Quote Originally Posted by JohnTRourke View Post
#1 rule of real estate

real estate brokers/agents are a complete waste of oxygen, much less your time and money.

mortgage brokers are pretty useful though and well worth talking to initially, they will tell you what you need and where you should be.

BTW, IMHO, prices have a LONG way to fall still.


you are completely incorrect. this is extremely bad advice.

most home buyers could not get through the disclosures, financing, appraisal, inspection, title exceptions etc. without a broker.

I am sure that you may be the exception, but having a good buyer's broker on your side should be your number one priority. Do not use the agent who's name is on the sign. they work for the seller, not the buyer. Although they cannot lie to you they do not have your best interest at heart and are not there to make sure you are getting a good deal.

I will give you one quick example, I have a client that we are working with. they bought a piece of commercial land from the seller's agent, the property was represented as being completely commercial with a commercial well and that it was zoned for gas station convenience store anything but a restaurant. the sellers agent said so, the property had a snow mobile shop in place when purchased.

jump forward three years, my client asks me to list the property for sale again. i do my due diligence and find out that the property is most Ag2 not commercial, the business that was in place when purchase is built in the only usable land, but is built on agricultural land and is illegal, the "commercial property" is most vertical and completely useless. unless the rezoning goes through this buyer has purchased a useless piece of land and will lose his investment due to the much lower value of the ag land.

had he hired his own agent this would have never happened.

OP shoot me a pm. I can make sure this venture of yours goes smoothly. i do not take listings for the most part (prior clients excepted), i only make sure my buyers are getting a square deal.

by the way your own "buyer's agent" will cost you nothing. not having an agent can cost you everything.