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Buying without an agent - books & other guides

 
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fred



Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:26 pm GMT    Post subject: Buying without an agent - books & other guides Reply with quote

Folks,

I'm not planning to buy for at least another 2 years, but I may as well use the time now to educate myself on the process. In particular, I'd like to learn about buying without an agent. I just can't wrap my head around paying someone all those thousands of dollars to guide me through the process. If it matters, I'm going to be looking in Newton.

Can anyone recommend a good book, website, seminar, etc. for the naive do-it-yourself type? I am willing to invest significant time and effort to learn what I need to learn to buy without an agent.
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WestCoastXPlant
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:00 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, the first part in buying is looking and knowing what to look for... I think a lot of that comes with just seeing a lot of properties...We've been "in the market" for two years now, even though we only got serious about buying in the last 6-8 months. This will also help you with valuing the house -- we often remember houses we like and our estimates of what they will go for. In a few months you can check a site like Redfin for the address and it will show the sale price.

Re the actual purchase mechanics of buying I would really not spare yourself a lawyer. While there's no need for someone to open doors for you and help you do comps, I personally would want a lawyer looking at anything I sign and any money that changes hands (I'd do that even with a realtor). Here is a general overview of the process
http://www.realtown.com/ardell/blog/the-escrow-process/ardells-anatomy-of-a-real-estate-transaction
but beware that this blogger is from WA and a lot of RE laws are state specific (hence, as I said, do get a lawyer when you're ready, they'll prepare the actual offer letter for you and make sure you understand timelines/steps)
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fred



Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:11 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's just no way I'd drop $1-200K without a lawyer. To do so would be nonsensical.
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Guest






PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:29 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Redfin has some good resources. You may ask on their forum, like this poster did
http://forums.redfin.com/rf/board/message?board.id=Boston&thread.id=808

I share your thoughts. First of all, there is a conflict of interests; buyers' good interest does not align with agents' good interest. Besides, I don't like the idea of negotiation that is going on behind my back and I'm not involved in it, but have a middle man conveying my offer. Call me a controll freak.
Just by asking around, people say that a GOOD realtor is priceless, but 99% of them are just NOT good.
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Brian C



Joined: 13 Feb 2009
Posts: 98

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:16 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can buy without an agent. But you MUST spend the $500-1000 and get a real estate lawyer. They will protect you from getting screwed. Once the sellers attorney knows your not using a realtor or attorney, things will get messy.

My realtor relationship was strange, I found all the houses and arranged all the viewings but once I was ready to make a offer, they took over. Between the other stuff going on with your life, you dont want to be stuck negotiating at all times of the day. Knowing my realtor was working on getting the deal to work, make it worth it.
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mpr



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 344

PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:25 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe you know this, but one thing you'll want to take care of is getting
the 2.5% commission which normally goes to the buyers agent.

This is not automatic. If you just show up and make an offer without
an agent the seller's agent will normally take the entire 2.5% amount.

What you need to do, is once you've found the house you want to make
an offer on, get a fee for service agent. They will make the offer for you,
charge you by the hour for negotiation, paper work etc, but refund
up to the entire buyer's commission to you. Of course if the deal falls
through you still have to pay them, but thats the risk you run.
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fred



Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:18 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a compromise, has anyone used Redfin?
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WestCoastXPlant
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:58 pm GMT    Post subject: Reply with quote

We have but ended up not purchasing with them. We looked into it on the advice of a friend who said they were OK, not great, but worth the rebate.

We put in an offer through them on a house listed at 400K. What is buried in the find print is that they have a minimum commission of 5K, so your refund is really 1/3 - (5K-2/3). I.e. if 2/3 of the agents commission is less than 5K, they'll take that out of the rebate. We offered 370K on the house so rebate came out to something like 2K...still better than 0 but nothing to write home about.
It took us a full day to get hooked up to an agent. Then said agent had a day off but got back to us when they were back. Talked on the phone and agent was informative but had a "I know this just listen to me cause I'm busy" attitude. As a type A personality this didn't sit well with me at all -- I like to know all the details of how things work and why something is better (our particular argument revolved around a preapproval letter -- I wanted to present something showing we can cover the offer price, agent was insisting we demonstrate we can pay the asking price).

Then the agent called back saying that the house had an accepted offer. I emailed back asking for an explanation of what that means (since it was not "Under agreement") and never heard back. This was the end of my Redfin relationship. Ironically the "accepted offer" on that house fell through and had we put a backup offer on the house -- which the Redfin agent should have brought up as an option(that's what a listing alert means -- they have an accepted offer but no signed P&S so they are accepting backups), we would have bought the house since our initial offer was over what the house sold for (sales record just came up).

All in all, they were great for us on the West coast but supply there is huge and they have many more agents. In light of my experience here, I really wouldn't recommend them to anyone...unless maybe you're shopping for an 800K house and rebate + huge supply make them a good choice. (Im bringing the supply issue because if you're shopping for a 400-500K house in say, Newton, having a 2 day turnaround to an agent will not work well for you).

FWIW we decided to hire an agent we really liked at an open house. She has done a ton of work so far and I don't for a minute regret losing 2K on account of her...She is literally on the phone for us 24/7 and would sometimes send us email at midnight saying "I haven't heard anything yet, will call selling agent again as soon as I wake up"...And yes, she does cater to my A-retentive personality even though most of my questions actually end up with the lawyer anyway Rolling Eyes
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