All Forum Posts by: Josue Vargas

Unfortunately I've been away for a few months while taking care of some personal matters, so I haven't been able to keep up on discussions. 

However, several months ago there were ample amount of folks here insisting that a market crash/ correction was impossible and that prices would only continue to increase.

Curious if there are still people out there who feel this way? If so, I'd love to see some data that supports your view that the market isn't going to crash/ correct. 

 See the "average" agents where I'm at are horrible - they are average joes, that became a RE agent in 2020/2021 when houses sold themselves. I have to direct them on what to do...example...I want to know if the house ever flooded - I had to tell him to look at ALL the past disclosures from this house, look at the past disclosures of the neighboring houses. Simple stuff that you would assume they would automatically do to answer my question. 

So simple to pull comps - lets see what sold in the same area, that's the same size and a 3/2. Simple. 

Let's fill out some paperwork that can be downloaded from free on the RE commission website. 

Let's try and schedule a time to show the house. I can do this myself on my own schedule as well. Only person I like is a really experienced inspector, just in case I miss something or don't know exactly what to look for. 

I had an agent that I contacted to put an offer in on a MFH house (this was someone, at the time, I had a exclusive agreement with) - come to find out when I was making my offer he was representing another buyer for the same property! Seems unethical to me. Don't know how he can have my best interest in mind when he has another buyer and he knows what we both offered. Now did he do anything explicitly wrong...maybe not. But he told me this guy had "deep pockets" etc. Same guy advised not to make a offer on another MFH unless it was 15k over ask...the place sold for 5k under ask...I always came up with my offer price, was never advised on what to offer or what might get the house. 

Another reason I won't sign an exclusivity contract. I have several agents that I use now AND it works so much better. They know if they bring me something good, they will get a solid offer. If they can do something for me while I'm working out of the country, they get the deal. I'm tired of most of the BS from "agents" that don't put in the time or effort to make a 4-5k commission several times a year. This is another reason I have turned to off-market properties - because using an agent has proven to be a waste of time. 

Maybe I've just had "bad" agents in the past - but they have offered nothing to me to justify a 3% commission. I am a RE agent myself now and life is much easier, and I save money and time. 

I would love to have a GREAT agent though, I hear about them but have yet to come across one. If I ever do, they will get every deal from me from then on out. 

Now I am speaking for my local agents - I have met some awesome agents out of the state!

@Josue Vargas is right. Even an average agent is worth every penny. A really good one is priceless.....

Buyer gave me a low-ball offer.  Then they came up to $95k all cash, saying that's the best they could do.  OK.... Well, I said $99k was the lowest I would go, considering the buyer's agent commission % is really coming off the top, right?  That would leave me with $96k.  I've determined I could budge another $1.5k, but I need $94.5k after everything's said and done.  Period.  So that means $97.5k is the lowest offer I can accept.

Even if the buyer & seller won't budge, the buyer's agent could simply agree to a 0.5% commission, close the deal, and buyer & seller would both be happy.  But there's really a whole range of percentages that the buyer's agent could agree to that are likely NEVER considered to be on the chopping block.  If a buyer's agent could drop to 1.4% commission in this case, then the buyer would only need another $900 which seems reasonable.  Everybody would be sacrificing to make the deal work.  Does anybody ever try negotiating the agent commissions when you're within a couple percent price difference??

I've come down as far as I realistically can.  $10k below asking.  Is asking the buyer to come up $1000, and the buyer's agent to come down $1,000 too much to ask for?  I mean... really, it comes down to how invested the buyers agent actually has been.  How much work did they really do?  What is their time worth?  $35/hr for 56hours = $1,960.  Buyer coming up $1,500 to cover that and buyers agent dropping commission to 2% could save her from another 56 hours of work...

Like I said, tho... there's a whole range of variable percentages that get us all to my rock bottom price.  Can I get anymore outside the box than this?!?  I'd imagine most negotiations aren't this tight.

One stated benefit of investing in real estate is price appreciation.  However, if you look at inflation adjusted real estate prices for the most part there isn't much appreciation.  There are specific points in time like 2006 (we know what followed that) and right now when real estate exceeds inflation adjusted prices. However,  over the long term it doesn't really appear that real estate appreciates much beyond inflation. Is real estate appreciation a myth?

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