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Home Owners And Home Buyers Will Need "Good" Realtors More Than Ever Now

10-18-10
Renee Porsia

By Renee Porsia


Short sales, loan modifications and foreclosures oh my! Add in a boat load of new mortgage rules, regulations, restrictions and what you have is a lot of confusing information and if a home owner wants to sell their home, they better have a Realtor who is on the ball. Same holds true for home buyers.

It’s not the same real estate market it was two years ago. You can’t put a home up for sale, guess at a price, (high, I might add) expect it to sell and if by chance you do find a buyer willing to pay what you are asking then have it appraise. Oh no, there’s a new sherif in town now and your Realtor better know the rules or you won’t be selling your home or buying your dream home.

Someone has to be able to make heads or tails out of all the new FHA mortgage guidelines, condominium rules and conventional requirements.

I recently had a bank issue a mortgage commitment to their buyer which had a long list of conditions that needed to be cleared but buried in all those conditions was the whopper of all conditions which was the appraisal. Are you kidding me? A commitment from a bank is their commitment to loan the money to their borrower (which also means, all conditions were met and more importantly removed) so how can they issue the commitment to their own borrower when they don’t even know how much the home is worth yet? So, to add insult to injury the appraisal came in too low which means the bank won’t lend the money the borrower needs to purchase the home that they just committed to do. Commitment my aunt Fannie! So, if you had a Realtor who wasn’t on the ball, you might think this sale was dead in the water but if you have a Realtor who is on the ball and knows how to find a solution rather than whine and complain about what happened, the deal can get done. So, I immediately went to work to find properties that recently sold for the price of the home the buyer wants to offer even though the buyer was not my client and I contacted the bank. In essence, I had to do my job, the job of the buyer’s agent and now the job of the appraiser who clearly was unfamiliar with the area.

Now, so you don’t think that I over price my listings, I want you to know that my listing did appraise for what I listed it for but it didn’t appraise for over what I listed it for which is what the buyer offered in order to get money back from my seller to help with their closing costs.

That is just one in a long list of issues facing each and every real estate transaction these days. Realtors will have to work extra hard to ensure their client gets to the settlement table now and consumers should make sure they have a Realtor who will know what to do when faced with a possible deal breaking situation.

If you don’t already have a family Realtor, do your homework now don’t wait until you are ready to sell your home or buy a home. Find a Realtor and don’t let him/her go once you do. It’s hard to find a “good” Realtor these days but very easy to find a “bad” Realtor and that “bad” Realtor could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Renee Porsia is an expert Associate Real Estate Broker in the Philadelphia area with RE/MAX Action Realty and published Author.

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In Real Estate, A Picture Is Not Worth An Extra Thousand Dollars Or More

10-06-10
Renee Porsia

In Real Estate, A Picture Is Not Worth An Extra Thousand Dollars Or More

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Renee Porsia
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By Renee Porsia

I recently read a disturbing article that tells homeowners if they want to get a higher price for their home, they need to take better quality photos. This is just the type of preposterous nonsense that makes homeowners have unrealistic expectations. And worse yet, they are hearing it from supposed professionals in the business.

Listen up, taking better quality photos will not get homeowners a higher price no matter what anyone tells you. In fact this type of nonsensical recommendation makes Realtors look like complete morons. Also, just to be clear, staging a home, repainting a home, hanging a plant, pictures, or putting a fake family in a home will not get you a higher price either. Sure, a homeowner can give the home better curb appeal, brighten or spruce the place up, make the place desirable but after all, the new homeowner is going to move in and make the place their own by making their own changes or improvements.

This article which by the way was featured in the Wall Street Journal goes on to say “listings with better photos command higher asking prices.” Tell this to the appraiser who is appraising the property. See if he/she cares about the type of photos that were taken of the home when they are putting a value on the home. This author wants us to believe that if two identical homes were on the market in the same area, the home that boasts better quality photos can ask for a higher price? Get real! What’s more get a clue and then get your real estate license, list some properties and then come back and tell me that “better quality” photos got your clients higher prices.

Now, don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. Having great photos of a home will certainly attract more attention to the home. It’s not the type of camera that will attract the attention though, it’s what is in the photos. I’ve seen amazing homes that had horrible Realtors who then took horrible photos of the home which then probably coupled with an unrealistic asking price contributed to the home sitting on the market longer than it should have been. Leaving the toilet seat up, having food and dirty dishes all over the kitchen, toys scattered all over the house, dirty clothes on the floor or on beds and then taking photos without cleaning all that mess up even in the most amazing of homes is going to detract attention away from the home not attract. It’s called common sense people.

All the nice photos in the world are not going to have any effect on the selling price of your home, believe it or choose not to believe it. Put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and if you were buying a home, would you pay more for a home just because it had really nice photos? Imagine the Realtor saying to you the buyer, “the asking price is $399k but I think you should offer $420k. After all, look at all the nice photos.” Aack!

At the end of the day, great photos can help in selling a home but they categorically will not get anyone anymore money. The faster everyone stop’s listening to all of this idiocy the better off we will all be.

Renee Porsia is an expert associate broker with RE/MAX Action Realty and published author.

If you would like to read more of Renee Porsia's articles, visit Renee's blog at www.reneeporsia.wordpress.com

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Are Realtors Making The Real Estate Crisis Worse?

10-01-10
Renee Porsia

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Renee Porsia
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By Renee Porsia, Real Estate Girl

Realtors® aren’t helping the current real estate market crisis any. We already have home owners losing their homes, doing short sales, walking away from their homes and turning their homes back over to the bank. We certainly don’t need Realtors® making an already horrible situation worse. But yet, here they are with all of their awards and designations mind you, (that nobody cares about but themselves) still patting themselves on the back and adding more fuel to proverbial fire by purposely taking over priced listings.

The market is saturated with over priced homes that are just sitting there, why do we need more? Why is it that Realtors® just can’t say “NO?” If a home owner is being unrealistic, walk away from the listing instead of raising their expectations by listing the home at whatever price the home owner wants when you very well know the home will never sell at their asking price. Have some respect for yourself. Be the expert that you are supposed to be.

I just had a listing that I put on the market and priced it exactly where it should be priced and I had Realtors® calling me screaming at me saying that I priced it too low and that it was going to bring down the prices in the development. They were telling me that aproperty like my listing in the condition that it is in, a year ago would have sold for much more. Wake up! Are you living under a rock? Why do you think we are in current real estate crisis that we are in now? Just because homes that weren’t worth what they were listed for, sold, doesn’t make it right. And they call themselves professionals?

If we ever expect to recover from what is being called the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, somebody needs to be part of the solution and not part of the problem and Realtors who are looked upon as supposed experts, should not be more afraid of not getting the business than doing the right thing. How do you expect to ever be taken seriously in a profession that most people consider a joke if you can’t even do the single most important thing a Realtor® does which is price a home correctly?

I’m not saying that every single Realtor® is out there purpously over pricing homes but in the real estate industry, even one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch and as professional Realtors® we should be better than this. We are expected to put the client’sinterests ahead of our own and by knowing that a home is not worth what they are listing it for in order just to get more business is definitely putting their interests over that of their clients. This needs to stop.

It is of my professional opinion that Realtors® are making the real estate crisis worse and if they aren’t making it worse, they certainly aren’t helping.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

Renee Porsia is an Associate real estate broker with RE/MAX Action Realty and published author. Read more articles by Renee Porsia at www.reneeporsia.wordpress.com

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FOX BREAKING NEWS ON HUMPTY DUMPTY

09-21-10
Renee Porsia

Renee Porsia, Real Estate Girl

Humpty Dumpty sat on the real estate wall waiting for home prices and mortgage ratesto fall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and "CRACKED!" All of the Realtors® and all of the lenders couldn't put Humpty together again.

You see boys and girls, the moral of Humpty’s story is, because he didn't take advantage of all the great home prices and low interest rates he cracked both physically, from his fall and emotionally, due to his lollygagging and was forced to move in with his egghead parents and became a couch potato.

Happy Tuesday.

Renee Porsia is an Associate Real Estate Broker with RE/MAXAction Realty and published Author.

RE/MAX Action Realty
1126 Horsham Road
Maple Glen, PA 19002
(215) 358-1100 (ask for Renee)
(215) 669-0589 Direct
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Say Goodbye To Real Estate Commissions Say Hello To Hourly Fees And Retainers

09-15-10
Renee Porsia

By Renee Porsia, Real Estate Girl

For as long as I've been a Realtor which is 10 years now, I've always heard sellers and buyers say that Realtors get paid too much money. Easy to say coming from someone who isn't paid by commission only and who gets a paycheck every Friday. It's always easy to judge someone when you do not walk in their shoes. Isn't it?

Too much money; seriously? How much is too much money anyway and who appointed those people the salary police?

Let's talk about this for a second. When someone contacts me to come to their home to possibly list it and I am there for an hour or more, I am not being paid and if they do not hire me, I worked for free. If a buyer contacts me about buying a home and I meet with them and spend an hour with them and they do not hire me, I worked for free. If a buyer decides to work with me and I show them 1 home or 50 homes and they decide they do not want to buy any of them after I just spent 3 months with them, I worked for free. If I list a seller's home and the home never sells after I spent money to advertise it, which includes signs, lockboxes, flyers and internet marketing, I worked for free and I am actually out money because I have to pay out of my own pocket to market the home.

Now, lets look at it from a different perspective, if I meet with a buyer and they decide to work with me and I show them one home and they buy it, I get paid a commission aka fee for service when it settles which still will take no less than 30 days and if I list a home and it sells in one day, I will be paid my fee for service again in no less than 30 days and many look at that and say well, she didn't do anything and she is making this much money but what they fail to understand or know is that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before settlement day and guess who is doing that work, me. One of the most valuable services I will be providing to that buyer or seller is to ensure that settlement will indeed take place and that the transaction doesn't fall apart. So many things can happen during the time a buyer signs an Agreement of Sale or when a seller accepts an offer on their home. I will have to deal with the mortgage company, title company, inspection company, the other Realtor, do mounds of paperwork, spend hours on the phone going back and forth with those involved, arrange final walkthrough and attend, arrange inspections and attend and if all goes as planned, finally attend settlement so at the end of the day or in this case, transaction, I could have possibly spent well over 40 hours on just one transaction. Most people get paid weekly for a 40 hour work week. I will wait 30 days or more to be paid and that amount will be different each time and will depend on how much the home finally sells for.

I'm sorry but that is a damn good arrangement for buyers and sellers. They pay nothing while I do all the work and they will not pay anything until they go to settlement and then, that's right, it's time for me to be paid for all the work I've already done. Who else provides that type of fee arrangement?

But hey, I can change if you want change. Rather than pay a commission or fee for service, let's change the way the entire real estate industry does business. Pay an hourly fee or an up front retainer. If you are a seller and would like for me to come to your home for a listing appointment, I'll charge you an hourly fee and this way, if you do not hire me, I still earned my fee for services rendered and I am paid for my time to meet with you. If you are a buyer and you want to meet with me before you decide to hire me, you pay me an hourly fee and then you can go home and decide if you liked what I had to offer you. If I show you 1 home or 50 homes, you can pay me an hourly fee and if you decide to never call me again or to go buy a home from your best friend who just got their real estate license after I spent 25 hours with you over the course of 2 months, well then no harm, no foul because I've been paid. Hey, if you don't like hourly fees, pay me a retainer and after that retainer is used up, you can pay another until you finally make settlement on your new home or sell your existing home and if you decide not to buy or sell, well then that's the "price" you will have paid for my services.

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them.

Renee Porsia is an Associate Broker with RE/MAX Action Realty and published Author.

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