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Show HN: Find a home close to work

openlistings.co

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Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#41

Post by ehhuang »

jschoenholtz wrote: post #34
jboggan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I clicked on my last company (Factual in LA) and the first listing was for a $18M penthouse. It also said that the buyer would get a $225k+ refund from Open Listings for buying through them - how does that work? But seriously, it is a very neat tool, thanks for making it.

Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun s…

I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#42

Post by rgbrgb »

jkmcf wrote: post #19

Interesting. One of my short term plans is to display hiking trailheads near homes for sale. Not sure if anything like that exists (also haven't looked...)

That's an awesome idea, pretty sure that doesn't exist. Definitely drop me a link if you end up building it! My brother in law keeps asking me for a Twitter feed of land near good surf spots. I gave him a bunch of mansions he can't afford :) [0].

[0]: https://twitter.com/openmansions

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#43

Post by encoderer »

rgbrgb wrote: post #39
encoderer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should check out https://rets.ly/

Been on their beta list for almost a year. They've since been acquired by zillow so we're not holding our breath.

My understanding is that they are working hard to build APIs that will let Retsly power the next zillow, and that there's support for that internally. Time will tell!

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#44

Post by jschoenholtz »

ehhuang wrote: post #41
jschoenholtz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun s…

I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?

It's not just Redfin agents: a surprising number of licensed agents have trouble with basic tasks like communicating via email and filling out contracts. Since we work as a team, we've built a vast amount of institutional knowledge over the past 5 months and there are no individual, inexperienced agents representing our buyers. We're also automating most of the offer submission process. This means that we're more responsive, more articulate and more accurate than the majority of agents. We also have the privilege of working with smart, serious buyers. We can honestly say that most agents have been happy to work with us and treat us like any other brokerage.

The most important thing to understand is the seller decides which offer to accept and that decision comes down to price & terms. The best offer always wins. 100% of the time we've submitted the highest offer, it has been accepted. Our offers are clean and our buyers are able to pay more knowing they'll get a significant refund. So far, so good.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#45

Post by rconti »

eitally wrote: post #32
rconti wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$190k, I assume. Salaries are higher here for one. Say $190k vs 4x as much, $760k. Assuming magic 10% down appears in your pocket, 0% property tax, ignore the differences in state/local taxes, and assume a spherical chicken in a vacuum.... $3200/mo vs $800/mo. 4 times as much! Wow! That's a lot of money. Right? Except.. it's "only" $29k/yr. Most cost-of-living expenses don't scale with income. Now, of course, your sa…

Imho, the biggest problem (especially in the Bay Area) is that there's such a ridiculous ratio of cash buyers to available properties that even folks who have a typical 20% down payment are still having a hard time buying starter homes in desirable ("close to work") areas. For example, I have $200k equity in my current home (NC) and if I move to the San Jose area that would still require me to put in another $100-200…

You bring up a very good point about the rent "alternative" not leaving much space for savings; particularly these days. I was able to rent a 2bdr house in a very desirable location for $2k in 2011, but by 2014 when I bought a house, this was considered at least $1k under market value (even though they never raised the rent). And, of course, 3 years isn't really enough time to save for a down payment!

If 1/3 is $4000, that leaves $8000 to pay taxes (call it 2400 on 12k/mo), which leaves $5600/mo to live off of. I could deal with that.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#46

Post by rconti »

encoderer wrote: post #37
eitally wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imho, the biggest problem (especially in the Bay Area) is that there's such a ridiculous ratio of cash buyers to available properties that even folks who have a typical 20% down payment are still having a hard time buying starter homes in desirable ("close to work") areas. For example, I have $200k equity in my current home (NC) and if I move to the San Jose area that would still require me to put in another $100-200…

"I have $200k equity in my current home (NC) and if I move to the San Jose area that would still require me to put in another $100-200k of savings to "compete" for a mediocre 1500-2000sqft place near work." Do you mean you'd need that $400k down to "compete"? You would have no problem buying a $1MM home on credit with your 20% down. That would buy you a decent place in San Jose. You could also buy the same home with…

No PMI on jumbo loans. They just require cash reserves. (which, yes, is more money on top of what you have to put down, but there's no requirement that you not spend it once you close). So take that $200k, put down 100, and keep the rest in the bank.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#47

Post by hueving »

ehhuang wrote: post #41
jschoenholtz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! We'd love to get you into that penthouse... When you buy a home, your agent is paid a 2.5% commission to represent you in the transaction. As a real estate brokerage, Open Listings replaces your agent and facilitates the transaction on your behalf. At close, we refund you half of the commission we receive, usually crediting the refund against your closing costs. Here's a more detailed explanation plus a fun s…

I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?

Incumbent says competing entrant is not as good. More news to follow.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#48

Post by jschoenholtz »

hueving wrote: post #47
ehhuang wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard from multiple agents about how redfin agents don't know what they are doing. Of course, that is just one side of the story, but I'm curious about how receptive listing agents are towards working with you guys in hot markets like SF Bay area. Anything you can share?

Incumbent says competing entrant is not as good. More news to follow.

Haha - not really! Was saying that most of the criticisms directed towards Redfin agents could be applied to more generally to many real estate agents currently working in the industry.

To date, Redfin has built the best home search tools available. But they continue to reduce their refund amounts and hire agents on salary who work individually in a traditional manner. As a competing entrant, we're trying a different approach. Buyers win because they have more choices.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#49

Post by rgbrgb »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #24
rgbrgb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a California RE brokerage we join each MLS and get a direct feed from their RETS api. It's a dramatically better data feed than any of the aggregators offer and we get listings the minute they come on market (well our polling interval is more like 5 minutes). So far we have 100% coverage in San Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles. We've just joined the San Diego MLS and will have data ther…

Any plans to expand to other states?

Definitely but I can't give you a date. California is a huge diverse market though and we think it's an amazing place to prove out the model and build our offer/transaction system. So we're trying to go really deep here before expanding out.

Re: Show HN: Find a home close to work

#50

Post by yellowapple »

Where does this site get its real estate and/or distance/time data? I ended up doing an address search for my employer (which isn't on the list), but got a "No properties were found within 20 minutes of this location." despite Zillow showing dozens of red dots within 20 minutes walking distance from where I work.
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