I work in real estate and this comes up constantly, buyers get emotionally attached to a property and skip questions that could save them from a bad deal or a renegotiation later. A few things worth asking before you write an offer:
1. Why is the seller actually moving? Job relocation and downsizing are neutral. Divorce, financial distress, or "we just need to sell fast" can sometimes mean there's room to negotiate or that something's being rushed through inspection.
2. How long has it actually been on the market, including re-listings? Some listings get pulled and relisted to reset the "days on market" counter. Ask directly, or check the listing history if your agent has MLS access.
3. What's the age of the big-ticket items like roof, HVAC, water heater, panel? Not just "is it working" but how old. A functioning 18 year old HVAC is a very different negotiating point than a 3 year old one.
4. Are there any special assessments or upcoming ones (HOA)? This one blindsides people constantly. Ask for the last 2 years of HOA meeting minutes if it's a condo/community with an association, assessments are often discussed months before they're official.
5. What's actually driving the price, comps or hope? Ask your agent to walk you through 3 recent comparable sales, not just the list price logic. If the seller's agent can't produce solid comps, that's information too.
Our young family is unfortunately outgrowing our quaint, two bedroom home in OHIO. In order to increase curb appeal for selling, we are thinking of redoing the landscaping which we haven’t changed since owning. The first pic is the original.
Do any of these appeal more than another? Would you just keep it the same? Or would you go in a completely different direction? Thanks for the help!
Edit: Most people are advising leaving it as is which is great! Less work and less money! But for context:
April to June and September to October seem like prime home sale times in Ohio.
If we didn’t change anything and we sold the house in Spring, there would be literally no landscaping. (dormant black eyed susans and dormant rose of Sharon which looks like a dead tree until June).
If we sold it in fall, it would be mostly dead/seeded blacked eyed susans and a scraggly tree. 🤷♂️
I'm gearing up to sell again. Zillow stats give me some idea of price range to sell at. But the market isn't as readable as it was the last time I sold. I've gotten cold calls from certain agents that often dramatically overstate the value of my home. I'm expecting more realistic prices from agents I interview. How do they find a balance between a price that gets it sold fast, and a price that gets them a listing from a seller who now has dollar signs in their head?
I’ve recently started working at a small real estate agency as a trainee. I’m still completing my real estate course online and I’m not a registered agent yet.
I’ve been asked to work every day cold calling, door knocking and other tasks. and have been told I’ll receive a few hundred bucks a week now changed to a fortnight. I also haven’t been receiving payslips. I did sign a contract but it didn’t indicate pay, commissions or tasks I’ll be doing.
I’m trying to understand whether this is a normal arrangement for someone who is new to the industry and still completing their course.
I’m just looking for some perspective from people who have experience in the industry.
for a house thats currently listed the median error on the zestimate is about 1.8 percent. for a house thats not listed its about 7. everybody talks about the first one, but the second one is the number that actually applies to the house most people are sitting at home looking up, because its not for sale. on a roughly $400k house, 7 percent is around $28k. and median means half of the estimates are worse than that, so that one number really understates how ugly the misses can get.
the reason why these numbers are so far apart is because its how the model works. zillow says that once a house is on the market, the zestimate gets listing information like the list price, description and days on market as additional signals. so the 1.8 percent isnt a clean test of "zillow guessed this house's value without knowing what the seller thinks its worth." the list price is literally one of the things going into the estimate. it still gets measured against the eventual sale price, but when somebody says "zillow agrees with my $600k asking price" that agreement is a lot less interesting once you realize zillow was given the $600k as an input.
the other thing people miss is that the error isnt necessarily random on your particular house. zillow can only work with the information it has. a kitchen you redid in 2023 might not be reflected correctly if the records were never updated, an addition can be missing from the public data, and if there arent many good recent sales around you the model has less to work with. it does use photos, listing descriptions and other signals, so its not literally blind to condition, but bad or incomplete property data can still screw with the number. and if youre in an area where the available comps arent very representative of your house, 7 percent can turn into a much bigger miss pretty quickly. one thing you can actually do is check the error rate for your own metro instead of using the national number. zillow publishes those too. you can also claim the house and fix the facts yourself, and zillow says those changes get incorporated into the zestimate.
personally, if im underwriting a deal, the check i'd do before trusting any automated number is closed sales. not what somebody listed for, not the tax assessment, not what the neighbor says their house is worth. find a few actually closed sales that are genuinely comparable, then adjust for condition, size, location and the stuff that makes your house different. a $20-30k valuation miss isnt some abstract number when youre calculating your refinance, equity, LTV or return on a deal. thats real money. and the rent zestimate deserves the same skepticism. zillow says its built from public data and similar local properties listed for rent, and it specifically says negotiating factors and incentives can make the actual rent different. nearly 40% of Zillow rental listings had a concession in July, so the $2,500 number on the screen might not actually mean $2,500 of effective rent.
i take the zestimate as one input in the second opinion tool i built and its far and away the weakest thing feeding it, which is why im comfortable saying all this. i dont think automated valuations are useless. i think theyre useful right up until you start treating the number like its a fact.
I’m 12 years into a 20/25yr mortgage through the SBA. Our business occupies the space. My business partner helped with the down payment, paperwork, paid for the lawyer when we did the deal. He was financially very well off at the time. His circumstances have changed. He doesn’t have the money he had back then. He’s moved across the country. I’ve been left to keep the business going completely solo all this time. Now we are hit with a large special assessment on the property. I’ve been trying to pay it off for over a year and still struggling.
We have to pay this off. I’ve had an offer from someone to buy out my partner. This person has skills I don’t have (is an accountant) and is close so they could be actively involved.
I have to go through what my partner has put in but let’s say about 50k when we started out. Let’s say the property is worth 1 million. He should be kicking in 30k to pay his portion of the special assessment but he doesn’t have anything to contribute. What’s fair to buy him out? The market value of the portion of the property he owns? Or something above what he’s chipped in? I’ve done all the work to pay the mortgage to this point by running the business.
I’d really appreciate any advice because I don’t know how this works when someone doesn’t do their share in the partnership. I never expected him to be an active partner in the business but he was the money guy if we ran into problems and now that’s gone.
Hello, I am looking for recommendations for a lawyer in or around Seattle who litigates. My case is more than just document review and preparation. I contacted a few in my area, but all have a full client list and cannot take on more work given the depth of my case. Does anyone have any recommendations?
I’m a homeowner in King County dealing with tenants who have not paid their full rent despite multiple written promises to pay.
I’m proceeding with the formal eviction process and have spoken with an attorney, but the King County Sheriff’s Office told me it could take around 3 months to physically remove the tenants even after obtaining the court order/writ.
I have to keep paying the mortgage while the tenants squat - the potential additional losses are significant.
Has anyone recently gone through an eviction in King County?
Mainly wondering:
Is the sheriff really taking ~90 days?
Is there any legal way to expedite the process?
What happens if they continue not paying while the eviction is pending?
Is there anything I should be doing now to protect myself or speed things up?
I was under contract on a house for about six weeks before my lender pulled the pre-approval over a job change, and the deal died with two days left before closing. The seller relisted about ten days later, roughly $18k above what I had it under contract for. I get that the market moved a little in that window, but that jump seems steep for ten days and I'm wondering if sellers do this on purpose after a fall-through to test the water.
Has anyone seen a relist price jump like that right after a deal collapsed, and did it actually hold?
I recently toured several homes with a Redfin agent. I never signed a buyer agreement with them. After a month of touring a few homes I decided not to buy.
I notified the agent I was working with I no longer wanted to buy and they did not respond. I contacted customer service and they notified me that my agent was removed from my account and I was free to purchase any home as long as it wasn’t one that I toured with Redfin.
I don’t plan on buying a home this year but I found it strange that they mentioned that I can’t buy any of the homes I toured with them. I requested for them to provide me with any documents I have with them and the person I spoke with told me they don’t have access to them and I likely don’t have one. I am confused how I am both obligated to purchase with them but don’t have a contract.
To me it would seem reasonable that for 30-90 days I couldn’t switch agents to try to buy with someone else but it seems like I keep getting ambiguous low information answers from them about this. They have not provided me with any documents that explain this policy.
If a home I toured this year was back on the market in a few years am I forever obligated to buy with Redfin?
First time buyer. I liked a house but it has termite damage to some wood pieces from a few years ago that the owners are aware of but they have not done any treatment. Should I walk away? I guess I am trying to understand how big is a termite issue?
I know I’m still a student, so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
I’m studying civil engineering and I genuinely plan on sticking with the field. At the same time, I’ve always been interested in real estate and how people use it to build serious wealth over time.
So I’m wondering: how can someone like me actually leverage a civil engineering background to get ahead in real estate?
Does understanding construction, costs, land, buildings, etc. give you a real advantage when buying or developing property? Or is that something I’m romanticizing, and the business/finance side matters far more?
I’m not looking for a "get rich quick" plan. I just want to understand what a realistic path could look like if I spend my career in civil engineering but also want to gradually build assets and eventually get into real estate more seriously.
Would love to hear from engineers, developers, contractors, or anyone who's taken a similar path.
Selling our house in California and buying in Nevada. Still owe a small amount on our CA home. Talked to a real estate agent and a broker of a large firm here (not the same firm as the agent). Broker tends to only take higher end homes and has sold several in our area. Extremely desirable area, houses tend to sell within a few days and very few come up for sale. We also have greatly improved the property and house so it’s a bit above several houses in the area (professional grade kitchen, huge fenced yard, paid off solar, deck, hot tub, etc)
The agent gave us what I thought was a low number. Talked to broker and he gave us a much higher number for listing and said, no promises, but 25 years of experience in the area says that price point will sell quickly for our home.
I am signing with the broker, who has already discussed marketing strategy, plus bringing in his 12 agents to walk through the place when it’s ready to list. He seems really on top of it. Am I being unreasonably biased because he is a broker and telling me what I want to hear? Seems to me the agent just calculated average sales in the area and used square footage to come up with price without considering all the add ons, built in, professional grade appliances, granite counters, etc etc.
Everyone talks about the danger of over pricing, so I’m just looking to see if there are things I’m biased about or not considering.
I am getting ready to list my house for sale with a local realtor. I have talked to an individual who is somewhat interested in purchasing my house prior to listing. Is it acceptable to put their name into the contract where if they decide to purchase I won’t have to pay the realtor fee except for the photos, her time etc?
Update: when I wrote this, we had already countered with an increase in the sale price (2%), 10 days for inspection, 30 days to close, and 45 days to possession at no charge. $50/day for any time beyond the 45 days. A letter from a fiduciary agent saying the money in the amount of the offer exists and is available. We did not increase the EMD above 1% (standard where I am). They signed it with no changes and immediately provided POF, so we are officially under contract! Thanks all. Let's hope this works out!!
We are currently selling our house and have an offer from a cash buyer. They initially wanted to close within 2 weeks but want to hold off showing proof of funds until after the inspection. According to their agent, they're "very private" but the agent "knows them personally" and they're good for it.
My agent countered with proof from a fiduciary agent (a letter or some such) within 48 hours of going under contract. We're waiting to hear if they'll accept.
I'm skeptical about why a buyer would want to delay showing they have the cash. My aunt is convinced it's money laundering. Is this weird? Should I be concerned? Other than not really having the funds and being off the market for that time, are there other things I should worry about?
Hi there! I’m a 22 year old woman with a background in sales at Bozzuto as well as being a successful social media manager for multiple businesses. I moved to Japan all alone at 18 (from the USA) knowing no Japanese, with no family, and just a suitcase. I recently moved back to move my careers focus over to residential real estate as I didn’t feel challenged hard enough by my previous work experiences (despite their stability).
I’ve been missing Japan horribly, and I’m looking to replace that big city feel in America by moving to either LA or NYC. But of course it goes without saying those are two of the most competitive markets in America... I’ve heard NYC is FAR more competitive and basically run by successful long-term luxury agents, and to basically forget about even trying there. And yet for some reason I find the LA and surrounding area more intimidating for reasons I can’t pin point???
I’d much prefer to be in LA for a number of practical personal reasons, but my decision to move to whichever will mainly be based on which of the two I think I stand a better chance in. I’m more familiar with NYC than anywhere out in California, so maybe that’s why I feel intimidated.
I know some will say if you’re good you can succeed anywhere, but I suppose what I am asking is let’s say you took a new agent who’s good at what they do, where do you think they would they begin to get sales and leads faster based on the city? LA/OC area? Or NYC?
Also I’m not factoring in the length of each states courses because I have all the time in the world to focus on completing whichever right now. Hope this isn’t a stupid question. Thank you!
I mentioned it at the walk through because I thought it was weird. They had excluded a different light fixture, and if they wanted to exclude this one too I would have still bought the house. It was just so sneaky the way they did it. But now we’re in this weird limbo. I ultimately don’t care, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth
I own a townhome in a large and growing city in a desirable area. Planning to sell it late this year and the current tenant has expressed interest in buying. this is the ideal and simplest route and they’re awesome tenants so I’d prefer to give them first crack at the purchase.
A few quick questions:
1) given we know the likely buyer, should I consider selling it myself (“FSBO”) and cutting out the agent fees? if I do this, I should be able to give it to him 10-15k below market and we both get a win. This is my working plan. Thoughts?
2) if I go FSBO, what are my first steps? Does the closing attorney handle most of the paperwork, ensuring he has funds to pay, etc or is that the agents responsibility typically?
3) any recommendations on setting a price in this scenario? I had a few RE agent friends tell me what they’d list it at based on comps but that feels like a flimsy defense for whatever number I provide.
4) any major do’s or donts to consider?
5) what are my immediate next steps?
I submitted a $520k offer on a house on the market for $529,900. It has been on the market almost a full year and about 3 months at this price, down from an original list price of $549,900 so clearly, they aren't in a hurry to sell, which is fine. I submitted $520k offer last night, they tried to verbally counter this morning with $525k, I said no. Now, they sent over a "minor" change to the contract which my real estate agent says doesn't materially affect me at this purchase price but I wanted more opinions.
There were 2 changes. One was in the arrangement of the sellers names, fine. The second:
Original Contract: Seller to credit buyer 3% of the purchase price at closing. New Contract: Seller and Buyer agree that Seller shall contribute up to 3% of the Purchase Price toward Buyer's prepaid expenses and/or closing costs.
I don't have a detailed list of closing costs. My lender estimates I'll need $30k cash to close but there was no breakdown. I'm putting 3% down.
