to a dedicated domain, with much more in addition to the blog posts.
Come visit my new site
at http://RogerTheriault.com/agents/
Great Real Estate – For new and experienced agents, tips and opinions on how to market better both online and offline… and thrill your sellers.
– Roger
Investors seem to be taking a shotgun approach to finding steals… fax off several lowball offers on various properties all at once. It’s the latest way to find sellers willing to “give away” their properties.
I have no problem with investors making offers, and there are some sellers who are happy to take them. But don’t waste my time so you don’t waste yours!
The purpose of an escrow deposit is more than a sign of good faith. If sufficient, it should keep a buyer from failing to meet contract terms. But the buyer expects that if they uphold the deal they’ll get it back, and the seller expects that if the buyer defaults, there will be a little something for the trouble and time off the market.
But not all “escrow accounts” are the same, and the buyer and/or seller may be disappointed…
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seems to think there could be better competition in real estate (see their site: Competition and Real Estate).
What really bugs me… the DOJ says “Consumers can save thousands of dollars”. They even chart the savings of choosing various business models such as flat fee MLS, limited services, and sale by owner. That’s so cool, when I was a kid my dad would tie a string to my loose tooth, the other one to the doorknob. We all know that saves about $100 in dentist visits, but the risk of something going wrong is pretty low (make sure it’s a baby tooth, and it really is loose, and “no brainer”). And I’m sure we’ve all tried some home improvement project so we can save money over what the contractors were quoting… and then later, hired a pro to fix it and re-do it the right way.
It’s bad enough that our inventory levels are high, buyers are scarce, and some sellers are really not interested in selling at market value.
Predators are out there committing mortgage fraud and even if it doesn’t happen to our deals, now it could cause our sellers grief if we’re not careful.
I’m talking about not being cautious when preparing a Comparative Market Analysis, and overestimating market value because a few of the recent closed sales were fraudulently inflated.
I’ve seen quite a variety of lender letters… many not worth the paper they are printed on. What is a pre-approval and why does every loan officer claim his borrower has one? Why should it matter to agents and buyers and sellers?
So you show your buyer my listing… next day the listing agent calls asking for some feedback. What do you say?
It’s pretty darn simple. What did you and the buyer think of the house? Was it clean? Were there any repairs that your buyer felt should be made? Did it show well? Did it stink of cigarette smoke? Anything else bother your buyer?
As a real estate professional and REALTOR® for nearly four years now, I thought I’d offer my insight for other agents, whether you’re new to the business or a 25 year veteran, on what I feel it takes to be successful, and what is changing in real estate that we all need to be aware of to continue to succeed.
I’ll explore a variety of topics, stuff you may not find in books, and tell you which books and advice helped me. Got a hot topic or anecdote? Please share!
Roger
