View Full Version : real estate around the country
Ok, so most of you will be bored with this thread, but some of you may have some good ideas... as you know, the real estate boom has come to an end and we are left with a LOT of listings right now with very few buyers compared to the past 5 years...
Do you have any good ideas that real estate offices could offer to entice you to buy? (Sorry, not talking about the interest rates here)
If you were looking to buy a house right now, what would get you to make the leap and purchase it?
The Notorious LOL
07-18-2006, 03:52 PM
beer! free beer!
beastiegirrl101
07-18-2006, 03:54 PM
I prank called your office today.
I am actually looking into buying property within the next year or so, to be honest I am waiting for the market to keep going down...most people who are interested in buying a home right now are doing the same I would imagine.
I know its no help, and you already know this I am sure. But, on this subject...is it true he market will be down by 25% by the end of the year?
Well, in places like Reno, where we were seeing 40% increases in value each year... the forecast says that we will only see 15% this year. Still a good return when you compare to other investments. Other states are not so lucky.
b i o n i c
07-18-2006, 04:17 PM
I was thinking of starting a thread like this myself. My dad offered to let me borrow some equity on their house if I could come up with a good real estate deal. Mind you I don’t make a lot of money, so im looking for something that I could pay off with the help of tenants or room-mates. Ive really kicked this into high-drive and am getting serious about learning. I need help! Foreclosures? I don’t know where to start really… all I know is that I want to make it happen…. Anyone done this before?
JimmyTheScumbag
07-18-2006, 04:19 PM
Turn Open houses to "Open Whore Houses".
Let's say I were a real estate agent looking to build my client base, and I have a friend with a house worth $750k, and they list said house with me for $500k.
I'm gonna get some calls, calls from people who might not have agents, now I can offer my services to them. Oh yeah, the guy who listed the house they are inquiring about decided not to sell.
Is this illegal?
My wife passed her test for Illinois. Thanks again for answering my queries.
Congrats on the passing of said test. I'm sure she memorized tons of useless information and really should purge it as quickly as possible. For the child's sake.
bionic - I think each state has different laws and regulations on foreclosures. You could google 'real estate foreclosures' and enter your state in the search to see what turns up. With foreclosures, many times there's an auction where you are obviously competing with others for the same property, especially in a growing area. Looking for a fixer-upper (if you're handy) may be a good start, but if you have the roommates to help out with the mortgage, then you've got yourself an ideal situation. Props to your father for offering to start you out.
JimmyTheScumbag
07-18-2006, 04:30 PM
What about the half-shady marketing idea?
cj hood
07-18-2006, 04:45 PM
Ok, so most of you will be bored with this thread, but some of you may have some good ideas... as you know, the real estate boom has come to an end and we are left with a LOT of listings right now with very few buyers compared to the past 5 years...
Do you have any good ideas that real estate offices could offer to entice you to buy? (Sorry, not talking about the interest rates here)
If you were looking to buy a house right now, what would get you to make the leap and purchase it?
free inspection of the home by a reputable company....that was expensive.....but it was peace of mind!
b i o n i c
07-18-2006, 05:06 PM
bionic - I think each state has different laws and regulations on foreclosures. You could google 'real estate foreclosures' and enter your state in the search to see what turns up. With foreclosures, many times there's an auction where you are obviously competing with others for the same property, especially in a growing area. Looking for a fixer-upper (if you're handy) may be a good start, but if you have the roommates to help out with the mortgage, then you've got yourself an ideal situation. Props to your father for offering to start you out.
all the foreclosure stuff that comes up on google looks scammy. all sites you have to pay to join... so far i've heard that i should go directly to the banks, make friends with bankers and brokers. making friends with brokers is easy, bankers not so hard. props to my dad, yeah. its a very risky offer for him to make. i wanna make this happen so bad.
What about the half-shady marketing idea?
haha
i live in nevada -you don't think that's been done before?
kidding.
but, we did have one guy who wanted to put a free drink pass on the back of his business card to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch...
whore.
paul jones
07-18-2006, 05:17 PM
Ok, so most of you will be bored with this thread, but some of you may have some good ideas... as you know, the real estate boom has come to an end and we are left with a LOT of listings right now with very few buyers compared to the past 5 years...
Do you have any good ideas that real estate offices could offer to entice you to buy? (Sorry, not talking about the interest rates here)
If you were looking to buy a house right now, what would get you to make the leap and purchase it?
I just want a house that is nice and in a nice area and won't cost me years of financial depression
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 06:21 AM
Maybe go after the portion of renters who like city life by appealing to the fact that they can own a house in a city neighborhood and still have access to shopping, parks, bookstores, activities. In other words, maybe sell them away from the suburban life. Make them realize that they can own a cool house without necessarily having that mean that they're drifting toward a suburban lifestyle. Because to me, suburbia thoughts make me cringe and I suspect that a lot of renters are like that as well.
I live in a neighborhood in the city and there are interesting shops and restaurants and movie houses all within a block or two of my house so I can walk to all of those places. It's a fairly liberal section of town and that appeals to me. I also work two miles from where I live, so I can walk to work too. It's like having the best of the apartment type of living (access to stuff) and having the savings as well by owning. Getting a house in a neighborhood like that is the only way it would have worked for me to have gone from an apartment to a house.
Funky Pepp
07-19-2006, 07:05 AM
Ok, so most of you will be bored with this thread, but some of you may have some good ideas... as you know, the real estate boom has come to an end and we are left with a LOT of listings right now with very few buyers compared to the past 5 years...
Do you have any good ideas that real estate offices could offer to entice you to buy? (Sorry, not talking about the interest rates here)
If you were looking to buy a house right now, what would get you to make the leap and purchase it?
I don't know what it's like in the USA, but in Germany it's like that: if you put up a credit for an estate, the monthly rates you have to pay for that are not much higher than the rent for a comparable house/apartment. So, if you got the credit-worthiness to get a credit from any bank, it'd be even stupid to rent an apartment, cause after lets say 5 years you'd already own at least a part of the estate. Whereas if you stay in a rented apartment, you lose the money for every rent with nothing in return. Plus, if you buy a house you can sell it if you're old, and enjoy a secure eventide.
DipDipDive
07-19-2006, 07:16 AM
If you were looking to buy a house right now, what would get you to make the leap and purchase it?
Lower prices.
Yes, the market has changed significantly, and sellers need to start acknowledging that. It's not the market that it was last year, therefore sellers aren't going the get the same prices for their houses as they would have a year ago, and agents need to start being honest with them about that.
Marketing gimmicks won't compensate for the fact that interest rates have increased and the economy is in the shitter. Yet sellers still have dillusions of grandeur.
DipDipDive
07-19-2006, 07:57 AM
Have you thought about cutting a % off of the reps. commission?
hahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
Have you thought about cutting a % off of the reps. commission?
I just got a house a couple of weeks ago. My real estate agent paid for the home inspection, got the seller to pay 90% of the closing costs (which is pretty normal around here), and put $2,700 out of his commision towards the rest of our closing costs. Then again, he is a really good friend of mine.
Laver1969
07-19-2006, 08:07 AM
Offer some free "Real Estate 101" classes on why it is still a great financial decision...even though the market has slowed down quite a bit.
You can also include some of the value-add types of items. Free home inspection, 1-year warranty, low/no closing fees, voucher for free moving-truck rental.
Offer some free "Real Estate 101" classes on why it is still a great financial decision...even though the market has slowed down quite a bit.
voucher for free moving-truck rental.
ooooo i like those two.
DipDipDive
07-19-2006, 08:10 AM
I just got a house a couple of weeks ago. My real estate agent paid for the home inspection, got the seller to pay 90% of the closing costs (which is pretty normal around here), and put $2,700 out of his commision towards the rest of our closing costs. Then again, he is a really good friend of mine.
This is happening more and more because agents are getting just as desparate to sell as sellers, but actually advertising a reduced commission is a recipe for disaster, especially as a seller's agent.
That's cool that he did that for you though. That's the best way to build a good reputation.
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 08:32 AM
The real cost of owning a home doesn't come in the down payment or the closing costs/legal costs. It's in maintenance and in the investment of your time in keeping the house standing.
I know some people who have those little peg boards in their basements and they have their tools and nails and stuff all organized and they're fairly and reliably handy and they can do plumbing. Those people? ...good homeowners. People like me? ...bad homeowners. I don't know how to do anything other than call for a repairman and then I lose time when I'm waiting for him to not show. And when one does show, I have to pay for that and it's usually a lot. I clear my own snow, cut my own grass, rake & mulch my own leaves; that's the extent of the home-ownery types of things that I [know how to] do.
That other stuff is expensive in terms of time & money. I don't know that most perspective homeowners realize that, though. They follow the guidelines that tell them how much they can afford (1/4 or 1/3 of their combined income...I forget but there's some metric) and they compute the closing costs and then look at the monthly mortgage and insurance rates and then the computations pretty much stop there.
If I would have bought the house that I "could" have afforded (this inner-city farm-house on a double-lot, a mile from where I worked) I would have had to have eaten mac & cheese every day for the rest of my life. The taxes alone on that double-lot would have done me in and I knew that but the numbers crunched perfectly and my agent tried to talk me into it. I'm glad I listened to my gut feeling about that.
jabumbo
07-19-2006, 09:06 AM
sherrif's sales!
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 09:09 AM
sherrif's sales!Oh God, I don't know that I could ever do that. It would feel so much like I stole someone's home right out from under them.
Plus I'd be worried about somone being all bitter about it and fucking with my house.
Kind of like that movie with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer "Thick Eybrows" Connely.
hpdrifter
07-19-2006, 10:02 AM
Around here its still booming. A friend of mine bought a condo 10 months ago for $325,000. Its now worth $380,000.
Its passing me by and I can't catch up! I want to buy a home desparately, but its just moving too fast and outstripping me.
Have you thought about cutting a % off of the reps. commission?
Well, the buyer doesn't pay the agent's commission to begin with. The seller does, so cutting commission doesn't bring in more buyers. On top of that, reduced commissions were done when the market allowed for homes to sell overnight. Agents weren't having to advertise and fork out any extra money, so reduced commissions were accepted. Right now, the average time on the market is 4 months (sometimes more - a lot more), so an agent is having to pay for advertising the home, holding open houses, etc and is forking out money constantly, which is why they earn a 3% commission on each side. We are actually seeing sellers offer MORE than 3% to the buyer's agent, to entice those agents to show their homes. With the large inventory that we have, we have many homes that don't even get shown for weeks at a time. We have a LOT of buyer incentives going on. There's even a home offering a Prius to the buyer, since it's so far out of town and people are concerned about gas prices while commuting.
sherrif's sales!
We will be seeing a LOT of these in the next few years when all of the 5-year interest only loans expire and all of the homeowner's who could afford to buy because they were interest only payments are outpriced out of their homes.
jabumbo
07-19-2006, 10:09 AM
We will be seeing a LOT of these in the next few years when all of the 5-year interest only loans expire and all of the homeowner's who could afford to buy because they were interest only payments are outpriced out of their homes.
maybe by then i will actually have money in savings to buy something...
i was just taking a quick look at the cities list of forclosed houses for sale and all of the cheap ones are in complete shit neighborhoods, so i guess i can't plan on getting anything good under 10 grand to mess with
Offer some free "Real Estate 101" classes on why it is still a great financial decision...even though the market has slowed down quite a bit.
This is kind of along the lines of ideas I was looking for...
We have already done the buyer's incentives and they do work sometimes. Even more creative incentives beyond your typical 1-year home warranty, closing costs paid by the seller, etc are working a little. Some people look at a large landscaped yard and are concerned they can't handle the upkeep, so we get the seller to offer 3 years gardening contract upfront. HOA dues paid for years in advance, utilities, etc. It's just not enough.
maybe by then i will actually have money in savings to buy something...
i was just taking a quick look at the cities list of forclosed houses for sale and all of the cheap ones are in complete shit neighborhoods, so i guess i can't plan on getting anything good under 10 grand to mess with
just remember that in many cities, there are plans in the works for renovating those shit neighborhoods, so you may be finding a gold mine when you don't even know it... a good example is the area around PacBell Park in San Francisco. They built the new ballpark in a terrible part of the city, built all new condo projects, etc and real estate went nuts... something to look into with your city, as well...
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 10:12 AM
Right. You asked about particular incentives that the seller or agent could offer.
Like when you buy a mattress and there are no payments for a year? That might appeal to people. No mortgage for a year. Or maybe give them a free year with a financial advisor. Or a pig that's a bank with a slot on top.
When I see the types of incentives that they do offer (home warranties, no closing costs, reduced base price) I'm wary because I think it seems desperate. "Why do they have to try so hard? What's wrong with that house?" Because in my neighborhood, houses still go quickly, especially the Victorian ones or the smaller, single-level ones.
b i o n i c
07-19-2006, 10:13 AM
We will be seeing a LOT of these in the next few years when all of the 5-year interest only loans expire and all of the homeowner's who could afford to buy because they were interest only payments are outpriced out of their homes.
i was talking to someone yesterday who told me i'd be an idiot to buy now. he said i should wait a year for exactly that ^^^
Right. You asked about particular incentives that the seller or agent could offer.
Like when you buy a mattress and there are no payments for a year? That might appeal to people. No mortgage for a year. Or maybe give them a free year with a financial advisor. Or a pig that's a bank with a slot on top.
When I see the types of incentives that they do offer (home warranties, no closing costs, reduced base price) I'm wary because I think it seems desperate. "Why do they have to try so hard? What's wrong with that house?" Because in my neighborhood, houses still go quickly, especially the Victorian ones or the smaller, single-level ones.
Good point and that's the feedback I like to hear. If something makes you wary, then I want to know about it.
Man, that's rough. Is the younger market an option? That was one of the things that for myself got me into a house early, I hated paying rent on something. What about offering a buying a house class targeting younger buyers?
We are where we are now because of the first-time home buyers and the investors. They have driven up the prices and outpriced themselves. 5 years ago, you could get a place for $150K. Now, you can't find anything anywhere near town for under $375K and that's a shithole, so yeah... we've done it to ourselves, which is what a lot of cities have done. One advantage we have is limited space to build, so there will always be supply, whereas Vegas has built too many places to meet the demand and they are slashing prices. We haven't had to do that yet. Plus, everyone wants to live 20 minutes from Tahoe and still be in a progressive community, not to mention we don't have state income tax, so more and more huge businesses (Starbucks, Amazon.com, etc) are moving their headquarters here, so there are plenty of jobs, but still not enough to support the first-time buyers with a $2500 mortgage (or more) per month.
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 10:23 AM
Good point and that's the feedback I like to hear. If something makes you wary, then I want to know about it.If the market was such that that was the norm--the offering of incentives--then I wouldn't be wary. But when incentives are offered in particular neighborhoods or for particular houses, that's when I get wary. If you're going to do an incentives thing, I'd do it right across the board and be the Realtor Who Does X, no exceptions.
hpdrifter
07-19-2006, 10:36 AM
I think if you can show people that its even possible for them you've gotten pretty far. I think lots of people want to buy they just think they won't be able to find something in their price range in a neighborhood they want to live in.
Enree said something similar when she talked about finding places in the city. Around here I'd probably have to buy about 30 miles from my work to get something affordable and there's no mass transit and traffic is a nightmare.
enree erzweglle
07-19-2006, 10:44 AM
What about capitalizing on the environmental trend right now and look into making houses greener? Stock it with well-rated, state-of-the-art greenish appliances, look into some sort of solar component, landscape it in some environmentally friendly way, find houses that are situated within walking or quick-driving distance to things that people are likely going to want/need (grocery stores, entertainment)....? (On this last point, try to calculate average gas savings by living close to where you work or shop or get entertained.) That might be a worthwhile thing or at least you could market it in a way to get some attention.
I watched a Tom Friedman documentary last week (Addicted to Oil) and in it, he covered this competition that happens every year in Washington where engineers in grad school design green houses. The houses are green in terms of construction and in terms of how they're designed/decorated. Maybe look there for some ideas or maybe even team up with a firm that can help you to retrofit existing houses so that they're more environmentally sound. It could be a cool venture.
What about capitalizing on the environmental trend right now and look into making houses greener? Stock it with well-rated, state-of-the-art greenish appliances, look into some sort of solar component, landscape it in some environmentally friendly way, find houses that are situated within walking or quick-driving distance to things that people are likely going to want/need (grocery stores, entertainment)....? (On this last point, try to calculate average gas savings by living close to where you work or shop or get entertained.) That might be a worthwhile thing or at least you could market it in a way to get some attention.
I watched a Tom Friedman documentary last week (Addicted to Oil) and in it, he covered this competition that happens every year in Washington where engineers in grad school design green houses. The houses are green in terms of construction and in terms of how they're designed/decorated. Maybe look there for some ideas or maybe even team up with a firm that can help you to retrofit existing houses so that they're more environmentally sound. It could be a cool venture.
excellent idea, enree... with the return of the Rabbit, another car called The Fit, even the car companies are looking to attract buyers with this stuff...
hpdrifter
07-19-2006, 10:51 AM
Rabbits are envrionmentally friendly? They're so loud and they seem to blow so much exhaust.
Rabbits are envrionmentally friendly? They're so loud and they seem to blow so much exhaust.
Not the old ones... they're resurrecting them...
hpdrifter
07-19-2006, 11:04 AM
That's cool. The image of a little bunny rabbit chomping on clover is sort of environmentally friendly.
Documad
07-19-2006, 05:30 PM
We will be seeing a LOT of these in the next few years when all of the 5-year interest only loans expire and all of the homeowner's who could afford to buy because they were interest only payments are outpriced out of their homes.
This really bothers me. I can't believe people do that. Some people think I'm an idiot but I got a 15 year mortgage and I still pay a little extra in principle each month because I hate paying all that interest. I paid off my last car in two years.
It does seem though that the people who are buying homes now are single moms with kids. People get divorced and they want their kids to have a yard and I guess a multi-bedroom apartment is very very expensive. If there's a way to help them figure out the financing, they want to buy homes.
I hate to encourage people with marginal finances to borrow a lot of money. I still worry about the woman we sold my mom's house to. At the closing, when I overheard her agent explaining the terms of her mortgage to her, I wanted to stop the sale so bad. I think she had a 10 year interest only period. I didn't even think that was possible.
The Notorious LOL
07-19-2006, 05:40 PM
I dont get why they dont call an interest only loan what it is.....rent.
marsdaddy
07-19-2006, 06:37 PM
I'm not going to give you my idea without some promise of renumeration.
Mrs_Princess
07-19-2006, 07:31 PM
Ummm lower the prices a little if you can :)
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