heard better things about Zillow though.

Well... keep the deposit, obviously. Clearly state to them over the phone, reiterated in email and text, that those "upgrades" were never approved of by you nor were the modifications in writing, as stating in the contract. I would try to get them to settle for some amount to fix what they've done outside of court. Get a contractor in there and ask him what it'd cost for materials to fix what they've done, ask them for the material cost, then pay him for his work with the deposit.

M.C. Nachtigal Come on down to Dallas, Texas where America's heart still beats for business owners small and big.

Not the norm at all, but some sellers are weird. Honestly, I would suspect something to be up. Ask the listing agent why you can't go in. Just give yourself a good option period in the offer to find out if the seller is hiding anything.

Well, 1. I am currently dealing with a seller for one of my buyers that is the same way. My buyer can't even get a showing of the home without a 100% approval from the lender, but lenders don't 100% approve anything without knowing the property in and out. I think, the listing agent has a major responsibility to her client to educate them that the best possible way to sell their home is to let people see it. Not even because people want to see it, but because it is a necessity to see a home before purchase - to the buyer, to the lender, to the buyer's agent. Also, $100k for two $700/month doors, seems okay. We have those homes here in Dallas, but they aren't in the best parts of town. Just depends on your area, I guess. Rent in Dallas is pretty extreme even for the bad areas.