The coming financial crisis

[shorebird]

There is always another house out there. Especially nowadays. If the conditions of the sale aren't to your liking, get up and walk away. I've done it before. There is nothing like getting up and walking out of a realtors office while he sits there pen in hand. I've done the same thing at settlements. Talk about getting someones attention.

Remember, the buyer is the one in control.

[ice grillin you]

you sound like an awesome client and im sure any realtor would love to represent you

[shorebird]

I could give a shtein about what any realtor thinks, or wether they would want to rep me.

Maybe you want to be all cuddly with them and invite them over for dinner. Not me.

I can give you and example. The last house I sold, it was five years ago, I had lived in it for 2 years prior. After the home inspection and all the things I took care of, they wanted sidewalk from the front driveway to the back door, and a pad with lattice around it for their garbage cans. At first I said no way, until I realized that they were looking at more than one house and would nix a $350,000 deal because of a little concrete. Yeah, I put in sidewalk.

The buyer holds the purse strings. It's that simple.

[SunMo]

you're a sucker

[Cerevant]

If you contact your sellers agent, or if you have a realtor contact your sellers agent, your not paying anymore of a commision. The realtors split it. And you can also have the deal were the seller pays the commision. They are the ones making the money. They should pay. The way the market is now, the buyer can set the standards of most any deal.

If you contact the seller's agent, they usually take the commission for both (the commission rate is set with the listing, and the agents split it).  What I was suggesting was to negotiate with the seller/agent to get part of the commission back.

[shorebird]

That ain't happening. You might get them to lower the commision rate a point or two, but thats not likely either.

[Cerevant]

When I sold the house in Souderton, the buyer was a fleshpopering icehole - every concession was met with another request.  Finally I put my foot down, and the buyer wouldn't move.  The buyer's agent wrote me a check for the difference and closed the deal.

As you say, you have to be willing to walk away, but if I were looking at getting 3% for a sale, and someone came to me and said you can close the deal today and get 4% I think I'd take it.

[SunMo]

yeah, sorry about that Cervant, but i really wanted that rape room.  that was a deal breaker.

[rjs246]

Remote control doors for the rape room ain't cheap.

[Cerevant]

The economy is screwed, regardless of who gets elected:

Oh, but Bush — the nation's first MBA president, mind you — had such grand plans! His tax cuts for the rich would foster economic growth and job creation, resulting in more tax revenues, and everything would be rosy. The string of budget surpluses rung up by the Clinton administration would continue unabated.

But look where we are in the twilight of Bush's tenure. America has experienced seven straight months of job losses. The housing crisis is the worst since the Great Depression. Energy and food prices have soared. An almost-anything-goes regulatory approach has produced an epidemic of bad subprime loans, spiraling credit-card debt and a tsunami of property foreclosures and bankruptcy filings.

The wages of many Americans aren't keeping up with inflation. Millions of middle-class households from Florida to California have seen their net worth (assets minus liabilities) wither as a result of falling home values, higher personal debt and a shrinking 401(k) hammered by a declining stock market.

Republicans' once-logical claim to being the party of small government has been eroded by Bush's presidency. While the Bush tax cuts continue to restrict government revenues, spending has soared for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare (including a costly new prescription drug program), defense, education and other departments.

Interest payments on the national debt totaled an enormous $377.3 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year — the fourth-highest spending category in the budget.

Meanwhile, Bush and Congress have failed to address the scary long-term funding shortfalls facing Social Security and Medicare.

Disappointingly, the policy positions espoused by McCain and Obama don't provide the degree of fiscal sobriety that Washington must embrace. Neither candidate can deliver on all his promises, while simultaneously shrinking the deficits and meaningfully addressing Social Security and Medicare.

As I paraphrased before, the worst that could happen is that either of these guys get everything they are asking for.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

As I paraphrased before, the worst that could happen is that either of these guys get everything they are asking for.

No, that's pretty much what reasonable people like me have said all along.  You've been too busy hanging on Obama's penis to realize that his economic "plan" makes no sense at all.

[Cerevant]

Find one post where I say anything positive about his economic plans.  I like his healthcare ideas.  I like his campaign reform ideas.  I think he will be a huge positive for international relations.  I'm not crazy about how much money he wants to spend.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Is money used to pay for other things, like healthcare or additional regulation?

[Phanatic]

As I sit here waiting for my company to get bought out I see a lot of indicators that working in IT is going to really suck for a while. Everyone is outsourcing their IT this days. I guess not a big deal but I've worked for an outsourcing company before and it kind of sucked. Maybe there are good ones but you never feel like your a part of something.


Maybe I should go back to being an electrician...

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I see a lot of indicators that working in IT is going to really suck for a while. Everyone is outsourcing their IT this days.

Welcome to 2003.