Motivation sucker
Do you know what sucks your motivation to prep your house to sell it?
Its a 20-something realtor calling you to say that she just talked to the realtor you are trying to buy a house from and she told them that it didn’t seem likely you would sell your house any time soon given the current market.
AND the 20-something tells you that your house is probably worth $50K less than you think, but they are not done with their evaluation yet. They are working on it with their 20-something realtor collegue. Apparently, there is no hurry.
And its going to rain and ruin my chances for power washing the deck (which the 20-something said needed doing).
And two people just went running past my house and I can’t go running because I have to paint the bathroom, because the 20-somwthing said so.
Why am I dealing with the 20-something? Because our favorite realtor is out of town, this one is his substitute.
Life sucks.
And could someone please explain to me why realtors set up a price for your house and then spend the next few weeks constantly badgering you to drop it lower? And why when you put an offer on a house and the realtor says its a good price, they hound you all through negotiations to push it back up to where you started?
I hate selling and buying houses.
May 10th, 2006 17:29
For the record, I know lots of useless older people too…it’s not restricted to my decade of life…i’m just saying…
May 10th, 2006 18:54
Yeah, I’m totally with you on this one. We dealt with a great realtor in San Antonio and a horrid one in Maine and ended up getting caught in a legal issue. I will e-mail you the details tomorrow so you can avoid the same scenario :)
May 10th, 2006 20:20
Jon this was the beginning of the end for me too. I HATE real estate and I swear I will never ever buy another house.
May 10th, 2006 20:40
Hey, I’m a 20-something ….
I’m completely dreading trying to sell our house later this year. Our neighbor just put his house up for sale, and he’s listing it for $30K less than we’re hoping to sell ours for. From his listing, it sounds like our houses are pretty similar except that we have 1 more bedroom.
Hope your house sells quickly!
May 10th, 2006 20:48
Here’s my take for you on realtors:
They hook you for the listing by telling you it’s worth more than you imagined. Then when it lists and doesn’t sell they’re motivated to make the sale so push you to drop the price. Your sale price is all about YOUR motivation. How long can you wait to see if someone wants to pay your price?
The realtor is trying to earn a living. He or she makes it through transactions. The more, the more for them.
So says my retired realtor wife who knows what evil lurks within …. Bwaaww-hawww-haww.
May 10th, 2006 21:02
and here’s my take: Gosh, i wish i had enough money to be complaining about realtors!! (Feel better now?) :)
May 10th, 2006 21:29
You need a better realtor. I read something the other day about realtors and pricing and how what means $50K to you means about $2K to them so if they are annoying you over $50K tell ‘em to stick it! The wonder of the internet is that it allows us to find comps on our own so set your price and don’t drop it until you feel you need to. The realtor is there to market the house, coordinate the title company and escrow company, and make sure all the proper legal stuff happens.
May 10th, 2006 22:33
Threaten to fire the favorite realtor for sticking you with a 20 something nincompoop and tell him you will be bad mouthing him or her from here til next year, betcha he or she magically returns to town! Just addin my two cents… Run Good!
May 10th, 2006 23:37
Have you actually signed a listing contract with this realtor you don’t like? If you haven’t, you have the right to interview as many other realtors you like and find one you DO like. Moving is not fun, but you need someone on your side that you can trust.
A good realtor should be able to show you the math, the comparables they used and why they feel your house is worth suchandsuch. With the MLS system it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to put together a concise report.
I do the math every day - I’m a realtor’s assistant and I totally get where you’re coming from.
May 11th, 2006 01:07
It usually boils down to the realtor trying to maximize their profit, they don’t really care about you at all - at least it seemed that way with every realtor I ever met - there may be exceptions somewhere (can I get their number please ;-)
May 11th, 2006 09:57
Don’t get me started. What a racket. We tried selling by owner, then listing with a discount broker. Over six months and the house never sold. We just got a full service agent and she basically told us that (as we suspected) agents will literally steer people away from houses listed by owner or with discount brokerages. It’s just the way it works. Evil. They’re evil, I say. Meanwhile we’re making mortgage payments on an empty house and paying exorbitant rent in the Boston area. Sucks.
Yeah, and 10K, 20K changes in the price of a house does not mean much to their commissions. Their goal is to sell it as fast as possible. Flip it as fast as they can — unless they’re selling their own house! (See the recent book “Freakonomics” — just read the section on real estate in the bookstore)
Good luck! (Seriously, I hope you have much better luck than we have.)
May 11th, 2006 10:36
i so hear you, jon. our first purchase and our first sell were so amazingly painless and wonderful, we were lulled into a sense of ease about the whole thing. when we went to buy our current place, the realator tried all sorts of stuff with us…we were surprised at all the games she played and then come to find out, that’s normal. bleh.
hang in there, jon. it’ll be over before you know it and just a bad memory.
May 11th, 2006 10:53
That was it - I read that in Freakinomics! I just couldn’t remember where it was.
May 11th, 2006 12:19
So mcuh frustration..i am glad u hate selling and buying house..if u said u hate 20 something..then that would be me.
I hope you get through this ASAP then u can get back to your running (and chocolate eating) :)
May 11th, 2006 12:32
I’m not following. Dirt has one price. People deep down don’t like dirt. People don’t being lost in the woods yet their houses are made out of wood.
Does it make more financial sence to buy a year’s supply of sundried articles and store them in a mini-warehouse on your property?
May 11th, 2006 13:58
Jon likes bras! And chocolate!
May 11th, 2006 15:16
I know a good realtor in the area, although changing now might be more headache than staying with the yutz. If you want the name drop a line and I’ll hook you up!
May 11th, 2006 15:17
BTW- the realtor I’m thinking of went to school in the metro NY NJ area so is familiar with that part of the nation as well.
May 11th, 2006 17:26
having to sell sucks! but I rely on income from the hubby agent and he says it works both ways. good luck and if you haven’t signed a contract, get a different agent (they usually have jr. agents or someone who is not getting any business to be subs)
May 12th, 2006 08:28
Realtors, when selling their own houses, get a higher price than when selling a comparable house for someone else, by a figure of around 10%. They have very little incentive not to drop the price of the house, since their commission usually works out to one-half of the customary 6%. For a 5k difference in the sale price, that’s a difference of $150 in their commission. For their own house, it’s a $5,000 difference in the money they make.
This from someone in the Title Insurance industry.
May 12th, 2006 20:22
Too bad you don’t live in Calgary. There’s bidding wars on houses. People are getting big $$$ over listed price. Here, you can forget painting and people will call you up out of the blue with outrageous offers. There’s like no houses available and very little to rent so right now its a sellers market. We could make a 100 grand on our place but we’d have no where to go…lol.
May 12th, 2006 22:10
What a hassle! We plan on selling our house soon, I know I have so much to look forward to!