meauxna

The search engine on that site is broken...

David Richardson

As a Realtor let me just provide two facts for you. 91% of buyers use a Realtor to find and buy a house and 85% of FSBO's end up with a Realtor inside 3 months. Much will depend on what state you live in. Here in GA the contract language changes every year and becomes more complex, financing is becoming harder and it is advisable to get potential buyers pre-approved or at least pre-qualified with a reputable lender ( Realtors have great connections here usually). About 1 in 5 deals go south even with a Realtor due to financing or inspection issues. I think it's a good idea to call 3 Realtors for a listing presentation and a price evaluation. If you want to go it alone for 60 days - go ahead and try. In GA, a Realtor would ask you for permission to show your house and have you sign an agreement to pay at least 3% commission if a sale results. So you can save 3% on the listing side at least if that occurs. If you decide on a Realtor be sure you know their marketing plan. Print and internet ads, open houses, flyers, voicepad technology, connections to relocation services etc etc. If you go for the lowest % listing, you won't get all the tools available to Realtors.

Tracym

I know my realtor told me his job wasn't to sell the house - it was to get it to closing. Judging from the amount of ruckus that ensued (and he got 4 sales/purchases through for me within a couple of months) he was sure right!

Maz

Hiya

It was absolutely wonderful! We stayed with an expat friend of mine that I got to know in France (at the vineyard that her husband owns and runs - nice!), and we also spent a week in Wellington, drove from Welly to Auckland (took the 12-hour train journey in the other direction), met a bunch of the expats from the NZ forum on here, I jumped off the Sky Tower in Auckland... it was all fab. See here for a photo of me doing the controlled wire descent, what a rush! 11 seconds at 85 kph woo hoo!

But... I'm lacking a job offer. I even applied for a position in Ireland with my employer. Long story short: without a job offer from NZIS, we can't go there and stay legally. Though if I got a job within 3 months, we could apply for Permanent Residency then, completely legally. But the area of IT I'm in is so narrow that there were only 4 jobs around on the whole of the North Island, and I interviewed for 3 of them. It's just waaaaay too risky! If I could have started straight away, our situation would have been very different. The NZ Immigration Service also downgraded by degree. I wouldn't honestly have thought that a degree awarded 18 years ago would be worth much to anyone, but because it's not in computer science, they're not counting it. So for now, our dream is over.

Oh, and I'm getting laid off at the end of May. So it sucks all round right now.

But thanks for enquiring!

Oh, and I think we'll most likely go through a realtor when we do sell. Both of us - me and USC hubby - are itching to get the hell out of the US.

I didn't realise that BuyOwner is most likely local to the Chicago area. I had just assumed it was nationwide.

CaliforniaBride

Absolutely true!

Englishmum

There is a new TV series which begins tonight (Sunday 29 April) on the HGTV channel at 10pm ET, called "Bought and Sold". It's all about how Real Estate agents work to clinch their deals and I think it's going to be very interesting to see how they work.

It's also of particular interest to me personally as the series is based in the geographic area of New Jersey where I live. The first week covers homes in West Orange (about 6 miles away) and where the inventor Thomas Edison lived. In future weeks I understand that a couple of the female realtors are covering property in the town where I live (Short Hills, part of the township of Millburn).


http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hbas

http://www.foxreality.com/news.php?id=26366&type=news

Jerseygirl

Arghhhh I'm in Toronto and would love to see this program...won't be home for 10 days or so.

BritGuyTN

well I can tell you now

One muppet gets a property listing by word of mouth/cold calling etc and sticks it on the MLS/local newspaper/own website/has open house

a buyers agent or potential buyer comes along - comes up with an offer that is rejected or countered and then often accepted

deal closes

not rocket science at all, and in fact very boring. being a commercial real estate investor is much more interesting, often no realtor to deal with and you have to deal with weirdos and commcial bankers...