According to Inman.com, Sandicor (the MLS for Southern California, San Diego) requires that the listing agent contact information is placed on websites.
The MLS will reportedly terminate its data feed to those third-party publishers that do not comply in displaying the new field within 60 days.
My reaction: WTH? Srsly!?
In all possible situations I can not understand why the MLS would require it. To reasonably look at this, let’s first consider what an MLS is.
The MLS is a database of every home for sale, by realtors, within a specific area. This service makes an accessible database to developers and vendors to show listings on the world wide web so for the general public, finding a home is easy. Individual realtors take advantage of the MLS service so they can create a useful website for potential home buyers. Home buyers then come to a website which has the MLS and browse home listings – this information is free and available to them, but the developer of that site hopes that in return this “web surfer/ potential home buyer” will contact the designer (probably a realtor) to talk more about homes.
Now let me ask. Why would you build a website if 1) You know that when somebody views your website you are sending them to somebody else. 2) Even though you made it possible for this potential home buyer to find the home they love, you will never contact that person because you were required to put somebody elses information on it.
Should we not reward the person who took the time to create this resource (the website) available to home buyers.
A home is not the realtors product. They should have no right to put their name on it. The realtor did their job when they became friends with the home seller and then listed the home into the MLS. Beyond that, they should have no claim on the selling of the home, or give themselves an extra advantage in securing the home sale.
I’d like to try not to take side on things here, but this seems absolutely ridiculous. And I’m in Utah! It seems to me that this came about because a bunch of listing agents lobbied together to persuade Sandicor to make this nonsense decision.
Put it back to the way it was. There is no reason that a listing agent should need to double side every sale. They fulfilled their portion by listing the home, they can let somebody else do their job of now selling the home. Which brings up an entirely additional list of concerns when you suggest that the listing and seller agent be the same person. Sandicor, this decision is absolutely ridiculous.
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After we purchased our new condo we quickly decided the old oven needed to go and it needed to be replaced by a new oven. When we pulled the old oven out, the only replacement option was to go with an all gas range – there was no electrical output to power a stove.
When our new range arrived we hooked it up, turned on the stove and wa-la things worked great. Well it worked great until we turned on the oven portion. After just a few seconds we detected an off smell and turned off the oven. Later on we cooked a batch of brownies and the strange smell filled the house, so we finished the brownies with some windows open regardless of the cold winter air. Then like any smart man would do, I went to Google and searched for something along the lines of “When I turn on my gas oven I get a strange smell.” What I read there cautioned me that I should have no smell, that all of the gas should be burning up, and if I did have any smell there was a problem with my oven. It may be unlevel, the glo plug may not be burning all the gas… everything was saying the oven was faulty. So we called and the Maytag Man came – here’s what I learned.
After five seconds of the oven being on, he asked “is that what you are smelling?” He seemed slightly irritated when asking the question, and I replied “yes!” Turns out the smell was Carbon Monoxide and he gets lots of calls at this time of year for that smell. What I once thought was odorless (Wikipedia says it is odorless! Middle school home economics taught me it was odorless…) actually does have an odor. He then turned on a burner without a flame so it would release only unburned gas for me to smell. The small of unburned gas was very different and distinct – he described it as almost a rotten egg smell, and that is a good description of unburned natural gas.
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When you are looking to buy a home, you want the best possible deal. Who wants to pay more than they have to? When doing that, it’s important to know which type of seller you are dealing with. Is this a Non-Motivated Seller or is this a Motivated Seller?
Most sellers are motivated. Many sellers are in this boat: They owe more on their house than what it is worth, so unless they continue to make payments on it for the next 7 years they will continue to lose equity. Interest rates may have been very high when they purchased, so unless they’ve refinanced they want to go get into a home where they are not paying a hefty mortgage.
How you can tell if the seller is motivated.
The pluses and minuses of a motivated seller. Motivated sellers are generally great things for buyers. In most cases a motivated seller will pay all of your closing costs for you, and they may even drop the price more. Make sure you consider that when writing up your offer. The motivated seller may leave things (furniture, fridge) behind which will entice you to buy. One downside of a motivated seller may be the condition of the home, and
If you come across an unmotivated seller, you may want to move on from this property. Chances are that you will pay to much for the home and that you may end up being very unsatisfied with your purchase, as deadlines may not be met and the purchase will be long and drawn out. Unmotivated sellers are placing their home on the market with the hopes that some naive buyer will be enticed to their home and pay a price which is far above what the buyer should actually pay.
How you can tell if the seller is unmotivated.
The pros and cons of unmotivated sellers.
Here there are very few pros. The one big one that stands out is that it will make you question your desire to purchase this property, and you may move on and find an even better deal. Unmotivated sellers are unwilling to negotiate.
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Let’s say you’ve done your house shopping, and you’ve found the perfect home for you. The previous owners have moved out, gone off to another city or state, and they’ve filled the vacant house with a renter until their home sales.
When you are negotiating you need to figure out the advantages which both sides of the table have. First, let’s consider what negotiating power the home owner has.
They have the home you want to live in. This is your dream home. Once you make an offer, they know that you most likely wanting this home.
They have renters who are paying their mortgage off right now. While the home owners which you are trying to buy this house from may have may huge debt from this home, they’re getting money into the bank or building equity on a monthly basis. These renters may make the seller reluctant to sale. The question the seller must ask is if they want a ton of cash now, or if they want the long term investment.
You are going to buy their home. After months of waiting for an offer on the home, the seller finally has received one. If they don’t take this now, how many more months is it going to be until one is made?
This is a Buyers Market. If they don’t accept your offer, you are going to walk down the street and make an offer on the neighbors home.
Have a backup plan!!! This is vital to your negotiating power. Even though you will not communicate directly with the seller, and your realtor won’t, you need to have your realtor communicate to their realtor that you have a backup plan.
The best backup plan is to have another offer on a different home that you can walk to right now. In Business School they call this a BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). This is where you can say “Oh, you won’t accept this… well, Jim down the road will accept these such and such terms…”
To acquire a BATNA, you need to offer on a different home first. You need to low ball on an alternative home that you would be very happy with, but low ball so much so that offer will not be accepted (but if does, then great – or lose your earnest money if you weren’t actually sincere in your buying intent…). At the point that your offer is not accepted by your alternative home, you will have more than likely a generous counter offer. That offer is everything, use that as your leverage.
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When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood. This piece will cover what you need to know about installing hardwood over tile.
As good as hardwood looks, in some areas it’s just not a good idea. For example, if you want to put hardwood right in the entry way consider the damage that shoes can cause if they’ve come straight from outside. Small rocks in the shoes can leave deep scratches in your hardwood. Remedy this by having a sturdy doormat in place.
If you are installing in the kitchen, consider the damage that water may cause hardwood. Drips around the sink, or if your dishwasher breaks and leaks may leave you regretting your decision to install the hardwood.
When you lay the hardwood, you’re going to want to give it some freedom to expand and contract as the temperature as your home changes. Even just a few degrees can cause hardwood to really shrink or expand, so around every edge you’re going to want to leave 1/4″ gap. But of course, you won’t want to see that gap – you’ll need to keep it hidden. So, remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8″ high, and with an extra 1/8″ for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.
This is the hardest part and get downright grueling. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8″ drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.
Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.
To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards
Leveling Tile in Preparation for Hardwood
If you are unable to remove the tile, let some leveling around the uneven portions of the tile, once you have leveled the surface (as pictured on the left) lay an 1/8″ foam pad which you will act as an additional leveling agent for your floor. Even though the tile absorbs water which may come from beneath your surface, this foam pad acts as an extra water barrier from moisture below.
At this point it’s your job to put the hardwood down. Cut to size, shape where necessary, and you should be done in a matter of just a few hours! Good luck!
My name is Kirk Salisbury and I am a do-it-yourself home repairman. The tips above worked for me, and I hope they work for you. I also design websites which focus on real estate around the country so I can help people find Washington DC Homes, Charleston Real Estate, or Irvine Foreclosures
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The latest client that we’re looking forward to is in South Carolina. This client is coming on very quickly, and we’re entering a very competitive market, so the going may be slow at first but we’re up for the challenge. We’ve gone full steam ahead and got the crew working, and in the matter of one hour we’ve put together an attractive looking website with all the right basics for a succesful real estate site.
This site is another .info, so we’re hoping that it is going to take after it’s role model .info in Phoenix Real Estate. If you want to see the new best site on the internet for South Carolina real estate, then check out Charlotte SC Homes For Sale
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2012 is looking to be the best year I’ve lived! I’m absolutely stoked for the fantastic things that will come our way this year!
Along with the new year for us comes our new home. It’s nothing huge, but it’s definitely going to be a very special place for us. We are now owners of a condo, and have plenty of projects that we have undertaken there. Each one of those projects is underway as I speak, and only one of them is finished. I’m going to talk all about that in the a new blog area called “Condo Renovation.” It will focus on things which we have done to make this condo fantastic!
Other things that I’m very excited about – this year I will meet my brother-in-law for the very first time. He’s been on a mission in the Dominican Republic during the entire time that Jessica and I have been dating.
Jessica has returned to blonde this year, so that will give her another extra thing to be happy about. There are just plenty of great things to look forward in 2012, including the Eastern Caribbean! Who knows, maybe there will be a kid on the way this year too.
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My name is Kirk Salisbury, and welcome to my website kirksalisbury.com. I live in beautiful Logan, UT
and work as a web designer
SEO specialist and
internet marketer
at Boomerang Leads.