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Posted on 04/15/2007 6:31:41 AM PDT by radar101
I have a question for those who use Zillow. I just posted my house, even though I am using an agent. The agent has done ZIP on the sale of my house, so I have been advertising on my own. If and when the house sells, I fully intend to give the realtor their commission because I AM under contract with them. They won’t be out a dime. Is it okay to use Zillow in that case? I can’t find an email or number to contact them.
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If you read what I said before that it doesn’t matter who you list your house with (unless it’s Foxton’s offering minimum wage to a realtor who sells it, hence they don’t show it) I really don’t think you need to advertise on your own.
Your house SHOULD have as many digital pictures as the Multiple Listing Service allows, digital pictures on Realtor.com and the company website, this is the BEST advertising. Also realize that ANY home advertised in ANY publication which is similar in price and or location to your house IS an advertisement for your house.
When a buyer calls on a home in your neighborhood any realtor who has been in the business for more than 2 weeks will ask if they would like to be emailed a list of ALL the homes in the area and price range that are availabe. Now the buyer can see the digital pictures, maybe drive by the homes and decide which ones they want you to see.
Advertising YOUR home does not sell YOUR home, common misconception. Also the BEST buyers are NOT looking in the paper, etc. They are ALREADY with a realtor looking at homes, have been pre-qualified for a mortgage and maybe have made an offer or two on a house already, or someone who’s home is sold already, doensn’t need their house to sell to buy, etc.
Print advertising is looked at as more of a loss leader now, because the calls you get are mostly inquisitory, quick hang ups, etc., people new to the market and not working with a realtor yet. You try and get these new leads and cultivate them but they are not nearly as close to buying as the buyers mentioned above.
What print advertising IS good for is when you go to someones house to list it you say “look, we advertise here, you’re house will be in the paper”, etc.
The truth is about 90% of the leads originate online, why? Well you get color digital pictures of the outside, the inside, the lawn, etc. It’s a nice easy way to look at a bunch of houses without even leaving your home, compare that to a black and white description in the paper.
The realtor and the broker have next to nothing do with “selling” your house. It’s the MARKET that will sell your house, if your house is priced competitively and multiple listed for all offices to show and you’re offering a full commission to the selling offices your home will get showings and will be sold. By multiple listing your home with the above parameters you will get MARKET VALUE for your home no matter how good or bad the office is, these are all gross misconceptions as to how this business works.
90% of what you’re paying for is putting your house on the Multiple Listing Service to compete in the marketplace, the other 10% is the skill of the realtor.
Who established the price? You or the realtor? Did the realtors “bid” on your listing? Meaning that they all came in high telling people what they want to hear so they can lock up the listing for 6 months. That’s why I ask people if they would like me to lie to them and give them a dog and pony show! I tell them what I actually think the home will sell for whether they like it or not, then I let THEM decide the price, whether they agree with me or not, because, well it’s THEIR house, but at least I told them the truth up front and they can’t say I puffed them up. By the way I’m right about the price almost 100% of the time, because it’s not very hard to do.
I hope these have answered your questions, don’t throw money away advertising your house, make sure it’s priced right and you’re offering a full commmission to the realtors who want to sell your home and the market will take care of the rest.
Same with the legal profession. Search the internet to find precidents. Many sites are available only to lawyers.
As for the 6% “benchmark”, how many realtors do you know who are rich? If it’s so easy why not become a realtor?? I’ve told many people who think we’re rich, well get your license, I’ll train you and on Fridays I’ll help you with the wheel barrows full of money. Don’t let me keep it all!
The reason realtors get 6% is because of the MLS cartel that costs a seller more not to have access to.
That said, I have always used a realtor to sell, and probably always will. As long as I am careful not to let their legal ignorance get in the way of a proper result.
Bingo.
Just because there are too many bored housewives who are trying to sell houses (which is what keeps most realtors from getting rich) doen NOT mean that realtors deserve their 6%.
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I haven’t gotten ONE 6% listing in the past 5 years, when I walked in the door and saw the filth and the type of people I would be dealing with I said to myself either 6% or nothing (and this was a 140K home). In the end I should have charged 10% for the nightmare that followed getting this house to close.
Realtors DO NOT get 6 percent. You don’t seem to understand this.
Typically on a 6 percent listing this is the breakdown.
1.5% Listing Agent
1.5% Listing Office/Broker
1.5% Selling Agent
1.5% Selling Office/Broker
Now start breaking that down on a 5% or 4% listing before you decree who “deserves” what.
No salary, no paid vacation, no sick days, no benefits, no pension, phone calls at all hours, you’re never “off”, all commission. Purely paid on performance, you would think conservatives would respect this a little more. When you read freerepublic at work you’re STEALING from your “boss”.
I’m the boss, when I read freerepublic the only one I’m stealing from is me.
So all of you cheap, sleazy, con artists here stealing from your boss all day stop picking on people who actually WORK for a living. LOL!!!
By the way Patent Attorneys are GROSSLY overpaid sloths who file documents based on other peoples superior intelligence and or file bogus claims for uses of other peoples patents whether they’re relevant or not, charging a ridiculous per-hour ratio and sucking every second out, even going as far as talking slowly.
Seriously though I have great idea for a patent that I want to do, contact me via freepmail.
That’s my problem. My realtor isn’t “doing.” No MLS pics (despite repeated requests), no updates on where we stand, ignores phone calls and email. It’s either I get the ball rolling or it’s not gonna happen.
That having been said, the realtor I’m working with to FIND a new home is so out of this world wonderful I am sure she’s from another planet!
Call the owner of the office and let them know. Posting digital pictures in MLS, Realtor.com, and their office site is the least they should do. The advertising still isn’t going to do anything, but with no pictures the realtors and buyers who are looking at your listing are probably suspicious that it’s a dump since there’s no pictures, hence, less people seeing your home.
I’ve tried...repeatedly. I am completely ignored. Asked about open house...nothing. Demand pics on MLS...nothing. Haven’t had one person come to look since house has been on market. Ask for updates...no answer. When I go by the office, they are never there (just the staff). I’d like to get out of this, but it’s difficult.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to derail this thread! Back to topic! :-D Apologies!!
Whether they are right or wrong, justified or not, is irrelevant to the fact that they can’t just ban an Internet company from the state, like a despot banishing a jester that displeases him. A Seattle-based company will continue to exist on the Internet, and Arizonans will continue to be able to buy their services if they wish. How silly are these people!
I've found that appraisors rely primarily on a printout of consumated selling prices of comparable homes or condos within certain miles of the place for sale. Since some houses and condos are practically given away, it lowers the average neighborhood selling prices.
There's a few other factors, of course, like square footage, etc. but painting, new appliances etal. will rarely raise the appraisal amount.
Folks shouldn't tear their hair out when they get an appraisal lower than they think it should be. It provides a base to work from. A nicely-decorated, clean house in a good neighborhood will generally sell for over the appraisal amount.
Leni
I have observed some serious problems with the mapping software that Zillow uses. They seem to know which homes in my area have sold, but they can’t place them on the map. This seems odd because their headquarters is in the same state.
Do you have trouble reading? I think the topic is appraisals. Each state has different real estate laws as per licensing, as well as those that have real educational requirements. If you have a problem with the way Arizona has their law, take it up with them.
As always in life you should get what you pay for. If a zillow estimate of value was printed on the correct type of soft paper it would have a secondary value, because non of the computer real estate valuation is worth anything.
That part and the actual condition of the property and what is around the property, IE; the magic word, location.
I have no trouble reading or comprehending whatsoever. How about you?
Leni
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
If that's the case, why not sign up with an online realtor who does nothing but set you up to be able to list your house on the MLS and have a listing on Realtor.com? We can arrange for an appraisal to give us a good fix on the market price of the house. We can have a home inspection done to give us a heads up on what needs to be done, so in case we don't want to do it, we at least will have an idea of reducing the asking price, or being willing to offer a credit at closing for those items. Then we could have an attorney familiar with real estate transactions handle the closing for us. This service does recommend offering a commission of at least 1% to any realtor who might bring a buyer.
We don't have a problem negotiating with buyers. When we sold our home in NJ, we asked the Realtor to set the asking price at the high range of comparable homes, which we'd already studied. We figured we could always go down in price, but we couldn't go higher after listing. When we received an offer which was $20K below the asking price, our realtor suggested we refuse the offer. We asked her to go back and counter offer. She argued that the amount wouldn't be accepted, but we told her to do it anyway. We did this back and forth a couple of times, and in the end, we split the difference with the buyer.
Another problem that came up was the Radon reading. We had done a Radon test, which had been offered by the town, so we knew what the level was, and that it was below that which would trigger any remediation. The buyer's realtor arranged for someone to come in and do another test, and this person put the canister in the wrong place, according to the instructions, and in a place that would automatically cause a higher reading. We complained, but the realtor just said she couldn't do anything about it. Then when the reading came back high, both sets of Realtors went into a tizzy because the buyer's lawyer told him he shouldn't buy our house because it was dangerous; it was 1 point above the lowest level at which remediation is recommended. Finally, we got tired of dealing with the drama and asked for the buyer's phone number so we could talk to him directly. His realtor didn't want to give it to us, but we persisted. We talked to him, and in 10 minutes, got it settled. He wanted the house, and knew that the radon reading was a joke. By LAW, however, we had to provide remediation. We ended up giving him $1400 at closing, which he probably pocketed because there was not a radon problem at all.
We're going to get all the info up front so there won't be any surprises, and we're going to try to sell it ourselves. It helps that we are in a very sought after area, which is the reason we bought here in the first place.
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