[QUOTE=Biggirl]
Perhaps the Foxtons guy (it’s the Foxtons guy who keeps showing me crap I don’t want)
[/QUOTE]
Hang on a moment. You have Foxtons in New York? And they are worthless incompetent parasites who don’t understand anything other than cold-calling and spamming potential buyers with properties that are 30% over budget with half the number of bedrooms specified? What are the odds, they are also infesting the UK. Any idea where the plague originated?
[QUOTE=Biggirl]
I wanted to add that these people are jumping out of the goddamned woodwork at me. Every corner I turn there’s some Real Estate professional waiting to ambush me. I can’t read my e-mail or answer my phone or approach my mailbox or even walk down 5th Ave with out being attacked by people who think I’m stupid. BAH!
[/QUOTE]
well, you are wearing one of the biggest targets out there: “I’m in the market to buy a house”
If only you could add in “I’m interested in life insurance” and “I’d like some information on investments”, you’d get the trifecta.
[QUOTE=slaphead]
Hang on a moment. You have Foxtons in New York? And they are worthless incompetent parasites who don’t understand anything other than cold-calling and spamming potential buyers with properties that are 30% over budget with half the number of bedrooms specified? What are the odds, they are also infesting the UK. Any idea where the plague originated?
[/QUOTE]
The US Version started as YHD out of the Boston Area.
The UK version started in Notting Hill.
[QUOTE=D_Odds]
That would be the lesser NYC area. 
[/QUOTE]
Don’t make me come over to Pittsburgh and kick your ass.
Well, I hope you do as well as we did. 1900 sq ft on a third of an acre 35 minutes from Kelly’s work for $265K. Google was helpful in finding price ranges and areas to look around here. You already know the most important thing, don’t buy more than you can afford.
Do check out the government sites. I used the Cook County assessors site to help get an idea what the value of homes were and how certain features affected the value. I imagine NY has something similar.
Good luck!
[QUOTE=Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]
Don’t make me come over to Pittsburgh and kick your ass.
[/QUOTE]
If you should ever find me in Pittsburgh, please kick my ass enough to prevent me from ever returning. 
Where in LI? Will your kids need the schools? Cause, although I’ve only known not so educated people to come out of LI schools (sorry, honey, I know you have a Masters, but lets not talk about your SATs. Or your brothers. Or his wife’s. Of that of everyone I went to college with.), that seems to be a big factor in house price. AND there appears to be a fine line in terms of what makes a school better. So, if you like Plainview, Hicksville might be good to - IF you don’t need the schools. That’s just an example, although I believe it’s true for those towns.
[QUOTE=slaphead]
Hang on a moment. You have Foxtons in New York? And they are worthless incompetent parasites who don’t understand anything other than cold-calling and spamming potential buyers with properties that are 30% over budget with half the number of bedrooms specified? What are the odds, they are also infesting the UK. Any idea where the plague originated?
[/QUOTE]
Oh my, Foxtons, I can’t believe they’ve now invaded the States, they’re obviously heading for world domination.
Foxtons started in London (UK) where they have a reputation for being the biggest sharks around, and that’s quite a claim in the Estate Agent market. They’re notorious for hard selling AND over valuing properties. Basically, in London, a house will cost you on average £30,000 more than with another agent (what’s that, almost $60,000 US?).
[QUOTE=Caricci]
Where in LI? Will your kids need the schools? Cause, although I’ve only known not so educated people to come out of LI schools (sorry, honey, I know you have a Masters, but lets not talk about your SATs. Or your brothers. Or his wife’s. Of that of everyone I went to college with.), that seems to be a big factor in house price. AND there appears to be a fine line in terms of what makes a school better. So, if you like Plainview, Hicksville might be good to - IF you don’t need the schools. That’s just an example, although I believe it’s true for those towns.
[/QUOTE]
Her kids are in college, fortunately.
Yeup, college aged-- better for me!
[QUOTE=Biggirl]
M&H: You know, looking on our own, we found many properties for under $380,000.
REA: OMG!!! You didn’t sign any contracts did you? After all the work I did for you!
M&H: Please die.
[/QUOTE]
Just out of curiosity, did you have a contract with this annoying agent to work for you? A coworker got in a heap big mess of trouble about two years ago when he started looking for a house with one agent, found another house on his own which he put an offer on, and then tried to “switch” agents in midstream. The first agent apparently had a very strong legal claim to being screwed by my former coworker, and there was talk about thousands of dollars in some kind of penalties or compensation or something. I never asked how all that mess got settled.
[QUOTE=Ravenman]
Just out of curiosity, did you have a contract with this annoying agent to work for you? A coworker got in a heap big mess of trouble about two years ago when he started looking for a house with one agent, found another house on his own which he put an offer on, and then tried to “switch” agents in midstream. The first agent apparently had a very strong legal claim to being screwed by my former coworker, and there was talk about thousands of dollars in some kind of penalties or compensation or something. I never asked how all that mess got settled.
[/QUOTE]
Nope. I have signed nothing with nobody.
However, the Foxtons guy is a whole lot easier to work with now that BwanaBob has given me the key to finding my own houses. I tell him what I want to see and he makes the appointment.
Thanks again BBob!
[QUOTE=D_Odds]
If you should ever find me in Pittsburgh, please kick my ass enough to prevent me from ever returning.
[/QUOTE]
But your location clearly states that you are at the corner of Forbes and Murray in Pittsburgh. 
[QUOTE=Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]
But your location clearly states that you are at the corner of Forbes and Murray in Pittsburgh.
[/QUOTE]
Nope, Center of the Universe refers to Manhattan. I thought we all knew that. Pittsburgh refers to something else entirely.
Lemme just say a little something about foxtons: DON’T.
First, they kept telling us our bid for a house was being constantly rejected. In truth, I had contacted the seller to ask what was going on, because I knew his neighbor and also knew that we were coming in at almost $15,000 better than any other offer. This proce was still $25,000 below asking price. The seller actually told me that nobody had contacted him at all, and he’s more than willing to take our offer. When I asked the Foxtons rep if my offer was approved, he told me the seller had countered to $5,000 under asking. When I said to forget it, he suddenly was able to make the seller “see the light and go for the offer.”
They’re also mostly in the game to get you to finance through their mortgage brokers. Again, I must repeat DON’T DO IT! They tried to sting us for a few points as well as an ARM, all of which they stopped going through me, and instead went through my immigrant wife who had only a small working grasp of the language at the time. Once I finally got involved, the rate had dropped and the points disappeared. Thankfully we were able to get out of that scheme.
[QUOTE=Ravenman]
Just out of curiosity, did you have a contract with this annoying agent to work for you? A coworker got in a heap big mess of trouble about two years ago when he started looking for a house with one agent, found another house on his own which he put an offer on, and then tried to “switch” agents in midstream. The first agent apparently had a very strong legal claim to being screwed by my former coworker, and there was talk about thousands of dollars in some kind of penalties or compensation or something. I never asked how all that mess got settled.
[/QUOTE]
Can I ask an aside? It seems the estate agent market works differently in the US from the UK. Do you sign up with one agent to househunt for you? Do you pay him? What if he doesn’t have any properties you like?
Here, only the vendor has a contract with the agent and pays them a fee (typically 2%). The buyer doesn’t pay the agent anything and can go to as many agents as s/he likes to find the right house. You CAN pay a buying agent to go find a house for you, but only multi-millionaires tend to do that.
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
Nope, Center of the Universe refers to Manhattan. I thought we all knew that.
[/QUOTE]
You mean, like this?
[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
You mean, like this?
[/QUOTE]
The link does not work, but I suspect I know the picture you are linking to.
This Google link is probably what you were aiming for.
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
The link does not work, but I suspect I know the picture you are linking to.
This Google link is probably what you were aiming for.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, that’s the one. Sorry about the bad link.
[QUOTE=SanVito]
Can I ask an aside? It seems the estate agent market works differently in the US from the UK. Do you sign up with one agent to househunt for you? Do you pay him? What if he doesn’t have any properties you like?
Here, only the vendor has a contract with the agent and pays them a fee (typically 2%). The buyer doesn’t pay the agent anything and can go to as many agents as s/he likes to find the right house. You CAN pay a buying agent to go find a house for you, but only multi-millionaires tend to do that.
[/QUOTE]
I bought a house a few years back, and when I was going around looking for an agent, some of them wanted me to sign a contract and pay a nominal fee, like $10. I rejected these agents, but some people sign with them. So far as I know, it isn’t necesarily a scam or anything. It is just that the agent wants to be assured that he’s actually working for a client, not just doing a lot of legwork for someone who won’t use him to actually buy a property. Both buyer and seller agents get something like 3% commission on the sale of the house.
I’m not an expert on this, as I’ve said, but this is what I seem to recall.
