Austin Real Estate Guy Blog

Its amazing how many people will call the for sale sign thinking they'll get a better deal. PLEASE

Good point Sam.  I think a lot of people feel like they can get a better deal if they go directly through the listing agent.  What a mistake!  Do you think the listing agent is going to point out the listing is overpriced or potential pitfalls of the property?  I don't think so.  

My past experience of agents gives me the feeling, except for a rare few, most agents are self serving or useless. My experience suggests there is no real benefit to having your own agent. I agree on paper it sounds good, but in the real world not sure….

Here's my latest experience of using a buyers agent:

Well, when we bought the last house (we build a new house), we used a buys agent. He seemed knowledgeable, honest, lived in the same area, and was active in the HOA. All these made me feel that he would know the master plan and stuff.

One of the main reasons we bought the house was because we were under the impression we would have no neighbors in the back. Our agent was fully aware of the fact that we thought that we would have no back neighbors. He was the one who first showed us the lot, and he mentioned that we would have no back neighbors.

Well, after waiting 9-months for construction to complete we bought the house. Few months after we moved in, we realized that we were going to have neighbors behind us (there is a small green belt between us and our future neighbor in the back).

Guess either the agent was incompetent or he simply lied to make the sale.

Peter - it is unfortunate that there are people in my line of work, just as in any, that should not be.  That is why it is a good idea to find someone to work with by referral from a satisfied customer or by doing a thorough interniew.  The other thing you can do is insist that a clause is put in the Buyer's Rep agreement that the agreement can be terminated by either party with 24 hours written notice.

Sam

We used a buyer's agent in the purchase of our last home.  She assured us that our interests and hers were one and the same, and referred us to a mortgage broker who she said was professional and honest and would also be looking out for our interests first.  Based upon the fact that we thought she was looking after us, we trusted the man she referred us to (he was also listed on her website).  Well, what with what we've read about lately we've done some checking.  It turns out that the mortgage broker was bribed (or as we've learned it's called a "yield spread premium") to give us a higher-priced loan than we otherwise could have qualified for and gotten. It's safe to assume that our buyer's agent he was in in bed with was getting a piece of more than one action.  Lucky for us we found a lawyer who is going after the realtors and mortgage brokers in our area whose pillow talk has been bribe and kickback schemes.  It would be nice if the real estate community cleaned its own house of this slime, but my bet is that it will take jail time and financial ruin to fix the practice.

Melissa - I'm sorry to hear of your experience.  Loan fraud typically involves a variety of people from agent to lender to appraiser and others.  It is hard to spot and it very unfortunate to have people like praying on innocent buyers.  Please don't let that experience turn you off to real estate agents.  Reference checks and interviews are always a great thing to do.

Melissa

Sam

Reference checks?  OK.  So in the case of your website that would be the guys at Land Mortgage you refer your clients to for mortgages.

So, I looked up what I could find on your website about them, and saw an article you ran on January 5, "A Post From My Friends at Land Mortgage."  

Your guys ridiculed "so called experts" who'd forecast a housing crash (duh? See today's release from the NAR announcing the worst existing home sales stats in 8 years.) Your guys also outlined their plans for the coming year --- "an incredible opportunity to help our clients, gain new business, and increase our own production significantly...by personally contacting your customers to congratulate them on the interest saved by using an ARM, and determining if a different strategy may make sense for them at this time."

So if I take you up on your referral, I get a guy who completely misread the housing situation, who's going to congratulate me on the idiotic ARM I took out, and who now wants to sell me something even more exotic!  My question to you is simply, what do you get back from your "friends" for these pearls of wisdom and steering your clients their way?

And you want us to trust you? Of course we do.  We're looking for some oceanfront property in the Phoenix area. Maybe you and your buds at Land could put the deal together.  I mean, you're both out to "help", right?

Melissa

Hi Melissa - The post by the folks at Land back in January missed the boat when they predicted a soft landing, as many others did.  We tend to get caught up in groupthink and indeed that seems to have been the case. 

If you have not yet talked with your lender, please do.  Many lenders don't want to own real estate via foreclosure or other means.  You may very well be able to work out an adjusted payment schedule so neither of you gets hurt too much.

By the way, why did you go for an arm?  Usually that is used when the buyer thinks her income will increase before the payment increases.  Other times an ARM is used when the buyer thinks they can flip later in a rapidly appreciating market.  That is something I would not recommend in Austin as appreciation has been moderate and a flip wouldn't be a good bet.