Catherine Krueger's Discussions

Just go with the person you feel most comfortable with. A rookie is eager to please and is backed up by a whole office so your home will be advertised in the office and thus if a veteran agent has clients for it then it will sell. A veteran has a lot of experience to offer and in this market it is important. Selling takes a long time so you need a strong rapport with your agent. Pick who you feel you will get along best. Both will do a great job and if not cancel the listing and move ongood luck

I agree with the answers provided.  Short sales do take a long long time in general but if the bank has already approved the hardship package then you could potentially buy and close your escrow on a short sale in 30 days. We have managed that in our office.  But my experience is writing an offer back in February and I am STILL waiting for an approval from the bank for my clients!!! not good.  With inventory so high sometimes going to a "real live" seller is best.  They are motivated and competing against banks so you might end up paying a little bit more but you will get the house faster too!

I really feel for you.  You made a huge decision and now you have to assume the burden of it.  Look at it in a pragmatic way.   Can you afford to move? if yes will that change your opinion for sure or will sthg else comes up that bothers you too??  How is your family ajusting to the new homes?  are you the only one bothered? Can you do sthg during your commute to lessen the burden?  listen to audio tapes, meditate or enjoy music or catch up on the news etc....  If all that fails then you might have to move to a smaller home closer to work and pay the consequences of a small home (lack of storage, lack of personal space, lack of extra bedroom) or find another job closer to your current home...

Stage, Stage and Stage! It is vital for most houses!  If you are in the most desirable location with no competition well you can get by without staging but otherwise do it even if you do only the public rooms.  Stage with your own furniture if you still live there but bring in some fresh eyes too!  You will be biased by what you see.  If you don't want to pay for a stager consultation then get objective opinions from people... and don't get mad if they disagree with you.  In the end you want to sell your property for the highest amount of money in the least amount of time so if it means getting rid of almost everything, just do it.

That discussion provided me with a lot of thoughts:  On the one hand I read a lot of mistrust for realtors and their worth and on the other hand I read Realtors trying to explain the process and being shut down.  In most instances people disrespecting realtors' work did not get a good service for sure.  I have had clients sing my praises after I spent over 1.5 years showing them houses, writing offers and losing in multiple offers.  What they said is "I did not know that you guys worked that hard for your money!".  Shadowing a good agent for a week is a good test of how much we work.  It is true that a lot of Realtors are not worth much and we have to work with them too!! It is really frustrating to deal with an unethical lazy agent either as a consumer or as an agent.  I hate it and I am hoping the downturn will clean up the scummy agents and the sharks we have met over the last boom time.  That said it is wrong to bunch all the agents in the same category,  just as wrong to say all lawyers are scoundrel etc...  Money did come easy in the mid 2000s I don't deny that for some transactions but others took a lot longer!  We have to work a lot more nowadays for our money and provide excellent services if we want a chance to stay in business in the next year.  I would be curious then to get some feedback from those of you who have had a real estate experience then.  I would think your opinion would be different.

Call your Realtor and they can provide you with that list.  Title companies compile that information and sometimes the local association of Realtors will have them available for their members.  good luck

 wrote a few weeks ago about this house in the Berkeley hills where there were 12 offers.  The bank still countered everyone for the highest and best offer despite offers $200,000 over the asking price....  That is pure gluttony.  And then the worst part is they accepted an offer with 10% cash down on an REO where the previous owner had stripped the house of everything.  You name it and it is GONE...  so the house cannot appraise as a livable space.  After 2 weeks the buyers backed out because they did not get a loan so the bank decided to lower the asking price and put the house back on the market instead of calling the agents who had written an offer!!  I don't understand the reasoning yet again.  We are back at our second shot hoping to get our offer accepted.  I know that there were several over-the-asking all cash offers written on that property with 10 day closes and still the bank glossed over them.  Do any of you know what to do to avoid all the countering back and forth and reason with banks?  I would sure appreciate any tips you have....In my mind this is insane but nowadays if you don't want to deal with short sales then you have little choices and REOs are the norm.

The post put Monarch bay but the situation occured in the East Bay (Berkeley CA) and not Monarch Bay.

Well I got one listing from the internet and one buyer last week specifically from Zillow so buyers and sellers are out there looking...