Best way to rent out a condo?

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
<p>agwee,</p>

<em>Are you seriously saying that FSBOs misrepresent themselves, their property, or conditions any more than realtors?</em>



I have came across cases where bad realtors did more damages than FSBOs in term of misrepresentations. FSBOs are not selling houses on a daily basis; so, it's highly probable FSBOs misrepresent themselves. All it takes is one misrepresentation, no matter how minor, to cause major damage. FSBOs are not exempt from lack of knowledge in real estate law, rules, and regulations, of which are updated on a weekly basis.
 
<p>Make sure you did not get one of these:</p>

<p> <img alt="" src="http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2007/11/28/mn_milliondollarbill117.jpg" /></p>

<p>Story: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/11/27/national/a142510S65.DTL&tsp=1">www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi</a></p>
 
<p>awgee</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I agree that there are fewer FSBO deals but there are certain disclosures that people may or may not be aware of. These are statutory items that may not be intentional on the FSBOs part but can still cause a legal problem.</p>

<p>Sellers, not realtors, do the disclosures on their own properties so often the misrepresentation is by the seller. That is why there are inspections and disclosures by third parties.</p>

<p>If a FSBO understands the laws and pays for legal representation then they should be able to sell a property and mitigate their risk . Often they think they are saving money and won't pay for legal or tax advice.</p>

<p>The laws constantly change so even if they did a FSBO several years ago they may unintentionally make a mistake if they are not current on updated laws or requirements.</p>

<p>Often their emotions get the best of them in negotiating since it is their "home" and this can be costly.</p>

<p>Some people are capable of selling their own home but it is a trying experience and listed as the third most emotional event of ones life.</p>

<p>How many people on this board have actually sold their own home and how did it go? That would be an interesting thread.</p>

<p>Enjoy</p>
 
Well I personally haven't, but my parents have sold 3 out of their last 3 homes by plunking a "for sale" sign in the front yard with their phone number. My Dad negotiated well and they got their asking price twice and over it on the third. Never an issue afterwards, no dreaded lawsuit yada, yada, yada. I dunno, but with some of your schtick ,it feels as if you are trying to scare people into believing they can't do this for themselves. Just my take. I'm sure in this day and age people understand the risk they are assuming.
 
<p>Trooper</p>

<p>I just opened another thread asking this question. I am not trying to scare anybody. I think the level of the members of this group would certainly allow them to do their own transactions. I am interested in how many have actually done it for themselves and the results and in sharing the information.</p>

<p>I take the above to mean that you have not done it yourself.</p>

<p>Any guesses on the number of IHB members who have?</p>

<p>My guess is 7 or less.</p>

<p>Enjoy!</p>
 
<p>You are correct. I have not done a FSBO by myself. The options that are available today were not as prevelant then. I wouldn't hesitate to do it now....and have an escrow company handle all the paperwork and a lawyer to review the transaction. I figure I'd save quite a bit of money....and if it didn't sell, as a last resort I would use a real....a real....tor. But not for more than a set amount.</p>

<p> </p>
 
My experience is buyers and sellers make less mistakes even though the "professionals" are supposedly more informed, and my experience is that the buyers and sellers do a much better job of representing their own interests, since the realtors interest is to close a deal, which may or not be in the client's interest. It is much easier to negotiate a win-win with 2.5% or 5%, or 6% less expense involved.<p>



I think honest realtors would have more credibility if they stopped using the FSBOs make mistakes or misrepresent scare tactics. When I hear that crap, I want to vomit and it immediately makes me suspicious of everything else that person may be saying.
 
<p>awgee</p>

<p>The question is: <strong>have you sold or purchased a home without a real estate agent?</strong> I may have missed the yes or no answer.</p>

<p>I was hoping for actual accounts by people who have done their own transactions.</p>

<p>So far NONE! (Except for Troopers rental which I truly respect)</p>

<p>Enjoy</p>
 
<em>"The question is: <strong>have you sold or purchased a home without a real estate agent?</strong> I may have missed the yes or no answer.</em>

<p><em>I was hoping for actual accounts by people who have done their own transactions."</em></p>

<p>So sorry, I didn't realize my comments were limited by your questions or being responsive to your desires. Maybe I should start checking with you before I make a post to see if it meets your approval and conditions.</p>

<p><em>"(Except for Troopers rental which I truly respect)"</em></p>

<p>Oh, Please respect mine! Oh Please!</p>
 
<p>I am in the process of renting a nice house. I have a few comments.</p>

<p>1. This house was previously for sale and "perhaps" for rent. The real estate agent would not have added any value to this transaction. </p>

<p>2. I was quite impressed by the Nolo stuff on being either a renter or a tenant. After about 2 hours of reading, I realized that I now knew more about the relevant CA laws and considerations than most real estate agents. I know this because I have previously rented houses where an agent was involved. Same type of problems you see with agents who sell properties "here is the kitchen...." instead of understanding anything relevant about whom you might want to rent to or from.</p>

<p>3. We are "dream tenants". The people we are renting from had that initial impression and then checked our credit and references. When you find these kinds of tenants, keep them. If you were to try to advertise for such people, it is a bit tough to get the ad right. So many landlords come across as arrogant or intolerant. </p>
 
Shooby

This is off wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud#Rental_scams

Where the victim posts on a communal website (e.g. Craigslist) that he/she is looking for a roommate to share a rental unit (or is a landlord looking to rent a unit), and the scammer poses as an interested party and sends a check to hold the room. The check will originate from overseas. The victim receives the check and desposits it into his/her bank account, and that amount of money will temporarily appear as having been added in. Within a few days the scammer then contacts the victim and advises that he/she cannot move into the rental unit due to an illness. The scammer will even provide what appears to be medical documents indicating this state of ill health. The scammer then asks the victim to immediately wire transfer the money from the check back to him/her. This takes place, and then a few days later the victim finds out from his/her bank that the original check has bounced.
 
<p>awgee,</p>

<p><em>I think honest realtors would have more credibility if they stopped using the FSBOs make mistakes or misrepresent scare tactics</em></p>

<p>Thank you for this advice, very practical. Eventhough I have a strong conviction of the matter for being exposed to, being in the business, it usually backfires when I share the view with potential clients; therefore I rarely do unless there is NO financial motive on my part, which in this case, I am just a blogger.</p>
 
<p>In all fairness, good realtors are like good mechanics, in that a professional one is good to find. Just as I can tune my own car, rotate my own tires, and install replacement parts, I can buy and sell my own property. But I use a mechanic and their shop because they have more/better working space, specialized tools and training, far more experience, and it's usually far more convienent. We used a realtor for several reasons: a wide-spread area with hundreds of listings to sort through, current information on comps and asking prices, and as a built-in courier for important papers that needed signing during our working hours. I'd scoff at a mechanic who tried to tell me I couldn't replace the lower-end bearings myself, but that doesn't mean I would actually attempt it; paying someone else to do it just makes my life easier. There are plenty of bad mechanics who insist on lubricating your muffler bearings and changing your blinker fluid, and those specific people need to be called out and exposed. But that won't entice most people to attempt home auto repair and we don't indict the industry as a whole for trying to drum up business for itself.</p>

<p>I'm saying all this because the general tone on Realtors is decidely negative on IHB. While I get just as much amusement as everyone else from badly written ad copy on the properties featured, we are only seeing a tiny portion of the spectrum and yet we tend to indict the field based on the stupidity/greed/ignorance of the few. Just as, generally speaking, home auto repair isn't always a good idea I can see why FSBO isn't always a good idea. But if we only focus on the extremely negative cases, we risk becoming prejudiced as a group... to our detriment. Sooner or later, IHB will begin focusing on buying opportunities and a majority of it's readers will use Realtors to assist them in those transactions. I don't think it would serve anyone well to go into the process thinking of them as "Realtards" anymore than it serves us well to assume all traffic cops have a ticket quota, or that all blacks are criminals, or that all politicians have your best interests at heart. </p>
 
Hey All,



As we say in South Florida - first time, long time (first time poster, long time reader).



I'd like to offer my experience as both a FSBO purchaser (once) and FSBO seller (twice). In all of these situations, I'm glad that I didn't use a realtor becuase we were able to negotiate directly, keep the details simple and quickly contend with any issues that arose. I always required a real estate attorney to handle/check my details and found that the other parties also had one. All three deals went smoothly. I think that a large part of the success was that in all three instances I dealt with level headed individuals that basically knew what to expect and had the resources to complete the deal. There were no games or gimmicks. Also, the lack of RE agent commission was reflected in the prices.



I have also bought and sold properties using a realtor. I have had the good fortune to work with a couple of excellent professionals that definitetly earned their money (both buying and selling). In one case, our buyer's rep kept the deal alive when we had problems selling the old house. She kept the owners of the house in the game, helped arrange gap financing and explained all of the details to my wife. To me, that's the main reason to use a realtor - to solve any of the problems that arise with real estate transactions. Whether that is in pricing, marketing, negotiating, financing or closing, the realtor is there to represent my interest and to get the deal completed in a fair manner. This is true especially if I don't have the time to deal with the situation (i.e. job transfer to another city). Unforetunately, I think that a lot of the realtors in business don't do a good job of this. They either don't know enough or can't handle problems as they arise. Or they have other interests. I've seen and heard too many stories where an inexperienced or inept realtor has actually hurt the process. Its key to have a quality person on your side.



Additionally, because there are generally 2 or more realtors involved in a transaction, the odds of getting a goof-ball involved are pretty good. We actually almost lost a great house because the seller's realtor had mental problems. She literally was unstable and made everyone else work aorund her to get the deal done. Luckily our RE agent and the RE office manager were awesome and worked out the deal. (Funny note, I learned a couple years later that all the work was done in the mornings because the RE office manager liked to crawl into the bottle after lunch).



Thanks for all of the imformation on this blog. Its a great source and allows many people to make reasonable decisions.
 
<p>Nude - A couple of credentials first. First, I don't think I have ever used the term realtard to describe a realtor, although the first time I read it, I did laugh. Second, I know I have never looked for, found, or pointed out grammatical or spelling errors in the listings or advertisements. That would be kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. Third, I don't care how much money realtors make from their occupation. But, when it is my money, I choose to spend it judiciously. Fourth, embarassingly, my hobby is looking at open houses and model homes so I have the "opportunity" to listen to the pronouncements of many realtors. Fifth, I have my own business representing taxpayers in audits and preparing tax returns, so I am not unfamiliar with the difficulties of obtaining quality clients. Until very recently, I was recommending to most who asked me to prepare their return but had no need for my audit representaion service, to use tax preparation software and do their returns themselves, because I honestly thought they could self prepare and save themselves unneccesary expense. It has only been recently because of a few new audit clients that I no longer advise folks to self prepare, unless their return is very simple, because I have found serious and expensive faults in the commonly used software. When the software companies fix their product, I will go right back to showing folks how they can save themselves unneccesary expense.</p>

<p>I indict the re agent industry as a whole because even though there are some honest re agents out there, it has been my experience that honest re agents are rare. And because the industry claims to police itself. When the NAR and other re agent organizations make a real effort to instill and enforce ethics within their industry, the reputation for realtors will change from being overpaid used car salesmen and liars to professionals. Yes, it is a broad brush to paint with, but my experience tells me it is deserved, because it is a broad problem and not isolated to a few bad apples. How many of the present fraud cases do you think involve a Realtor (tm), and what has the NAR been doing for the past few years to prevent their realtors from engaging in fraudulent re transactions and protecting the public?</p>

<p>On a positive note, I will start a thread on the things not to say to a prospective client as a help to the re agents who are brave enough to post in here and those who lurk from time to time.</p>
 
awgee



My vote for a few things that a good agent should never say is: "It is always a good time to buy." "Real Estate never goes down." "We can't offer that low of a price." "Its not a problem."



These things should be red flags that the agent is not working for the principal.



Enjoy!
 
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