patrick.net

Jon,

Yeah, even though I'm in my late 40's I get that assbag garbage too. The bottom line is that I can't change what college costs these days. The only thing I can do about the cost of RE is to complain about here and to anyone that will listen. (But I feel better about it everyday) We've talked my oldest daughter out of buying for now (no dear, we won't be dissapointed if you are not decorating a nursery). The only thing I can do for them is to teach them to absolutely minimize the use of debt leveraging and then show them ways to deal with that debt in a sane an responsible manner. Believe me younger people are not oblivious to the cost of living and if you've got a plan they're open to it!

I bought a '68 RS Camaro convertible from the original owner in 2000 for $6k, kept it 4 years, put about 1K in it and sold it for 14K. The thing is that car is now worth 25K easy. Ahhhh free money from the house ATM. Magic I tell you, and richly deserved. What can I say, either the 30-40 yo crowd waits until the great boomer die off, moves out of state, or resigns oneself to being an indentured servant. The boomers have a full nelson on the housing market/economy and they aren't going to let go until they vi@gra fueled boner goes down. I'm predicting sometime in late 2015, give or take.

ScottC
ScottC

Greetings from total FOOL. I bought 2 houses without an agent several years ago. But then, the sellers had no agents either.

You are assuming buyer's agents work for the buyer. They are typically paid from the seller's commission and thus first and formost are interested in closing the sale. Second is selling the house for as high a price as possible. A buyer's agent is just as likely to work to convince the buyer to "come up" as to convince the seller's agent to get her client to "come down."

I have a Supra Turbo I bought new in 91 and still drive. I think it's nice, but I did not think it would be a classic. I got a good deal on it, since 1991 was when the Savings and Loan collapse occured, and car loans were hard to get. With Joe HowMuchAmonth out of the picture I was able to crank down the dealer price.

I hope something like this happens with houses.

Welcome back, Scott C.

Funny you should recommend buyers using an agent vs. sellers. The board seems to be running unanimously in the opposite direction: they recommending sellers using an agent, while buyers use a good RE attorney to look over the contract.

I have far less experience than most of the people on this board, many of whom have bought and sold homes several times, but this seems to make more sense to me. I can't really see what value a buyer's agent brings to the transaction, other than take his cut of the 5-6% commission (which of course makes the seller's agent reluctant to steer their clients to you). Both agents don't get paid until a sale is made, and both get paid based on a % of the sale price, so basically BOTH are really representing the seller's interests (getting maximum $$ for the place).

Posted before I refreshed the screen and saw Headset's reply --we basically said the exact same thing.