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Homeowner at Open House

1,950 Views | 8 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by TxAG#2011
htxag09
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8:42a, 7/12/22
AG
Kind of a weird question. But we went to an open house this past weekend and it was obvious pretty quickly that the realtor hosting the open house was the homeowner. It's not a cheap house, over $1.1MM, and the layout was kind of crap. So people were asking for ideas on how you could change it up to make a better use of space and she was getting defensive and talking about how the layout was great, etc., etc.

Turned us off so we just walked the house and kept to ourselves, normal pleasantry exchanges with the realtor: "home is great, love neighborhood, good finishes on the remodel, etc."

My coworker lives down the street so I talked to her about it this morning and she confirmed the realtor is the owner and she did host her own open house.

Is this normal/have you experienced it before? It wasn't hard to see that she was too personally attached to do a professional job at the open house. That said, don't think it will matter as it's a really desirable neighborhood, but still....
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ratfacemcdougal
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9:20a, 7/12/22
I believe according to realestate rules they have to disclose ownership. It being her house, she doesnt want to hear that it is not perfect and that she is a not genius for creating the perfect house.
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I am always wrong
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9:49a, 7/12/22
Eh, whatever. If you like the house, you like the house. If you don't, you don't.

Personally, I never use a buyer's agent. I always prefer to have the seller's agent show me the house. If the agent was the homeowner too, that would be fine with me.
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htxag09
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In reply to I am always wrong • 10:19a, 7/12/22
AG
Fear InoculAg said:
Eh, whatever. If you like the house, you like the house. If you don't, you don't.

Personally, I never use a buyer's agent. I always prefer to have the seller's agent show me the house. If the agent was the homeowner too, that would be fine with me.
Slightly disagree. There is a reason there are entire industries around things like staging. Some people struggle with creativity and can't really see something for what it could be, just for what it is. But agree with the premise of what you're saying. Which is why I said it'll sell anyway.

Just caught me off guard as this wasn't a For Sale By Owner. It was listed by a decent sized local realtor group with 20+ agents and a few dozen homes on the market right now.

Also, if you're going to show your own home you should be able to look at it objectively. Don't get defensive when people have questions. Hell, just looking at it objectively she could have staged it better and probably get more/better offers. For example, people moving to this neighborhood are 90% young families. A young family buying a $1mm+ house probably doesn't really want a bar open to their living room (room with a wet bar, poker table, dart boards, etc.).
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Señor Chang
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In reply to I am always wrong • 11:08a, 7/12/22
AG
Fear InoculAg said:
Personally, I never use a buyer's agent. I always prefer to have the seller's agent show me the house. If the agent was the homeowner too, that would be fine with me.
Just curious, but why?
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I am always wrong
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In reply to Señor Chang • 12:08p, 7/12/22
Señor Chang said:
Fear InoculAg said:
Personally, I never use a buyer's agent. I always prefer to have the seller's agent show me the house. If the agent was the homeowner too, that would be fine with me.
Just curious, but why?


In my experience buying residences and rent houses, your buyer's agent knows nothing about the property or the seller(s) other than what he/she is shown on paper or sees along with you. The seller's agent will almost always know more about the house and can more expediently get answers to any questions you have. As one example, for my new home I recently purchased, I called up the seller's agent and told her I wanted her to show me the house. She did, and this house happens to have a lot of unique features, many of which are smart features controlled by apps, and it also has a really unique swimming pool and pump setup that I was not familiar with. I had a ton of questions about these things, and the seller's agent was basically on her phone texting the seller and getting instant answers for me the whole time. Also, the seller's agent will know more about the seller, and even though they aren't supposed to disclose anything they aren't authorized to, they often let things slip that can give you some insight into what kind of offer they might prefer or what kind of buyer they'd prefer to sell to.

But also, I am a trial lawyer with a ton of real estate and oil and gas experience, including litigating over plenty of TREC form contracts. I pretty much live in conflict all the time, and I am more comfortable reading things myself and looking out for my own interests. I don't need or want a buyer's agent playing pretend lawyer and "representing" me in connection with a house purchase and costing me 2-3% on my offer. I also don't like having information from the seller/seller's agent filtered through somebody before it gets to me. Compared to what I do every day at work, reading and negotiating a TREC form contract to buy a house is incredibly basic. But I understand why some people might feel they need a buyer's agent.
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In reply to Señor Chang • 3:28p, 7/12/22
AG
Señor Chang said:
Fear InoculAg said:
Personally, I never use a buyer's agent. I always prefer to have the seller's agent show me the house. If the agent was the homeowner too, that would be fine with me.
Just curious, but why?
In reading his reply, he does it beucase he has alot experience in buying homes and understands the process and contracts.

95+% of buyers don't, hence why a need for buyers agents. Most people will only go through the home buying/selling process a handful of times spread out over a lifetime so a home consultant is necessary.
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In reply to htxag09 • 3:33p, 7/12/22
AG
She hasn't seperated from being an owner to being the agent. Really dumb of her and not doing her job at all at selling the house. Very few homes actually sell via an Open House, and she is just making it worse. She's also not taking the feedback from the prosepctive buyers and making changes to make her house more appealing. In this market... dumb dumb dumb
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TxAG#2011
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5:33p, 7/12/22
That's pretty funny. I would have certainly started making some deprecatory comments about the house to egg her on.
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