Real estate sales is an industry rife with anti-competitive and corrupt practices. Appraisals, home inspections, lending, and sales are all in it together on this. I absolutely loathe them.
Home inspections aren't compulsory are they? I thought that they weren't even required by lenders. Of all the things listed they sure seem like real value to the buyer. If you're not borrowing to purchase a home you probably wouldn't need an appraisal. I think lenders just want objective evaluation of the collateral. Who can blame them?
They won’t catch much anyway. Most inspectors take a short stroll through the house, test one or two receptacles and call it a free $400 after that. Their visit is shorter than when you looked at the house.
Maybe there’s good reputable inspectors. Ours weren’t
Now we just need an explanation of how the hell appraisers come up with their numbers. Not only is it functionally useless to ask someone to measure fair market value of an asset that already has someone offering to buy it at a specific price, the appraisals seem to come in ridiculously close to offer price every time. I've had to deal with around 8 appraisals over the years as buyer or seller, I only had one that di…
the appraisals seem to come in ridiculously close to offer price every time. Few people make wild offers unrelated to the market price and even if they do, sellers rarely accept them. So it makes sense that the appraisal usually comes close to the offer price since both the buyer and seller usually do at least some research of looking around at comparable sales. Though I saved $25K on a house once when the appraisal…
I had similar, however that was 6 years ago or so when the market was just starting to heat up. The appraisal looked at previous sales, but there was such low inventory that there weren't many comps to compare to, and none of them recent. The seller wouldn't come down much, so in order to make up the difference I had to cut into my down payment (which means instead of 20% down it was only 11% down, as only the appraised value counted toward my LTV and I got stuck with PMI for a few years).
Good job. Now do the Collective Refusal to Deal commited by the Texas Apartment Association. They require every apartment complex in Texas to use the same contract. That's a criminal violation of Texas' anti-trust laws, specifically it's a Collective Refusal to Deal.
Lots of people hating on realtors here, but my buying realtor: - Put up with me through several offers that fell through due to issues with the house - Met me quickly several times to see houses in a very hot market (covid) - Constantly found me homes that met my criteria - Was able to "get the dirt" on the homes and give me good advice for the homes that fell through, not pressuring me to buy And my selling realtor,…
That's all great. And nobody's saying don't pay realtors for their work. They're saying, certainly don't pay them 6%, and preferably not a percentage at all. Just pay them like a contractor or anyone else you hire -- either a flat fee or by the hour, depending on the exact services.
Fully agree. Another option would be to add some incentive structure. If I know I can selly home for $200k myself and you sell it for $200k...your value to me was basically $0. If you can sell it for $300k, then I'd be pretty happy to give you a nice chunk of that. 6% no matter what is crazy.
There's an article I've been meaning to write for a while called Death to the Salesmen. I've spent a large part of my career working on products for insurance agents, real estate agents, and car salesmen. My experience has left me with one conclusion: we should eliminate most of these jobs. They're about as predatory toward the customer as they come, adding little value in most cases. There are certainly cases where…
A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…
Aren't fees in most countries higher than they are in the US?
I know there are many countries with lower fees - but my understanding is that realtors in the US aren't exactly highway robbers, comparatively speaking...
Lots of people hating on realtors here, but my buying realtor: - Put up with me through several offers that fell through due to issues with the house - Met me quickly several times to see houses in a very hot market (covid) - Constantly found me homes that met my criteria - Was able to "get the dirt" on the homes and give me good advice for the homes that fell through, not pressuring me to buy And my selling realtor,…
A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…
If a buyer’s agent gets any percentage of a sale, the buyer’s agent and the buyer have misaligned interests. They might ‘represent’ the buyer, but the buyer’s agent has the same economic incentives as the seller (higher price, faster sale, fewer contingencies).