Hiring A Realtor

What is the best thing a consumer can do to prepare for the 2024 selling season?

Get Good Help!

To check an agent’s qualifications, go to Zillow and click on the Agent Finder at the top of their page. Zillow wants you to use one of the agents they display prominently, but all you know about them is that those agents pay the most money to be featured there.

If you have a realtor you are investigating, you’ve probably checked their business website – and noticed how they all tend to look the same. It’s why Zillow is the reliable go-to website, because they are pulling the sales data directly from the MLS so agents can’t manipulate it.

What are you looking for?

You want to hire an experienced agent who has a well-honed set of sales skills. An agent who has proven history of getting a variety of people to the finish line. An agent who can handle anything that happens, and still deliver a smooth and easy experience for you.

Things to Consider:

  1. A well-qualified agent should be closing at least one sale per month.
  2. Agents who represent sellers and buyers have a better grasp of the big picture.
  3. Those who successfully work a larger area have sales skills that travel.
  4. The agent reviews is where you can find out who is doing the actual work.
  5. There are agents who get 5.0 on every review, so don’t settle for less.
  6. Years of experience isn’t as important as number of sales in the last 12 months.

Everyone is in a hurry and wants to grab and go. But if there was ever a time to patiently investigate the choices, it’s when you’re making one of the most critical decisions of your life.

Get Good Help!

https://www.zillow.com/profile/Jim-Klinge/

Bubbleinfo Anniversary!

It was 18 years ago today that I started writing this blog.

It was a Saturday morning. I set up a free account at squarespace to get it started, and it was solely because I expected every other realtor to do a blog too. Funny how that turned out!

Donna said, “Yeah well fine, just don’t spend too much time on it.”

I’ve been a part-time blogger ever since!

It was in August, 2005 when our escrow officer called me to say the buyer of one of our listings was objecting to signing the loan documents. Their realtor/lender beat me over there, and I heard her telling the buyer, “No worries, we will refinance”. It was one of many things that were happening then that led me to start the blog (the home got foreclosed 22 months later).

This is my first blog post, and it still resonates somewhat today:

Housing blogs were becoming popular and I commented regularly elsewhere. It caused more people to discover what I was doing – and to slam me just because I was a realtor, even though I was being pretty gloomy. By 2009, I had picked up quite an audience, and enough attention that the LATimes picked up on the blog, which led to this piece by ABC News Nightline:

The ABC TV spot ran in April, 2009, which coincidentally was the trough of the San Diego Case-Shiller Index. The audience here exploded, and at the same time the bank-owned listings being sent to us increased substantially. We sold 72 homes in 2009, our all-time high!

All kinds of crazy things have happened.

For example, we monitored the Jenae scandal in Bressi Ranch and La Costa Valley where she and co-conspirators were doing seminars and selling homes to unsuspecting suckers who financed their purchases 100%. Jenae promised to rent them out but they were adding $100,000 to each purchase price that was kicked back to her partner John as a tenant-acquisition slush fund. He finally went to jail but Jenae claimed she was duped too and she is still selling homes around the county today.

My life was threatened a couple of times, I’ve evicted dozens of people, I’ve been in a movie, and on CNBC TV (twice), plus I’ve been on ReasonTV, and in Grant’s Interest Rate Observer (on October 3, 2008 for those who have access). I’ve been on industry panels, I’ve been an expert witness in court, I made a citizen’s arrest of squatters, and I’ve met with the FBI to turn in scamming realtors…..among other things!

I’ve had 12,101 blog posts here with 68,179 comments and 3,000+ Youtubes with 2,341,000+ views, plus 14,200+ tweets. It has been one heck of a ride – let’s keep it going!

Thanks to readers everywhere, and a special acknowledgement of those who have utilized our real estate services over the years. It is why I do this blog, and I appreciate your support!

Family Time!

The fam is back together in New York City for Natalie’s next show tonight at the Met-Life Stadium! Grateful to be enjoying what could be a once-in-a-lifetime gig for her – how many concert tours are there of football stadiums around America? Full report of the show to follow.

Madison Square Garden at bottom and Empire State Building

Pablo Picasso

Buyer Testimonial

Are you wondering what it is like being a buyer these days – and how we can asisist you?

This is a good example. Our buyer above made offers on seven different homes over the last year before winning the right home, at the right price. We survived a five-offer bidding war when the sellers accepted our offer of $1,340,000, then we worked them down by $50,000 after our inspection.

At $1,290,000 for 1,801sf, I think it will be one of the better buys in Carlsbad this year:

https://www.compass.com/app/listing/2112-sereno-court-carlsbad-ca-92009/1233282253043263001

This street is the next block over, and though these are a little bigger, we loved the prices:

We can help you too!

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