Buying a house in the US
Jan 23rd 2005, 6:22 pm
#61
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Re: Buying a house in the US
Seems a lot of people have their Realtors license.
In CO if you divide the number of property sales by the number of people you come up with just over 2. It can be a very long wait between deals.
Getting on the MLS is the big thing, I just can not believe the current system can last.
In CO if you divide the number of property sales by the number of people you come up with just over 2. It can be a very long wait between deals.
Getting on the MLS is the big thing, I just can not believe the current system can last.
Jan 24th 2005, 12:33 am
#62
Septicity
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 23,762
Re: Buying a house in the US
Originally Posted by Boiler
Seems a lot of people have their Realtors license.
In CO if you divide the number of property sales by the number of people you come up with just over 2. It can be a very long wait between deals.
Getting on the MLS is the big thing, I just can not believe the current system can last.
In CO if you divide the number of property sales by the number of people you come up with just over 2. It can be a very long wait between deals.
Getting on the MLS is the big thing, I just can not believe the current system can last.
Jan 24th 2005, 8:35 am
#63
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: the land of make believe
Posts: 10,528
Re: Buying a house in the US
Originally Posted by fatbrit
For many relators it's a second job. It's popular with school teachers during the school holidays, popular with stay-at-home mums during school term time. Even know a flight attendant who dabbles in it during time off.
Jan 25th 2005, 12:55 am
#64
Ping-ponger
Joined: Jul 2002
Location: Dreich Alba
Posts: 12,006
Re: Buying a house in the US
Originally Posted by emmals
yeh it seems to be a big thing in the us.....my parents neighbour is a realtor and is always trying to flog us a house whenever we go over....you say to them oh we couldn't aford that then he goes and finds out how we could.....americans just like getting into debt it is the thing to do over there i think
When I clicked on "Submit", up popped a message "Your details have been sent to one of our affiliated brokers, who will be contacting you soon.."
So far I have received three emails and two phone messages from this woman who I didn't ask to contact me. Part of me says the polite thing to do would be call or email her back and explain that I'm not interested in selling or buying - but then I indicated this in the online form I filled in. I don't feel like being polite to someone who send me uninvited emails and messages. Grrr..
Jan 25th 2005, 12:59 am
#65
Septicity
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 23,762
Re: Buying a house in the US
Originally Posted by dunroving
I've recently had yet another reminder of how the realtor business works here. I got online to a Web site that said it would give you a simple valuation of your house based on location, number of bedrooms, etc.
When I clicked on "Submit", up popped a message "Your details have been sent to one of our affiliated brokers, who will be contacting you soon.."
So far I have received three emails and two phone messages from this woman who I didn't ask to contact me. Part of me says the polite thing to do would be call or email her back and explain that I'm not interested in selling or buying - but then I indicated this in the online form I filled in. I don't feel like being polite to someone who send me uninvited emails and messages. Grrr..
When I clicked on "Submit", up popped a message "Your details have been sent to one of our affiliated brokers, who will be contacting you soon.."
So far I have received three emails and two phone messages from this woman who I didn't ask to contact me. Part of me says the polite thing to do would be call or email her back and explain that I'm not interested in selling or buying - but then I indicated this in the online form I filled in. I don't feel like being polite to someone who send me uninvited emails and messages. Grrr..
Jan 25th 2005, 1:43 am
#66
Pagan Sex God
Joined: May 2002
Location: Living in Oblivion
Posts: 3,668
Re: Buying a house in the US
Email or call the firm she works for, ask for the broker in charge and request not to be contacted anymore. He should send an email to everyone in the company requesting them not to contact you.
Originally Posted by dunroving
I've recently had yet another reminder of how the realtor business works here. I got online to a Web site that said it would give you a simple valuation of your house based on location, number of bedrooms, etc.
When I clicked on "Submit", up popped a message "Your details have been sent to one of our affiliated brokers, who will be contacting you soon.."
So far I have received three emails and two phone messages from this woman who I didn't ask to contact me. Part of me says the polite thing to do would be call or email her back and explain that I'm not interested in selling or buying - but then I indicated this in the online form I filled in. I don't feel like being polite to someone who send me uninvited emails and messages. Grrr..
When I clicked on "Submit", up popped a message "Your details have been sent to one of our affiliated brokers, who will be contacting you soon.."
So far I have received three emails and two phone messages from this woman who I didn't ask to contact me. Part of me says the polite thing to do would be call or email her back and explain that I'm not interested in selling or buying - but then I indicated this in the online form I filled in. I don't feel like being polite to someone who send me uninvited emails and messages. Grrr..
Jan 25th 2005, 1:55 pm
#67
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Location: Arizona
Posts: 961
Re: Buying a house in the US
Originally Posted by Boiler
Well you might want to get a Realtor......
First caveat the details vary from state to state, with that being said and with my experiance being mainly Colorado:
Estate Agents = Realtors but they also do some of the work a Solicitor would do in the UK.
Sometimes it seems like everybody who I speak to knows one, has a friend/ relation who is one or was one at some point in their life.
They are licensed by a State Board and have to pass an exam, not sure how hard that can be.
Usually you have a Realtor for the Sellor and one for the Buyer. Both are paid from the proceeds of the sale, here it is just over 7%.
Most if not all States have a Mutiple Listing Service, MLS. Search under MLS and your State. This a data base with all Realtor properties on it, usually there will be some additional information only the Realtor can get.
Despite the high comission most sales have Realtors involved, there are SellByOwner and variants but I think well over 95% of the Houses we saw were with Realtors.
The Buyers realtors does all the hard work, they have to take you around, usually there are lock boxes on the doors and the people selling will vacate for an hour whilst you and your Agent look around.
I would suggest spending a couple of weekends first going around the open houses in the areas you are looking at.
The market where we are is flat, I also used the local County web site because I could find out what the local County appraiser had valued the houses at, not just the ones on the market but also in areas we were looking at but did not have the house we wanted on the market at the time.
I had a long chat with our local Appraise the other day, here they revalue every 2 years, legally they are required to be within 5% of the market value at the valuation date, they reckon on average to be within 1%. This is not a perfect measure but if someone wanted a lot more than tax I would be wondering why.
I had big arguements with our Realtor about this, she was more interested in Comparables, but in most cases my methodology worked out OK.
We met our Realtor at an Open House, we appointed her in the end for 2 reasons I think, she was not so pushy as many we had come across and she got on well with my wife!
First caveat the details vary from state to state, with that being said and with my experiance being mainly Colorado:
Estate Agents = Realtors but they also do some of the work a Solicitor would do in the UK.
Sometimes it seems like everybody who I speak to knows one, has a friend/ relation who is one or was one at some point in their life.
They are licensed by a State Board and have to pass an exam, not sure how hard that can be.
Usually you have a Realtor for the Sellor and one for the Buyer. Both are paid from the proceeds of the sale, here it is just over 7%.
Most if not all States have a Mutiple Listing Service, MLS. Search under MLS and your State. This a data base with all Realtor properties on it, usually there will be some additional information only the Realtor can get.
Despite the high comission most sales have Realtors involved, there are SellByOwner and variants but I think well over 95% of the Houses we saw were with Realtors.
The Buyers realtors does all the hard work, they have to take you around, usually there are lock boxes on the doors and the people selling will vacate for an hour whilst you and your Agent look around.
I would suggest spending a couple of weekends first going around the open houses in the areas you are looking at.
The market where we are is flat, I also used the local County web site because I could find out what the local County appraiser had valued the houses at, not just the ones on the market but also in areas we were looking at but did not have the house we wanted on the market at the time.
I had a long chat with our local Appraise the other day, here they revalue every 2 years, legally they are required to be within 5% of the market value at the valuation date, they reckon on average to be within 1%. This is not a perfect measure but if someone wanted a lot more than tax I would be wondering why.
I had big arguements with our Realtor about this, she was more interested in Comparables, but in most cases my methodology worked out OK.
We met our Realtor at an Open House, we appointed her in the end for 2 reasons I think, she was not so pushy as many we had come across and she got on well with my wife!
