All Forum Posts by: James McGovern

A newbie to real estate I met at a foreclosure auction asked me about real estate meetups in my area that are no cost. I did not know the answer for Connecticut and thought I would ask

Looking to understand who are the kings of the hill for wholesale in New England 

Quote from @Bruce Lynn:

@James McGovern   I see you are a home inspector.  If I contract a home and use you as my inspector, since I have never used you before and don't have a way to judge your work, would you be willing to do the inspection without any signatures or agreements and let me see if I appreciate the quality of your work enough to pay you?  Are you willing to risk not getting paid?

Honestly, much of the value in home inspection comes from the document created which many buyers receive a copy but are otherwise clueless as to the items often missed in an inspection. There is no one keeping that profession to a higher level of integrity.

Quote from @Bruce Lynn:

There are all kinds of potential bad outcomes of this for sellers.

Most businesses and consumers should be striving for efficiency and transparency.  This settlement makes things more complicated.  On a regular basis I call/text/email an agent to ask pertinent questions to make an offer and never get any response even after multiple attempts.  Send offers with no response.  So maybe now less sales get done.

Maybe the big boy brokerages go all in house, so don't pay a buyer's agent.  So market shrinks and more lawsuits happen when buyers go unrepresented. Big brokerages control the market.  Do fees go up or down with less competition?  Maybe they go up if 2-3 brokerages control the market vs the thousands there are today.

Maybe all the buyer agents go out of business and just leave the big brokerages to control the market.

Plenty of bad things can happen.  Winners were the attorneys.  Losers were everyone else.  Oh wait, I think the class action participants might get $50 each.

 Agree with everything you said. Is it wrong for me to believe that going unrepresented, I may not be missing out on much especially since the agents themselves did not represent their interests other than wanting status quo. They let lawyers bend them over where buyers of properties like you said are only going to get $20 or less at settlement. 

Good representatiion and having a client for life would suggest they should have been doing more to advocate for those who purchased in the past.

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

@Russell Brazil@Bruce Lynn  and the education process begins !!!  

It is my understanding that that particular constraint is placed on agents who are members of NAR. In my state, you can be a real estate agent and not have to pay fees to a membership organization and still proide value.

Quote from @Bruce Lynn:

I agree a random/generic MLS search doesn't help most investors. Really needs to be curated to be helpful.

You just need to find the right agent who is a valuable member of your investment team.  No need to go at it alone.  Find one that adds value.

Your first statement is spot on and a better way to articulate why I find agents painful. 

Your second sentence is also good but more difficult to be successful at. Finding the right agent is very painful. In my market, many investors aren't using agents except for commercial deals and often result to selling via flat fee broker MLS listings.

That would be rare IMO. You'd do better just driving a neighborhood (a lot) to get the feel. Find deserted, run down looking houses and contact the owners, etc....

You are now describing a scenario of why no one needs agents any longer where Bird Dogs and Wholesalers are of more value.

I have not seen any statistics showing that sellers have been successful in negotiating down commissions other than in one-off scenarios. What are the best practices in negotiating a lower commission with a listing agent?

Is it wrong to believe that the NAR Settlement is evil for sellers who want their real estate agents to get the maximum value for properties they flip? Why does denying agents the ability to show a commission benefit anyone?

Would this not turn off buyers agents who don't know how to articulate their value from working harder? 

Would this not reduce the number of potential buyers brought to the table when the realtor can't use the largest marketing platform to its full advantage (aka the MLS)?

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

But like I said its only a handful of folks I would trust to be my clients for this type of activity far more risky than vanilla lending.

Why do you believe the risks are higher in the scenario I outlined where clear title is guaranteed at closing but not weeks in advance to present to an underwriter?