Pierre Calzadilla

1) Your first line says it all "a 2.5% or 3% commission" - How does the broker know that you will actually pay what you have "agreed" to.

2) I have never black-balled a FSBO and never heard of it happening in the last 7 years of my personal experience.

3) Agents are not paid to advertise your home, clearly you misunderstand the role of an agent, it is to protect interests, follow housing laws, negotiate and get the property closed, among several other things: coordinating showings, pre-approving buyers, doing the walk-throughs, pricing the home right - please if agents only got paid for advertising, you would not pay a commission, you would pay a fee. Commission is based on a successful sale, not running ads. It just so happens that agents/brokers will spend $1,000's of dollars marketing a home that they may never sell, with no recourse for the lost funds.

4) too greedy in a slow market, LOL - oh man that is rich. It is the hardest time to sell homes now, agents price homes properly and are working their hardest when the market is tough. Perhaps your home is just overpriced? Why work on selling a home that has HUGE risk for the agent and is likely overpriced?

5) Sellers reduce price, agents lose commission too - you may want to do some research into the average price of a home sold by a broker, and the average sold by FSBO.

6) People buy things "buy owner" to save money - they see you as a deal... They expect even more taken off your house because you AREN'T paying a commission, so the buyers want you to be priced even LESS than a home listed in the MLS - substantially less.

Best of luck! - Mon Jul 14 2008, 09:05

Wow, this is a tough one Afs. Only because you are right -you need an expert really to buy a foreclosure. There are lists avialable - free from the government, of FHA approved brokers, I placed the link below. This is the official government HUD/FHA site, these are real foreclosures that are bought on a bidding process, specifically for first time homebuyers, these are also approved for special financing like 3-5 % down. Hope this helps. - Tue Jun 24 2008, 08:50

Jed answered this absolutely correctly. Some neighborhoods in Brooklyn have dropped 5-10% over the last year, while others went up 5-10%. NYC real estate, especially in the boroughs can be a zip code by zip code affair. Even block by block.

If you drive down a street in Brooklyn, property types change drastically and that can affect pricing. For example, one block will literally have mansions on it and the next one will have 2-3 family homes, then after that a commercial strip, then a huge apartment building. This can occur in a period of 3 blocks in one zip code - the prices will be drastically different and in a downturn, the mansions could rise in value, while the co-ops condos drop, or vice versa.

You need to look at property type, zip code, access to public transportation, the last 6 months of sales, and the last 5 weeks of listings that have expired, or gone to contract to see if the price is right. An experienced savvy agent can help you navigate the NYC real estate scene. In this market of opportunity, you need one. - Wed Jun 18 2008, 08:20

Hey there, I actually live in this market, and I sold real estate here for several years. I can tell you that bensonhurst is very "sticky" the condos here are over built and feeling the market pressure, but demands for homes is still very strong. In the end, i can not give you advice, i can only say that you should look at the market and a local active agent to get comparison properties. Look at what sold, what is available and what has NOT sold, so you can see how this home is positioned. The real estate "burst" has already hit Brooklyn - the key thing is that it is a neighborhood by neighborhood market, not the borough. Downotwn Brooklyn has gone up, while other markets have totally collapsed. Bensonhurst is pretty level, again Condos were hit hard due to overbuilding, lack of demand and lack of mortgage product. - Wed May 28 2008, 11:29

Hi there Susie!, Trulia also just added school information with parents reviews! See the link below for info on the RYE school district - for example. - Fri Mar 14 2008, 07:20