Entries from Dan Melson's La Mesa Real Estate and Mortgage Website tagged with 'buyer's agent'
New Consumer Article: Asking Price Versus Sales Price
The new consumer article for today is Asking Price Versus Sales Price, a short discussion of what they are and the relationship between them. Many agents have forgotten this stuff, but it really is very basic stuff everyone should keep...
New Consumer Article: Some Offers Are More Equal Than Others
The new consumer article for today is Some Offers Are More Equal Than Others, talking about how to evaluate two different purchase offers even though they may be for the same or similar amounts of money. This is primarily important...
New Consumer Article: Short Sale Negotiators and the Interests of Potential Buyers
The new consumer article for today is Short Sale Negotiators and the Interests of Potential Buyers. An awful lot of nonsense gets tried with short sales, most of it for the benefit of lazy listing agents who shouldn't have taken...
New Consumer Article: Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers
The new consumer article for today is Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers. It really isn't rocket science. If your agent advises you otherwise, something is wrong....
New Consumer Article: Real Estate and "Priced for Perfection"
The new consumer article for today is Real Estate and "Priced for Perfection" talks about the house that is too beautiful to pass up - but that you should....
New Consumer Article: "I'm Working With Someone Else, But Could You Just Help Me With..."
The new consumer article for today is "I'm Working With Someone Else, But Could You Just Help Me With..." talking about requests for free work from real estate agents. I'm perfectly happy to give general information to non-clients and...
New Consumer Article: The Sperm Donor Theory of Buyer's Agents
The new consumer article for today is The Sperm Donor Theory of Buyer's Agents. The real estate industry is built around the listing of property. Okay, it's actually built around the care and feeding of real estate brokerages, but...
New Consumer Article: I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?
The new consumer article for today is I'm Competing Against Multiple Offers. How Do I Proceed?. It's an article directed at consumers, not real estate professionals, so it doesn't go over some things such as alternatives to money that are...
New Consumer Article: Buying Real Estate Isn't Simple
The new consumer article for today is Buying Real Estate Isn't Simple. You can pretend it's simple, and hope you get outrageously lucky. Or you can prepare and do the work, and come out reliably enough better to more than...
New Consumer Article: You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU
The new consumer article for today is You Want an Agency That Can Pay ENOUGH Attention to YOU. It really doesn't benefit you to list with an agency that is too busy to pay proper attention to your property, nor...
State of the La Mesa and East County Real Estate Market April 2009
We were ready for a strong turn in the market, but the strength of what we've gotten in the last six weeks is amazing. It has been, if anything, worse that a few years ago. What caused it? People...
New Consumer Article: How Agents Should Respond To An Appraisal Below Purchase Price
The new consumer article for today is How Agents Should Respond To An Appraisal Below Purchase Price. The appraisal is a significant client protection, and trying to manipulate the appraisal to make the transaction happen is not in a buyer's...
New Consumer Article: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise
The new consumer article for today is Buyers: Stretching Your Budget Means Compromise. It's something too rarely covered by the press, and by real estate agents. There are tradeoffs in every choice a buyer makes, and unless they have a...
New Consumer Article: Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property
The new consumer article for today is Top Twelve Things That Help You Buy a Bargain Property. If you're looking to buy a good property at a bargain price, put as many of these on your side as possible....
New Consumer Article: Loan Fall-Out And The Effects Upon Consumers
The new consumer article for today is Loan Fall-Out And The Effects Upon Consumers. The days when loan officers are willing to lock loans with just a social and the identity of the property are ending, if not already over....
New Consumer Article: Online Real Estate Photographs
The new consumer article for today is Online Real Estate Photographs. I know why people want to see online photographs, but I don't understand why they obsess about them to the degree they do, even after they assure me that...
New Consumer Article: The Difference Between a Reliable and Unreliable Prequalification or Preapproval Letter
The new consumer article for today is The Difference Between a Reliable and Unreliable Prequalification or Preapproval Letter. Whether you're a buyer or a seller, having the right lender letter is a good thing. If you're a seller, you know...
New Consumer Article: Finding a Good Buyer's Agent (And Eliminating Bad Ones)
The new consumer article for today is Finding a Good Buyer's Agent (And Eliminating Bad Ones). It really is easy to get yourself a good buyer's agent, but many people don't know how important it is, or won't make the...
New Consumer Article: Transaction Coordinator: For The Agent's Benefit, Not The Consumers
The new consumer article for today is Transaction Coordinator: For The Agent's Benefit, Not The Consumers. Transaction coordinators are mostly a good thing, helping agents ensure compliance and coordinating between various parties to the transaction. But asking consumers to pay...
New Consumer Article: Reasons Why You Want A Buyer's Agent
The new consumer article for today is Reasons Why You Want A Buyer's Agent. Lots of people don't believe how much difference it makes, but it does. My goal on every transaction is to make a difference of ten percent...
New Consumer Article: Termite Work, Wood Destroying Pest Agreements, and Lender Requirements
The new consumer article for today is Termite Work, Wood Destroying Pest Agreements, and Lender Requirements. If you know about work that needs to be done, concealing it from the buyer's lender is fraud. Lots of agents are putting their...
New Consumer Article: It Is Illegal Under RESPA to Require Even Prequalification With a Particular Lender
The new consumer article for today is It Is Illegal Under RESPA to Require Even Prequalification With a Particular Lender, debunks the legality of a practice that listing agents are trying to bring back or institute with the increase in...
New Consumer Article: Multiple Offers: Weak But Increasingly Common, And It's Your Listing Agent's Fault
The new consumer article for today is Multiple Offers: Weak But Increasingly Common, And It's Your Listing Agent's Fault, talks about multiple offer situations, what they mean to buyers, and what they mean to sellers....
New Consumer Article: Buyer's Agents Presenting An Offer In Person
The new consumer article for today is Buyer's Agents Presenting An Offer In Person, where I cover the ins and outs of presenting an offer in person, why buyer's agents should do it, why listing agents should prefer it, and...
New Consumer Article: Fake Agent Scams
The new consumer article for today is Fake Agent Scams. Despite how many people get burned by trying to Buy Without an Agent, most of them don't realize how badly they have been taken. In this case, it appears that...
New Consumer Article: Cash to Close - A Basic Primer
The new consumer article for today is Cash to Close - A Basic Primer. The article discusses how much cash a buyer of real estate has to have in order to make the transaction happen. Proving that you have this...
New Consumer Article: You've Got a Great Offer, But Can The Buyer Consummate It? (Cash to Close)
The new consumer article for the day is You've Got a Great Offer, But Can The Buyer Consummate It? (Cash to Close). These days, you have to pay attention to details like the limits of how much lenders are willing...
New Consumer Article September 17, 2008
Today's new consumer article is Listings Not Sourced on MLS, in which I discuss the limits that a system checked for facts imposes upon those claiming to have a property for sale, and why it is good to have those...
New Consumer Article September 10, 2008
Today's new consumer article is The Are No Schools That Teach What A Good Agent Needs to Know, which directly takes on the canard that since being an agent doesn't require a college degree, therefore there's nothing special about it...
New Consumer Article August 25th, 2008
Today's new consumer article is Negotiation Basics: On What to Offer and Whether to Offer, Which talks about the process of putting in an offer and negotiation, and what effects a couple of common things have upon the process....
New Consumer Article August 12, 2008
Today's new consumer article is What Buyers Need: What Sellers Should Want to Supply, a companion article to yesterday's, helping sellers to be successful by thinking like buyers....
New Consumer Article August 11, 2008
Today's new consumer article is What Sellers Need: What Buyers Should Want to Supply, which talks about thinking like a seller for buyers....
New Consumer Article July 23, 3008
Today's new consumer article is Procuring Cause and Multiple Agents, which talks about multiple agents and which one gets the commission....
What Happens After You Buy A Vampire Property?
Dear Mr. Melson, I was wondering if you could offer some insight re: the other side of the equation: what to do *after* you've bought a vampire property. We bought one, quite by accident, despite a house inspection by...
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
About a month ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can....
California's Home Equity Sales Contract Act
A while ago a reader gave me a heads up that Illinois HB 4050 was hurting residents of certain poverty stricken Illinois Zip Codes. Now I have to pick on our own state: California law generally requires special handling of...
Protecting My Buyer Clients Good Faith Deposit
As I wrote a few days ago, the buyer's deposit is always at risk. This is just a fact of real estate transactions. I could pretend it's not so, but that wouldn't keep the deposit from being at risk...
Clients a Good Agent Does Not Want
This email exchange is worth another article on a different subject. Everything down to "Afterwards" is a straight out of the email except that I deleted any information that might identify a particular individual or company. The context was that...
Is The Good Faith Deposit At Risk?
Many agents seem to answer this question differently depending upon whether their client is the prospective buyer or seller. When their client is making an offer, "No, your deposit could never possibly be at risk," while when their client...
Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling
No, I'm not a David Letterman watcher, for reasons having to do with turning into a pumpkin before his show starts. I'm going to treat it a little more seriously than he does, as this is a serious subject,...
How to Use Internet Based Real Estate Sites
As with anything you find on the internet, the critical thing to keep in mind with internet real estate is that it is subject to input control. In plain English, you only see what they want you to see....
Dangers of a Poorly Written Real Estate Purchase Offer
There's an old literary tradition that cautions the reader to "Be careful what you ask for. You may get it." Many real estate purchase offers are good illustrations of that principle. The rule followed by good agents is, "Never...
Writing Real Estate Purchase Offers to Beat Higher Competing Offers
I just last week closed a transaction where my clients did not make the high bid (or even close), but did get the fully negotiated purchase contract and the property. By building an airtight case that this client was...
Consult a Loan Officer to Make a Purchase Offer
I don't know how many people have told me the story of the Purchase Offer That Was Accepted But Couldn't Be Done. They come to me because they lost their deposit or are about to and they want some way...
Why Buyers Should Avoid Short Sales
I've been saying this for a long time: Short sales are poison for buyers. I don't know why people encourage buyers to look at short sales, because there is no advantage for buyers that I am aware of. In...
Real Estate: Giving Someone a Monopoly Does Not Encourage Top Performance
From an e-mail I've been talking to agents lately and I ask them about the things I've learned about from your site. I thought I would say things like "I want to apply for a backup loan" and they would...
Pretending the Service Equation is Simpler Than It Is
Way back when I was just out of high school, I was doing a lot of things with my time. Working, dating, competing on the fencing team, gaming of various sorts. But every once in a while, I dropped...
My Sixty Second Public Service Announcement about Buying Real Estate
Here was an idea I had: Pack a list of the most important things consumers need to know about buying real estate, as packed into the words I can say in sixty seconds without sounding like an over-clocked squirrel. Here...
Buyers Who Don't Want A Buyer's Agent
You see it all the time at open houses and elsewhere. People who desperately need buyer's agents, but think of Buyer's Agents in the same way they think of automobile sales folk, and that's the complete opposite of the way...
Choosing Buyer's Agents By Commission Rebate: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
I got this email the other day, responding to one of my Hot Bargain Properties posts: I am currently working with a coworker with no agreement. However, she has offered to rebate 50% of her commission. Are you negotiable with...
Steering: The Most Violated Law In Real Estate
I just picked a random ZIP code in my local MLS, and out of the first twenty listings I came to, ten had explicit violations of one or more of the sections of RESPA regarding steering right there in the...
Non-Exclusive Buyer's Agency Contract - A Bet Consumers Can't Lose
There are two sorts of buyer's agency contracts, exclusive and non-exclusive. Note that this has nothing to do with Exclusive Buyer's Agents, who do not accept property for listing. I disagree with their reasoning on the virtues of doing...
When Should A Buyer's Agent Ask You To Sign a Contract?
The answer depends upon what they're doing for you. If you contact them because they're the listing agent for a property, they shouldn't ask you to sign an agreement at all. They have a fiduciary duty to that seller...
Dual Agency: Using the Seller's Agent as Your Buyer's Agent
Is it unwise to use the listing realtor as your purchase realtor? A house I'm interested in purchasing is being sold by the realtor selling my house. Although she's done a decent job selling my house, I fear she...
Finding Bargain Real Estate: Work With the Buyer's Agent Who Actually Finds The Bargain!
Several times a month I get calls and emails. Sometimes, it's even people stopping in. "I've heard you're good at finding bargains." Well, yes I am. "Please tell me the addresses of some bargains so I can drive by."...
Real Estate and the Four Levels of Competence
People who talk about learning skills tend to discuss a model for learning called the conscious competence learning model. It starts with unconscious incompetence. You not only don't know how to do something, you don't realize that it is...
The Mortgage Loan Market Controls the Real Estate Market
One of the things I keep telling folks about the real estate market, whatever area you live in, is that it is controlled by the loan market. If you want to understand where real estate in general is headed, look...
What Do You Know That I Don't Know?
Whenever I go scouting in public forums, somebody is always asking, "What's the secret? How do you get rich in real estate?" The alternate to this question is "What do you know that I don't?" These people are sure there's...
The Best Way To Solve Problems in Real Estate
The same as in every other area of life: Get out in front and stop it from becoming a problem. I do not understand why many people approach real estate transactions like a casual outing. Go window shopping, decide...
Buyer's Agency, Due Diligence, and the Illusion of Comity
Somebody sent me this story via e-mail: Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Sue Agent Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing...
How Can Buyers Get the Lowest Possible Price on the Best Possible Property?
The first piece of advice I have for buyers who want to get a fantastic bargain is to find a good buyer's agent (this guy is one of the best in San Diego County). Nothing else will make as...
Agents Refusing to Make an Offer on Real Estate
"buyers agent refuses to make offer" was a search hit I got recently. This is yet another reason not to sign exclusive buyer's agent agreements. My guess is that the CBB is lower than the agent would like. The CBB...
The Future of Real Estate Agency: Expert Consultants, Not Market Access
Expertise and attitude, not control of an informational chokepoint, is the way that things are going. Let's analyze this from both sides of the problem. The current owner looking to sell really needs a marketer. For better or worse, most...
Bundling Agent Services: What Services Do You Want and Need?
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but lots of people will pretend there is. It seems to me that many people consider compensation earned by real estate agents as paying some kind of toll. They think of...
Which Makes More Difference - Buyer's Agent or Listing Agent?
Having done both, there's no question in my mind. For the average person and the average transaction, the buyer's agent makes a lot more difference. In the aggregate, a good buyer's agent has the opportunity to make a lot more...
Buying Without An Agent - My Own Experience
I had the idea for this article some time ago. It took me a long time to decide to share it publicly, because quite frankly, knowing what I know now, I was an idiot. I was still young enough to...
"Contractor's Specials"
I was looking through some real estate listings and saw one property described as: "Contractor's special, first time buyers and investors. House needs TLC." Does contractor's special mean u better be a contractor if you wanna buy this place? It...
Move Up Transactions Don't Just Happen
One of the things I've heard and read other agents complaining about is that they can't find qualified buyers to represent. Welcome to Unintended Consequences 101. The way that the market had been working is this: Young, often unmarried, buyers...
Working with Multiple Agents for a Purchase
If you have three real estate companies sending you emails with multi-listings, if you want to see one of the properties, who gets the commission? There five properties that I want to see the inside of the houses. Company A,...
Real Estate: Know What Can Be Fixed and What Can't, What's Profitable and What Isn't
It's a well known fact that not all factors in real estate are equally important, and not all property investments perform equally well. A critical part of successfully choosing the right property, whether it's for investment or personal use, lies...
Failure to Disclose a Material Known Fact to a Buyer
My husband and I bought a golf course-view house in DELETED. We closed 5 days ago; moved-in 4 days ago; and 2 days ago found out that the golf course is scheduled to close. It was announced by the golf...
The Tollbooth Model of Real Estate Agency
Over the last couple of decades, there's been a rising movement, mostly on the part of those who want a piece of real estate agents business, to sell agents as a toll booth. Tollbooths sit there, guarding the entry to...
Facts Of Life On Buying and Selling "Without an Agent"
I saw your article on about exclusive buyers agents and I have a couple follow up questions pertaining to my own situation that I am hoping you could shed some light on. I don't have any buyers agent (currently)....
The Secrets to Good Transactions
Be prepared for trouble before it happens, know how strong your position is or isn't, and don't ever overplay your hand. Real estate transactions are the largest transactions most folks get involved in. Even small percentages of $500,000 or more...
The Seller Always Knows More About the Property Than the Buyer
Real Estate information is asymmetrical. One of the central facts of real estate transactions is that the seller always knows more than the buyer. They've lived in the property for years, and had to deal with any defects first hand....
Why the Real Estate Buyers Agent's Commission is Paid by the Seller
I have to admit I'm uncomfortable with it and don't like it. As a buyer's agent, here I am getting paid by someone who not only is not my client, but whose interests are aligned, in most issues, opposite to...
Realtor and Loan Officer Responsibility: Can the Client Afford The Property?
Every so often, I write about professional responsibility. Every month I get a couple of magazines because I'm a Realtor. In one of this months, was a letter from someone who was proud of the fact that he had never...
Listing Agents Claiming There Are Multiple Offers in a Buyer's Market
Once upon a time, this was a good way to get more money for your listing. This led to a classic tragedy of the commons. Because it didn't take hardly any extra time, and there was no reason not to...
Buying Real Estate Below Market
This question: What real estate office can I trust to help buy below market house in (location) California in the year 2006? brought someone to the site and I have not previously written a real answer to the question. The...
Why You Want A Buyers Agent To Deal With Developers
Not too long ago I got an email from an ex-prospect who decided to buy a developer's property without a buyer's agent. They persuaded her that she would get a better deal without them having to pay a buyer's agent...
Financing Tricks and What You Can Afford
Hi Dan, I am a first time home buyer and a big fan of the advice on your blog. I was wondering if you could offer some advice on my current situation. I apologize for sending you this question...
Real Estate is More Local Than Most People Think
When I'm doing my initial automated search for properties for my buyer clients, I always pay close attention to listings represented by agents out of the immediate area. Why? Because an agent from fifteen or twenty miles away probably has...
Missing a Deadline to Counter
One of the best ways I have of telling how good a listing agent is is whether they get the counter to me before the offer has expired. Not that someone who gets the counter back to me quickly is...
The Division of Labor Between Buyers and Their Agents
During the initial interview with prospects, I like to cover the division of the labor that goes into a purchase that makes the buyers happy. I have to know what's important to the buyers, how important it is, and what...
Dual Agency and Sellers Wanting to Keep a Buyer's Deposit
What can a seller do to get the deposit when the buyer backed out after the time limit and just won't sign off on the money? My real estate agent is not helping at all. The real estate office...
Do I Need A Deposit With 100% Financing Offers?
The answer is yes. Consider the situation from the seller's point of view, and the answer becomes obvious. Here is someone who is proposing to not put any of their own money into the deal. What's their motivation to consummate...
There's No Such Thing as Full Service Agency for a Discount Price
The local dog target gave discounters several hundred thousand dollars of free puffery recently. I'm not against discounters. I'm perfectly willing to do a discounters work for a discounter's price. Fifty percent for the pay for less than ten percent...
Reading Property Advertisements: Many Grains of Salt
The first thing you need to understand in reading any property advertisements is that agents write them to get people to call. They are trolling for clients. Except in the case of someone who doesn't accept dual agency advertising a...
Hourly Pay Instead of Commission For Agents
This was a comment on an article on my other site, Real Estate Sellers Giving A Buyer Cash Back. The interesting thing is proposing hourly pay instead of commission for agents. That makes a lot of sense. Disclosing (net) cash...
Exclusive versus Non-Exclusive Buyer's Agent Agreement
From an email: I was in the process of buying and selling the house when we saw a FSBO house we liked was for sale. But sale fell through, which is a good thing anyway because of contigency on our...
For Sale By Owner
I've been taking a long look at the world of For Sale By Owner and similar concepts lately. With the digital revolution, you always want to be watching the tide to figure out if you're in a business that's about...
Buyer's Agents: What Do They Do?
Got this search: "should I get a buyer's agent if I've already found a house" The answer is almost certainly yes, but I am going to examine both the pros and cons. Full disclosure: This is what I do for...
How to Effectively Shop for a Buyer's Agent
This is easy. Much easier than effectively shopping for a loan or a listing agent. So easy that a congresscritter can do it. So easy that congressional leadership can do it. The only thing possibly moderately difficult to understand is...
When to Get A Buyer's Agent and Start Looking
Once we figure out when we are going to be ready to buy, how early is too soon to get a buyer's agent and start looking. You are ready for a Buyer's Agent when you are ready to act...
Real Estate: General Education versus Specific Expertise
Hi Dan, Your blogsite is great; I stumbled on it and find you very credible and knowledgeable. I have two questions for you, if you are looking for things to write about: 1) What are your views on the...
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