suggestions 4 selecting realtor

[lazygood4nothinbum]

final update

have realtor. will be looking over paperwork tonight before signing. we are offering the selling realtor 2%. the buying realtor 3%. the selling realtor's office get's total 3 or 4% (still negotiating) if they bring the buyer.

they priced house $5k under where we had it priced and think we will wind up taking home about $1.1mm though i'm still hoping for $1.2. though i suppose not a big deal either way when considered over a 40-50 year retirement.

thanx to forum participants for all the good information on this and other threads which i was able to search. what a good resource you all are.

 

[2B]

Lazy,

I don't know how I missed the original post but we're on a similar path. DW just listed with a "power agent" at 2.5% for the selling agent and 3% for the buyer agent. Our property is listed for $899k and is a definite teardown. The agent has many builder contacts and they are the likely buyers.

We listed on Thursday and got an offer today for $850k from a builder. The agent recommends turning it down. The property is priced on the high side based on comps and other listings. He thinks we have a bit of a premium property and since we can wait he suggests waiting a bit. DW is turning it down.

I don't know if you're having any interactions with your family over this. DW's sister/BIL wanted us to FSBO or not pay more than 3% total commission. They also thought we should list at $1MM. That would have been too far above the market. They have unrealistic expectations but can sit 1,500 miles away and pontificate all they want. They have been very dependable in telling us what we should do and get upset when we don't.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

hiya 2b. certainly sounds like we are on similar course in this. (edit: and not only that but i just noticed we are 15 posts away from each other as well. :::::insert twilight zone theme song here:::: ) we got stuck selling in downmarket in part because uncle adviced we'd take too big a cap gains hit to sell while mom was still alive. what's your excuse? i figure we'll wind up about minus $150k from what we might have had otherwise. not that i'm lamenting monetary loss, just a good lesson to stick by my own financial savvy intuition into the future.

ours likely will go to an owner who wants a nice new mini-mansion. seemed about five to eight years ago developers were buying but the last few seemed to have gone to new owners. plus a lot of current residents have torn down their own homes & rebuilt to keep up with the newer joneses. now houses range from over 5,000 sf to about 7,500 sf & even bigger on larger intracoastal lots. the view down mom's canal now is really quite something, if you like that $2.5 to $5mm house ontop of house type of a thing.

that's amazing you got an offer so quickly. bet it makes you wonder if you priced too low. but today probably better too low than too high. on the other hand. i'd be afraid of turning down someone who came within $50k of my asking. i guess stuff in your area must be moving better than here. we are priced directly between two other houses based on respective size of waterfront and therefore corresponding size of the boat that can be docked behind it. but the other two have been for sale for months. the lower one dropped it's price by $200k already. as long as they hold where they are now and the higher doesn't lower, which i don't think she will, we should be ok. it happens to be about the very nicest area of a very nice town and though other areas are increasing in inventory this one has decreased. there are only our three available at this price level in this area.

the only other family involved here is my brother and we are in good agreement. he's still running engineering firm so i'm handling this. the poor guy wants to put three little kids through college so he's gonna be working a lonng lonnnng time. we only became friends once we became mom's co-guardians. hadn't we become friends first, we would have needed lawyers today to represent us to each other. i'm so glad mom got so enjoy her sons being friendly to each other in her last few years. i only found out later while going through her personal papers how much this meant to her. she waited her entire life for us to stop fighting. without knowing it, we finally made her completely happy.

 

[2B]

McMansions are being build on land originally holding 2,000 - 2,500 sq ft. 1950-1970 era homes built "way out in the country." It's now a very desirable location in Houston. We are priced slightly over market in my opinion and the $850 is "reasonable" but the realtor is wanting to go for more. We're going along.

On taxes, my in-laws are both alive and I suspect one or both will still be alive when we need the cash for their care. Their funds aren't desperate but I am sure their other assets won't carry them to their deaths. Houston is in a slight uptrend and hasn't had the surge that Florida had. The real estate appreciation is probably more in the 3 - 5% range.

There's the $500k cap gain exclusion that will help but there's no way of fighting the amount above that. It is only at 15% so it's no too bad especially when our alternative probably involves homicide. It would be nice to avoid it but I would rather have the taxes paid out of their account than to personally fund their care in anticipation of the tax free payout. Carrying the house also has some costs ($1,000/mo) and it is a minor headache on a regular basis.

The house has been a continuing mental issue for DW and a source of conflict with her sister and her husband. I just want to get the bulk of their assets in a Vanguard account and be done with everything except their care.

 

[dumpster56]

spring is on the way and the inventory will skyrocket, try and get your place sold asap or the numbers will be even lower than today, the market is still in trouble.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

it's a mostly sunny 81 degrees today and there's a wonderful 13 mph breeze coming in from the southeast so i'm not quite sure just what "spring is on the way" means. thanx for the pessimism but our peak tourist (& real estate) season has just arrived.

as i already noted, inventory has decreased in our area. not that stuff has sold, but that there's enough monied owners who don't have to ever sell. of course i could be wrong but my hope is that this will help stabilize a market which, barring a dirty bomb or national economic collapse, has likely already bottomed out here. but of course only time will tell with that.

while florida no longer has the amazing inflow of people we had for a few years there, latest studies show we still get 1000 people moving in & only 400 out every day. and my desirable areas are already at buildout.

while it's been a rough market here since wilma blew through and prices are still down year over year they might be starting to come up month over month. hard to tell yet. florida is finally working on getting insurance costs under control. i'm not convinced they'll fix the problem but maybe they can keep it from getting worse. also our property appraisers have banded to change our "save our home" homestead exemption law so that our tax savings become partially portable which should stimulate markets among locals.

certainly it would give me good opportunity to sell here and buy a very nice home in someplace like gainesville if i ever decide on that. but even in my own little area i don't see inventory skyrocketing as most of us who are here now were here before, scratching our heads as everything went up and scratching again on the way down. we weren't really going anywhere anyway. so, in retrospect, i'm not completely sure what the fuss is all about.