patrick.net

Generic forms so that we can bypass realtors altogether...

elliemae says

Generic forms so that we can bypass realtors altogether…

How about a section with tips for those interested in selling by themselves (FSBO)?

ror.com has good market stats for Santa Cruz. This is a very useful service.

redfin.com is my go-to for search.

one thing existing services don't do well is showing school commutes and crime statistics. Throw in Megan's Law data for extra fun.

doubleup says

Patrick.net is a pretty good community website. Can you incorporate it?

I was thinking physical community vs virtual community but perhaps a resources page with links to useful sites such as Patrick.net would work?

Conejo .... You are on a site where most of the posters here are radical leftists. They typically hate free market capitalism and hate particularly real estate agents. Their perceived moral superiority comes through on virtually every post. Most of these people, if given a choice, would be divided only on the issue of whether or not all agents should be shot or hung, or in some cases probably both. Have fun trying to talk sense to this crowd. LOL

Ray, not all of us hate agents. When I bought my condo just over a year ago, my agent went to bat for me in looking for a loan, explained the somewhat-arcane property ownership records, negotiated with the previous owner, and even met me on my schedule and at my convenience.
It was my first purchase, and I don't begrudge him my share of his fee at all. He earned it.

Radical?
It seems to me that "radical" is Rush Limbaugh paying one million dollars to Elton John for performing at his fourth wedding ceremony, especially when Tony Orlando is always available and works cheaper, not to mention that the Captain and Tennille would probably do it just for the chips and dip alone.

mikey says

his fourth wedding ceremony

Are you sure? I thought this was his 6th.

COMPS -
recent neighborhood comps so folks can be real about the offering price

What would be of most value to buyers is extreme honesty.

What I hate is deception, and traps, and a political system which promotes deception and traps to benefit campaign donors.

If you want to help people and still make a living, then put in offers and do other work for buyers on an hourly basis. If you advertise yourself as taking no percentage commission at all, you will be able to compete with supposedly "free" agents who push people into making bad decisions.

Be hyper-honest about the deception and traps inherent in our current real estate system. That will get attention. It will probably get you fired too, but then you'll be a free agent.

Be hyper-honest about the deception and traps inherent in our current real estate system. That will get attention. It will probably get you fired too, but then you’ll be a free agent.

Great Advice Patrick. I am brand new to Real Estate but am all for as much transparency as possible. Your site has given me great insight into the public's perception of agents. Ironically, I find myself agreeing with most of their comments. Deep down inside I do feel agents can serve a legitimate service but am still in the process of determining what that is and how to best market it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JimtheRealtor has got a good schtick and if I were a buyer in SD I'd go to him w/o hesitation.

The video walkthroughs he does are most excellent. With today's video technology there is really no need to traipse through dozens of houses on the buy side.

http://www.homegain.com/

This web site looks like it already does that.

Look, when I go to open houses, the real estate agent always whips out her fancy business card and say "checkout my website, you can search MLS by zip code". I always reply, "I use REDFIN, which lets me do that and a lot more" and they always deflate with a 'OH... ok"

Point is, you are NOT going to be able to compete with sites like REDFIN, TRULIA , HOTPADS ..etc. Most of us use one of these sites, we have created accounts and setup alerts. We are not going to go to another site for the same (or even lesser) functionality.

So I'd focus on offering some thing else... LOCAL KNOWLEDGE.
If you are intimately familiar with an area, then write about it.

- Talk about possible new developments like re-zoning that will affect home prices
- analyze market trends. Analyze a sale of a house and offer why it sold for what it did (better schools, close to train tracks ..etc)
- put generally available statistics in user-friendly way. Say you can plot the CRIME RATE in your community against another city ..etc.
- etc...etc

I know a realtor who always pester me to use him as my agent. I always ask him, "what do you know about this particular area". And I usually get a hog-wash answer like 'it is close to park, blah blah'.
I am not interested in that. You will have to be able to tell me 'why you want to buy in this neighborhood as opposed to another ..etc'

The real-estate industry is at a place where travel industry was at 2000. It used to be a closed system (travel agent terminal, MLS) gave you information that none of us had. So we had to come to you. No more! How many travel agent shops do you see these days?

So, in summary, I'd say, you have to establish yourself as a 'local expert'

I agree w/you Patrick--honesty! Another thing I've encountred only rarely (besides honesty) is agents who will impart knowledge of bad builders. Agents like to say they can't talk about negative stuff they know because of liability. That's an excuse.

An agent can compile news and public records on local builders. They can link to consumer sites like www.HADD.com and www.HOBB.org which have a wealth of info and news. And, agents can learn a bit about proper construction from sites like www.buildingscience.com or www.jlconline.com and expose clients to this kind of info before they buy.

Also, very few real estate agents know or care that "home warranties" are nothing but a marketing tool. There are some very good expose's on warranties and the arbitration clauses they usually contain, and how the coverage is mostly illusory. An agent hawking home warranties would be an agent I'd avoid.

Great feedback everyone. Anything else come to mind?

CVA,

I am still looking for a realtor that can steer me to an outfit that will facilitate my rollover IRA owning a rental.

Every realtor I asked has told me something like "yes, you can do that, it is legal", followed by "what kind of house are you looking for?" when what I was looking for was a bricks and mortar trustee to get everything in place ahead of time. And then they did not want to waste their time with me because it might involve some real work.

ptiemann, thank you for the suggestion.

I was hoping there'd be a realtor who could give a personal referral based on the experiences of his own clients, open to fact sharing all the references, etc. But that would require some "real" work, (not "realtor" work).

What you have to do is go after the women. You know, the white bourgeouis bitches who didn't get the husband they wanted and now need everything else their friends have-only better.

What you want is a crime watch, or something else to scare the shit out of them so they can rationalize wasting their future security to impress people.

Realtors do, or can provide a service. What really uspets many of us is how that service has become more expensive in real dollars even as the service has become easier to the point that now:

1.) We find the house and come to you.
2.) We know what our house is worth and don't need someone to price it for sale.

What you need is a reverse auction site. Get seller's to list their houses on your site and then let buyers bid after a certain open house. If no one bids then let the price drop until a reserve is met. Then you can get your $5,000 for the service and not the 6% raped off the top.

knewbetter says

What you have to do is go after the women. You know, the white bourgeouis bitches who didn’t get the husband they wanted and now need everything else their friends have-only better.

???
knewbetter says

What you want is a crime watch, or something else to scare the shit out of them so they can rationalize wasting their future security to impress people.

???

I'm sorry??

I'll second the COMPS.

Also, you could check out Frank LLosa and what he's done with frankly real estate. It's way better than Redfin, imminently searchable and basically you can do your own comps in a short time.

He also recommends comparative realtor analysis. Check out the LA and see what their usual modus operandi is on pricing strategy.

He, and his agents are the definition of brutal honesty. Loved working with them when buying our house.

I see an number of Realtors on the forum tell what a great service they provide and the detailed info they have. Really?

Yesterday I got an e-mail from a Realtor responding to me regarding some land that I was interested in. It's an REO. Her response was that because it is an REO, it may require some work before I can move in. Raw land??!!!

She finally realized that it was undeveloped land and not a house. Lady Realtor did not even bother to read the MLS listing before sending it to me. She wanted to "help" me however, if I would like to see some other listings.

sybrib says

CVA,
I am still looking for a realtor that can steer me to an outfit that will facilitate my rollover IRA owning a rental.
Every realtor I asked has told me something like “yes, you can do that, it is legal”, followed by “what kind of house are you looking for?” when what I was looking for was a bricks and mortar trustee to get everything in place ahead of time. And then they did not want to waste their time with me because it might involve some real work.

Sybrib, I was listening to a RE show here on the local SoCal radio station one day and they were talking about RE in an IRA...........I had heard this somewhere else before and it sounded time consuming and complicated so I never got involved with trying to put my income property into IRA, but I think this company is the one they mentioned www.wealthadvisors.net once in regards to the IRA guidance.
I have never used them or talked to them and I don't know anything about them, but maybe you can get some information there or maybe they can steer you in the right direction.

shrekgrinch says

Tell us, RayAMerica…why aren’t there laws against price fixing with regards to the 6% ’standard’ commission fee, eh? I didn’t know that state-sponsored price fixing was something that should be allowed under free market capitalism.

Price fixing on ANYTHING in the market place is a violation of federal anti-trust laws. Real estate companies are allowed to have a set standard commission rate based on COMPANY POLICY. Where the violation comes in is when a company conspires with another company or companies in order set the commission rate for the market. If you know of a company that has entered into an agreement with another company in order to set "standard" commission rates, turn them in. Otherwise, it's just conjecture on your part that a law has been broken. Another similar circumstance would be the price gas stations charge for selling gasoline. Ever notice that, in any given neighborhood, they all pretty much charge the same? Is that because of anti-trust violations, or is it because the market is setting that price? Setting a price in such a way in order to be competitive with the competition may appear to be price fixing, etc., when in fact it simply keeping pace with market demands.

Liz Pendens says

knewbetter says

What you have to do is go after the women. You know, the white bourgeouis bitches who didn’t get the husband they wanted and now need everything else their friends have-only better.

???
knewbetter says

What you want is a crime watch, or something else to scare the shit out of them so they can rationalize wasting their future security to impress people.

???
I’m sorry??

You know, get chicks all saucy for your product. First make them jealous, then make them scared because we all know a scared woman is an aroused woman. Or was it scared then jealous?

RayAmerica says

Conejo …. You are on a site where most of the posters here are radical leftists. They typically hate free market capitalism and hate particularly real estate agents. Their perceived moral superiority comes through on virtually every post. Most of these people, if given a choice, would be divided only on the issue of whether or not all agents should be shot or hung, or in some cases probably both. Have fun trying to talk sense to this crowd. LOL

Ray Again I'm going to try and help you. Consider for a moment a world that is not so black and white. One in which two realities can exist. This black and white zero sum thinking is killing you.
your hate for all which is not like you,.. is sucking your sole. You're holding on to a world with both hands that is an illusion. You're are being lied to. Turn off Fox news turn off Limballs. Let go.

Do some yoga, breath, talk a walk, garden, tell someone you love them. and stop eating that fastfood.

A realtor's never going to know everything about a house, let a lone a neighborhood. I like the idea of using a municipality's bond rating as a way of telling what's going on with finances.

Real estate salespersons historically work for the seller. If you were to have a true buyer's agent (someone who knows a good deal) I would think they'd expect an even higher premium than the seller's agents, who sets a price and then waits. Besides, if a buyer's agent could identify an outstanding property, why, they'd just end up buying the house and selling it back you as their own listing. Anybody else seen this? I've called on homes to find they've been taken only to find out it was the agent I had called who bought the house.

That's kinda why they became real estate agents. Their ethical bond comes after a 3 week course, people are expecting too much from them to behave as lawyers, doctors, or priests. Also to be honest we place too much of the blame on them when we make a poor ecomomic decision. Instead of justifying a home economically, it should be considered a purely EMOTIONAL decision. Treating our homes, neighbors, streets and government as a "dollarable" investment is simply buying the lie. We use rational reasons to justify an emotional need and that's a great way to go broke, emotionally and financially.