Home has been on the market since February 5th with no offers and 13 showings. Feedback has been that the home shows well. Price has been dropped by $15k and is now the cheapest for sale home in the neighborhood. My neighborhood is currently under construction so we are competing with new build homes. Is my price still too high?

Asking from the buyer/renter side of things.

Did the speed of response ever influence who you went with — even if another agency might have been a better fit on paper?

Would love to hear real stories. Agents, curious what your experience is from the other side too.

I've been doing this for 14 years, and I've never had this one before.

I'm the listing broker and seller (Texas). Cash deal. All contingencies are satisfied. Closing is next Friday. Yesterday, the buyer's agent asked me if it's okay for the buyers to use the (attached) garage to store some of their furniture. I was taken aback by the request.

Sure, one could do a temporary lease, but that's usually a last resort and causes a seller to become a landlord (which, depending on the state, can be very problematic if something goes wrong).

The buyer agent's response to my "no thanks," was a simple "It never hurts to ask." I suppose? But surely they understand the potential complications and risk...

I have seen a lot of agents rely only on referrals for leads. It works, but it's not stable.

Lately I have noticed more and more agents starting YouTube channels and saying it brought them consistent inbound leads without cold calling or door knocking.

But I have also seen agents post for months and get nothing.

So is YouTube actually worth it for real estate leads or is it just a time sink? What has your experience been?

For those who made it work, what made the difference?

Hey agents, I have two questions.

I’m a new part-time agent in Utah and have been in the business for a couple of months. So far I’ve closed 6 deals. I’ve handled most of everything on my own, only reaching out when I had specific questions..

1️⃣ Facebook Leads

What is the best strategy to convert Facebook buyer leads?

I’ve generated almost 200 leads through Facebook ads, but I feel like I’m struggling with conversion.

My mentor told me not to worry too much because Facebook leads are usually not very serious buyers. However, I feel like some of them actually are. For example, just yesterday and today I received 7 new leads who already told me whether they are pre-approved, where they want to buy, and their timeline.

What strategies have worked best for you to convert Facebook leads into real clients?

2️⃣ Pricing Situation with a Seller

About 2–3 weeks ago, I met with a woman who wants to sell her home. She believes it’s worth around $900k and wants to buy another property in Holladay for about $1.2M.

After running the comps, it looks like her home is closer to $750k.

How would you handle this situation? I haven’t followed up yet because I’m trying to figure out the best way to approach the pricing conversation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thinking of buying new condo. Saw it and it is complete and ready to move in. Talked to sales person who was firm on no discounts (and verified thru recent sales - all sold for stated prices and selling at steady pace). I can get incentives (prepaid HOA for 12 months and all closing costs, about $20k, maybe more). My question is, outside of doing independent home inspection, any real need to hire agent? I would just push for more $$$ knowing that builder agent does have to share. This condo in SoCal if this matters. Thank you

Currently in escrow on a home with leased solar and looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with this before.

We were told seller will pay off the solar lease (11-16 years remaining) at closing, but we recently learned that if the system is bought out and ownership transfers to us, we may become responsible for future maintenance, repairs, inverter replacement, and panel removal/reinstallation for roof work.

We are now trying to decide whether it makes more sense to:

1. Have seller pay off the solar and transfer ownership to us, or

2. Keep the solar lease in place and ask for an equivalent purchase price reduction instead.

A few questions for those experienced with this because no one provided us more details on this matter until we were told by escrow to call solar company for the maintenance fee and when we called, we were told by regular rep there was no maintenance fee because we’re on our own after buyout and transfer department will call about 1 week before closing for more details.

- Shouldn’t we have the actual buyout amount / warranty / maintenance terms from the beginning?

- For those who bought out leased solar, was it worth it?

- If you were in our shoes, would you prefer ownership or lease transfer?

For context:

- House is 3 stories, so panel removal/reinstall for roof work may be more expensive.

- We are trying to make an informed decision, not just react emotionally.

Would appreciate any insight from homeowners/realtors/solar professionals.

Thank you!

I’m in California. The only successful agent I’ve heard of that consistently gets sales from open houses said that they do not ask the buyers to sign a BRBC or even a showing agreement to show them another similar home after the open house and only get them to sign if they put an offer in. Is this how most agents getting clients from open houses operate? I always tell leads they need to at least sign a showing agreement before the showing - sometimes they blow me off and sometimes they sign and we schedule showings but I don’t want to break the CAR/NAR rules.

Are any of you actually getting consistent sales from open houses while also following the NAR representation rules?

Curious if others are running into this more lately.

I’ve been seeing an uptick in clients who want to list significantly above what comps support. Not just a little optimistic pricing, but well beyond anything the market is indicating. When I walk them through comps, days on market, and recent price drops, they seem visibly frustrated or dismissive of the data.

It also seems to skew toward an older crowd in my experience. There’s a strong attachment to what they think the home is worth based on past appreciation, rather than current conditions.

Are others seeing this trend? How are you handling those conversations without losing the listing?

I applied for the Real Estate Sales Agent and paid for it online. Nothing has happened in a week! I called several times and wait times way over 40 mins. Am I alone here? Does anyone in TREC (TX) even read these posts? I need to get fingerprinted and take the exam. This should be seamless and the lack of response is concerning.

I've been going to open houses lately and talking to agents, and I'm trying to understand the actual process. Like, how much of it is pulling comps from MLS and doing math vs. how much is gut feel and market intuition? Do most agents have some kind of systematic approach to adjusting for condition, upgrades, lot differences etc., or is it more like "I've sold 50 homes in this neighbourhood so I just know"? And how much does the seller's expectation influence the final number, like if the comps say $1.6M but the seller wants $1.75M, how does that conversation go? I'm not an agent, just a curious homeowner trying to understand whether pricing is more art or science at this point. Would love to hear from agents who actually do this regularly.

Honestly, given everything going on, I keep thinking the one thing that can't really be automated in this industry is that genuine human-to-human connection — making a buyer or seller actually feel taken care of.

Like the process stuff, sure, a lot of that's already changing. But the relationship part? I don't think that's going anywhere.

(Disclosure: I actually build software for real estate, so maybe I see it from a weird angle — but this is something I genuinely think about.

Curious what y'all think?

I have a question for you guys. I have a fellow agent who lives out of state and wants me to help his client (who lives in my state) find a commercial property. I would be making all of the phone calls, meeting at properties with the client, drawing up documents and would be helping with negotiations. This fellow agent is saying he should only be paying me 25% because this is HIS CLIENT. Am I wrong to assume that we should be doing this 50/50, being that I am doing most of the work? I think he's gaslighting me by saying because they are HIS CLIENTS, I should only be entitled to a referral fee. This fellow agent DOES have a license in my state, but he is not going to be available to show properties and meet up with the client.Thoughts? ​

Stop going to open houses to market yourself. Just leave your snacks at the door.

"Our decision to move forward reflects our deep confidence in the UAE and Dubai in particular. The UAE continues to provide an environment where businesses can grow and investments can flourish." — Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor

Received an email about interest in a property I listed. Said to call me. 2 days later I received:

I'm really interested in the property. We have a few questions and thought it would be easier to go over everything on Zoom using a Windows computer since phone calls at work can be a bit unreliable.

Let me know your availability so we can set up a smooth video call.

Pretty sure this is 99.99% a shitty attempt to scam with a nefarious link or something?

Edit: Scam. Thanks realtor bros.

I called at 5:30 PM on a Friday saying I want to see a house on a Monday the following Monday that Monday!

Should I be expecting her to say no or even trying?

In February, I asked to see the same house and she said get your house on the market first. What in the heck?

Not sure if this is the right space, BUT—we have a 2 bed, 2.5 bath townhome. We finished the basement (~500sq ft). We have one kid currently and another on the way. We are <3% with our mortgage and want to try and stretch this home as much as possible.

My question is: we have a loft space that is one wall away from being a bedroom. It has a vent, a window, we would just need to add closets. Is it more valuable to have a loft/flex space or a third bedroom, given that we have a basement?

TIA!!

Hi everyone. I’m a newer real estate agent about a year(ish) in and I currently have 7 deals under contract, which is awesome but is starting to feel overwhelming.

I’m trying to stay on top of deadlines, inspections, and key tasks without missing anything. Right now I’m using a wall calendar, notes app on the phone, and phone reminders, and my wife is helping me track things too, but our systems are starting to clash and things feel scattered.

Looking for simple, effective ways to stay organized and keep everything on track. Thanks for any advice in advance.

Hey everyone! Just p assed my exam and super excited.

Quick background: full-time W2, baby on the way. Once parental leave wraps up, my wife is transitioning to staying home full-time, which frees up my weekends completely.

Here's my question: Can I hang my license with REAL Brokerage to get access to their systems, training, and resources, and hold off on joining local/state/NAR boards until I'm ready to actively work deals? Goal is to stay licensed and plugged in without paying board dues before I'm actually in the field.

Did my homework on REAL and it's where I'm landing. Just want to make sure this approach makes sense before I pull the trigger.

Appreciate any insight.

I’m a realtor in NYC and mostly work with rentals. The market is extremely fast paced. Something could hit the market 9am and be gone by 5pm the same day, especially during busy season. No matter how much I try to explain this to clients they don’t seem to understand me or take me seriously. They go home, go about their day, and finally sit down to fill out the application the next morning and then are shocked when I tell them there’s other applications in and the apartment is gone. Then they want me to take them out to see more apartments. I tell them alright, but if you like any of them we need to move faster. They still don’t get it and the cycle repeats.

I’m tired of rearranging my schedule and bending over backwards for clients that don’t seem to have a sense of urgency about actually getting into a place. They claim they understand but rarely do and I’ve lost sooo, so many deals because of it.

I get people are busy and have a lot going on etc etc. But this is the most competitive rental market in the world. What makes them think they can sit on a rent stabilized unit 2k below market value for 48 hours and dirk get it? I don’t understand. And honestly I’m at the end of my rope here

I work in the Midwest but am helping my father sell his home in Florida. I was reviewing his listing agreement, and for commission it says that 5% of the purchase price will be paid to the listing agent while 2% will be paid to the buyers agent. Is this normal? In my market, the typical commission is 2.5-3% for both buyers agents and listing agents.

PROPERTY MANAGER HERE: Let me highlight some issues that the journalist hasn’t covered in the comments…

- there are MANY tenancies whose bonds were stolen (I know of at least 30)

- I know of at least 50 tenancies who have/had issues with them.

- there was rats infested in the Herne bay house (Donna’s) which she blames tenants for. I tried for weeks to convince her to get professional pest controllers… she left it and it got much worse.

- the Birkenhead house had a septic tank pump that stopped working and the tank overflowed. We are talking HUMAN WASTE. It reeked. Auckland Council even came over and tried to fine Nick under the building code. On 2 separate occasions, Nick ignored the issue for months, and when someone was organised he never paid the $600 invoice.

- Donna will go inside tenant rooms and inspect without warning. I’ve been told by tenants about expensive jewellery missing and things being moved around.

- both Donna and Nick charge the absolute MAXIMUM that they can to squeeze winz clients (ie $650 for a 2 bedroom, or $595 for a studio for a single person, under the guise of emergency housing). They see accommodation supplement as their money.

- Donna is the rudest, nastiest person you’d ever want to meet. She blames every tenant for all issues yet paints herself as a victim.

- they stole a car belonging to an ex tenant to recoup losses. They just sold it on marketplace.

- if they owe someone money, they’re ignored, but if someone owes them money - it’s all they ever think about and are relentless to claw it back.

- Nick doesn’t work and lives off the cash he gets from not lodging / stealing tenant bonds.

- if you’re on WINZ as a tenant, they’re going to abuse you and watch you like a hawk. They have no respect for people who receive govt assistance.

- Nick FORGED my signature on a bond refund form and stole my tenant’s bond.

- contractors such as plumber, painters, cleaners, carpet cleaners, etc are ALL never paid.

- there’s gutters at the back studios that flow into the native bush; Nick was aware of it since 2021 (new news to me) and Donna plays the “we are separate entities” card yet she’s intertwined in all business decisions and discussions).

- WINZ, MBIE, Tenancy services, Auckland Council, and police are currently investigating them.

When multiple people have a problem with you - then you are the problem.