J R

Debbie - Why would realtor.com care what I charge for? It has nothing to do with them. An yeah it's disgusting what I pay, I never said I have a problem paying it. I know I have to so I will. I also pay for banner ads and lots of other online marketing. That's what my business needs, so I do it.

You have no right to judge me on what I charge clients for, now do you? Let's not go there... be nice now.
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This is rather humorous: when it is our salaries that are being questioned it’s OK with you. ☺ - Earlier today

P.S. I am on vacation this week and still doing business from my laptop. Listing homes while sipping on my Myers and coke. That's the life huh! I have 4 sitting in my inbox right now that I need to post.
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I do the same thing, Fred. I rarely work weekends and spend a lot of time relaxing when the weather is nice. Other agents show my listings and sell them for me. - Yesterday, 06:04

I think you meant to say "ooops" not "opps" but not to worry, I am a mind reader, so I knew you meant NOT. Just like you meant to say i was NOT acting like a JRK. - Tue Jul 7 2009, 18:31

But it seems that many agents do like my method of helping sellers,
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(Still ignoring the JRK comment)
You can help sellers any way you want. I was wondering what is it that you "do" to help them sell their house, other than input a few keystrokes into an MLS. Is your entire business model getting homes onto the MLS? What do you do with your time during the day? Wondering because perhaps I will begin to charge folks a few hundred to put their house into the MLS and then go boating. If I do a few a week I'll have a fairly good income and a pretty good life. My needs are few and my bills are small. - Tue Jul 7 2009, 18:23

@JR - what does "rube" mean? English would be good. And we have many sellers that save THOUSANDS using our service. Very happy sellers...

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Use a dictionary. - Tue Jul 7 2009, 12:47

And........perhaps after the deal falls apart, they don't to call you back to "relist" them - they realize they need more help and call someone like me (or actually, call someone in THEIR area, rather than 3 states away who has knowledge of their market).
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Fred doesn’t care, he got paid already! Unlike us, we don’t get paid till we make a successful sale. And there’s always another rube, oops, I mean seller who thinks they’re going to save a buck, to list with him tomorrow. - Tue Jul 7 2009, 09:49

JR I agree with you, however we've had many of our clients find buyers that have no broker. Those clients saved the entire commission. Saving money is always a good thing!
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Unless the first house the click on is the first house they buy, they probably will have a broker. Many doesn't have the same meaning as "some" or "a few". Who does the negotiating, by the way? Buyer to seller direct? Love to know what percentage of your "listings" fall through. - Mon Jul 6 2009, 20:28

Justin, I ask you... WHERE are buyers looking for homes?

A. Online B. Online C. Online
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And where do most buyers come from? An agent. - Mon Jul 6 2009, 11:37

JR, I do not understand why you are replying to my post to Justin? I was not refering to you in anyway, why did you respond?
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I don’t see any posts of yours here that I responded to, can you could point it out? Then you can point out where in the rules of Trulia it says I can only respond to the person who asks the question. Thanks. - Tue Jun 30 2009, 03:41

"Clients" should buy strategies. The strategy is how we sell your house. Or how we negotiate to sell or buy. I'm not talking about secret ways that work for me and no one else. An agent who does the same things will be successful, many of them aren't aware of them or don't apply them. For example one agent wanted to change agencies because they thought that they would get higher priced listings. Most sellers don't call us. Most sellers come from referrals or prospecting. She had just sold ahouse in a high priced area, and I gave her some tips on how to get some of the neighbors to list. Another agent I know created invitations to her open house and delivered them to everyone in the neighborhood. She ended up selling to a friend of a neighbor. You thik they all eventually will know the house is for sale when the sign goes up? Think again. Some homeowner associations do not allow signs, and some people just don't notice. I listed a house once, and during the walk thru, the buyers mentioned they were going to go out to dinner with a couple who owned a local business. Turned out the seller knew that businessowner, and was actually FRIENDS with them, but hadn't mentioned their house was for sale. Since they were originally a FSBO, they could have sold the house THEMSELVES had they just talked it up to THEIR friends. As Ecclesiates says, there is nothing new under the sun. Whether another agent knows about the methods I use to sell a house or not is another issue. - Mon Jun 29 2009, 19:23

Wow! I didnt expect to get so many responses first of all. 2nd if you chose to answer that was your choice. If you didnt want to answer you didnt have to. Further more to the guy with the Coca-Cola comment, you cant be doing anything so unknown that any other good agent isnt doing., if you even apply half these strategies. Now I know what it entails, I doubt..... So stop with secret society talk.
John Palmisano lets be grown her, so what you saw me answer other post, who cares. Are you offended I didnt answer on this post. Here goes 1 for you. Are you 1 of those secret society guys to, get a grip. I learned something from all the post that the real agents that felt it was necessary to reply. They obviously take there career seriously. They also know alot of people dont respect or think highly of agents because people are ignorant to what an agent actually has to do. So rather than me be ignorant and follow those that choose not to find out, I asked. So those that felt the need not to answer the question asked and say other wise you obviously were bored and looking for something to do. Those that replied with something to educate me on thank you a great deal. I thought this site was here for this purpose. Anyhow I leanred something from this post. Thanks to all those that acutally answered. All the rest lose the cocky attitudes. Lol... U guys are unbelievable. These are adults we are talking about here. Amazing......
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Although there are no secret societies in real estate, there are some things that every agent can do that don’t differ. There are also things we can do that we don’t share around the office because we are all independent contractors, which means we are all competition and you know Macy’s didn’t tell Gimbels what they did. ☺ - Mon Jun 29 2009, 14:00

Here is the list, Do you see any sites that you know about JR
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Yes, however many are not national, and some are not used by the public to search for homes. - Sat Jun 27 2009, 16:57

"But you’re here bashing real estate agents, who REFER business to you, every day. What’s your point?"

What's up with that J R? Just what is "Bashing agents" Is it Disagreeing? Disputing a claim made? Posting a link that doesn't apply? I've seen a few agents do the same or worse.

Tell me J R, am I a Realtor Basher? Is it your opinion that I'm on the other side (a hater, a negative anti -agent)

Is it to the point where anyone who expresses a different view or disagrees with one presented by an agent is a "Basher" (LOL, was tempted to put a d on the end of the word!) Would have sounded like me saying another word after 8 or 9 relaxing shots of Tequila .

Basher Armchair Guy, Dunes
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Good grief, you oughta know, you’re an armchair quarterback! ☺

I recalled David making disparaging comments on another thread regarding commission, I thought it was the “will low commission hurt my sale” thread, and I believe he said something about our so called code of ethics, but I may be wrong. If so, I apologize.

The fact is you can’t dispute someone’s claim with irrelevant links. - Sat Jun 27 2009, 12:30

Jr, I have no idea what mlsfinder is. The lists I pulled up were real estate related but I couldn't specifically pull up just searches. on all of the sites you can do more than just search, the search information is probably tracked internaly, hits can be tracked by third parties by averages from the number of external links or by c21 giving the third parties access to track the number of hits and the entry pages along with cookie access to see if they are repeat visitors or unique. That is why I asked what his source was.

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You posted those links to counter someone’s claim that Century 21 was the #1 real estate marketing website. The link contained mlsfinder, from what I can determine this is a service realtors can use to get their listings to other sources (?). I still can’t tell. Anyway, you posted a link to prove that the poster was wrong, and the link had NADA to do with what you were trying to prove. You are in a business with a totally convoluted commission system, and from what I can determine (although I could be wrong), no code of ethics. But you’re here bashing real estate agents, who REFER business to you, every day. What’s your point? - Sat Jun 27 2009, 06:25

C21 is not the best according to hitwise: http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/main/dashboard-10133.html
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Those may be real estate related, but some of the ones I checked have nothing to do with home searches from what I could determine. What exactly is mlsfinder.com, for example? I work with many high end people from NYC who are internet savvy and I've never had this site mentioned to me now have I ever heard of it. - Fri Jun 26 2009, 14:46

As with all listings, and especially with REOs, it all depends on knowing the right people. - Earlier today

Price it agressively and make sure you are with an agency that feeds your listing to every real estate website that exists. If you've been on 75 days with one showing you are seriously overpriced.

What advice did your agent give you? Didn't you ask them this question? - Earlier today

Are you dealing directly with the homeowner? This is a great example of one of the reasons you shouldn't be.

What concessions are you looking for?

What is a "good" appraisal? I assume that means it appraises for a lot more than you're paying.

What if it's a "bad" appraisal? What happens then?

Maybe you should make a deal with the owner:
If it's a "good" appraisal, the seller doesn't have to give you any concessions.
If it's a "bad" appraisal, the seller has to lower the price you pay.

Or you just take into account any concession you may want to ask for when you make your offer and neither of you have a need to get into what the appraisal is and how much you want. - Earlier today

Our MLS goes and takes a photo if we don't, after a period of time. I don't know what listings you are referring to, perhaps if you supplied some links a local agent can explain to you why there may not be a photo.

As for signs, some HOAs do not allow signs, and some sellers do not want signs for whatever reason. - Earlier today