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.