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BROKERS Early results show Bob Vila's "Guide to Buying Your Dream House" recommended multiple times, along with "find a competent buyer broker and hang on." I had already suggested a buyer's agent, but it's always nice to hear seconds. On the next level of detail, broker recommendations: Scott S. wrote: And of course, The Real Estate Cafe (http://www.realestatecafe.com) offers a la carte services, including do-it-yourself MLS searches for $25/hr. -dca OTOH, the $10-20k in fees is a significant incentive to give it a go. Ahh, but only for the seller; at least in the fine state of Massachusetts, the buyer's agent splits the cut with the seller's agent, and all of it is paid for by the seller. So *if* you can find a good buyer's agent, it can only help, and doesn't cost anything directly. On the other hand, we got a good discount from the seller because he didn't have to pay an agent's fee. >So the request for advice becomes one about FSBOs. Has anyone bought or sold a house without the "benefit" of an agent? Yes, the house that Theresa and I bought last year didn't have an agent involved on either side of the transaction. It didn't seem to make much difference to the transaction itself; the closing procedure and paperwork is dictated far more by the financers than the agents. (Someday, I'd like to buy a house with no real estate agents and no financers involved, just to see how minimal the process can get.) *However*, we did retain a sharp real estate attorney to protect our interests. The classic agent function of connecting the buyer and seller also wasn't relevant, as Theresa and I already knew the seller. (We were, in fact, renting the house already!) If Theresa and I ever decide to sell this house, we'll probably give it a go without a real estate agent, which is, I think, a far more trepidacious undertaking. We'll be sure and let folks know how it goes. --andrew Rick and I are working now with Alex Troy, from the Arlington DeWolfe office. We haven't closed a sale through her yet, but we like her style and judgement thus far. -Vonnie The other thing I would suggest in terms of protecting yourself is making sure that the P&S agreement has all of the "outs" you need (if the financing falls through, if the house inspector finds serious problems, etc.). Getting a good housing inspector is probably far more important in terms of protecting yourself than assuming that the realtor (which normally has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, **not** to the buyer) will point out serious problems --- since often the realtor might not even know about them until the inspector figures out that a certain 1x2 is (or has become) a structural member.... (And even then a good house inspection might not catch everything; for example if said structural 1x2 is behind some drywall). - Ted On the other hand, when we sold our house, the buyers yanked us AND the Realtor(tm) around over the house inspection. I'll never accept another purchase offer contingent on a house inspection. You want it inspected, you get it inspected, and you make your offer based on the results. --russ nelson Polly Drinkwater was my buyer's agent. She knows elboids/suspects people, and has been buyer's agent for at least 5 or 6 of us. She knows we like to know what's going on, and we're intelligent, so treats us that way. 617-864-8566, polly@tiac.net, tell her you are part of the suspects community, and say hi from me. Polly mostly finds places in Cambridge/Somerville, but can help with other (closer) communities as well, since I was looking in Arlington/Medford. I had one week to find a house, and just less than 2 months til I had to move in (long story). Sat-Sun I went to many open houses from newspaper ads, Polly couldn't come along cuz she had other houses to show. She gave me hints to look for, however. Then Monday we sat down, and she pointed me at places from the MLS, she went with me to places I had seen over the weekend, and I got a couple more houses to drive by and look at. Tues I told her I wanted to see the house I eventually bought, it was the 2nd or 3rd house we looked at together. Tues she wrote up the offer, gave me good advice about what to offer, and submitted it. Her offer included the date of the closure, which was a mere 6 weeks from the day of the offer (from what I hear, the absolute shortest time possible). She also got me to a mortgage person who could in a matter of like 2 hours get me totally approved for a loan. Wed it was accepted, Thursday she got a house inspector to look it over, and Friday I had the report from house inspector and finalized a few other things (like a different bank for the loan). When my week of frantic house searching was over, I knew where I was getting my loan from, I had been approved for the loan (from 2 mortgage companies) and was quite certain things were flying along quite nicely.. To top it all off, I believe she got married in between the time I made my offer and the time I closed on the house. Hints: be ready to put down at least 10-20% as a down payment, get a pre-approved loan, and be ready to wait a bit for a house inspector (I got lucky). --karyn >On the other hand, when we sold our house, the buyers yanked us AND the Realtor(tm) around over the house inspection. I'll never accept another purchase offer contingent on a house inspection. You want it inspected, you get it inspected, and you make your offer based on the results. Not always practical. When and where I bought my place, houses were on the market for 1-2 days, tops. Offers -had- to be placed without an inspection (though just about all were contingent upon it), because there was simply no time at all to get an inspector in to see any given property. Doing so guaranteed that it would go to someone else. --Lenny I sort of find this amusing. Back In The Day, if you had something that sold that fast, you had the price set too low. We've already had someone actually knock on our door and ask to buy to the house, for 20% more than we paid for it a year before. We declined, but it did give us warm fuzzies for when we -do- wana sell it. --Dave Belfer-Shevett |
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