You know, the worst mistake I ever made as a real estate owner in Houston, Texas, was hiring a realtor who didn’t fully understand the ABC’s of the industry. I ended up losing thousands of dollars, and the pain I felt right after was something unfathomable. Believe me when I say, I wouldn’t wish such pain on my worst enemy.
And that brings us to our topic of discussion today. I thought, Why not educate those looking to buy or sell homes fast in Houston, Texas, instead of wasting time doing nothing due to the pandemic?
So we’ll be looking at some of the setbacks that remind me of the mistakes I made. And first on my list is the
Time spent on the market
Let’s all be honest for a quick second. The first thing that always comes to mind whenever someone talks about buying or even selling my house quickly in Houston, Texas, is working with a real estate agent. And for the record, I’m not saying that that’s wrong. I just want you to understand that a real estate agent can never guarantee you a sale. Yes, they’ll help you get the property market-ready, and yes, they’ll help you list it on the MLS. However, they don’t have the power to help you close quickly.
And do you know what the worst part is? The fact that you’ll be losing a lot of money the longer that property sits on the market.
Commissions
Oh boy, this expense almost took me out. Literally. I thought working with a real estate agent meant selling my house fast and then paying them a small fraction of the proceeds as a sign of gratitude. But it’s safe to say that wasn’t the case.
First off, I was never able to sell quickly. If anything, I realized this method was probably the worst method of selling a house in Houston, Texas. Secondly, by the time I was done closing, I realized I had spent 6 percent of my earnings on commission.
Now, I don’t know how much math you did back in school, but you need to understand that this 6 percent was no’small fraction of the proceeds”. A complete ripoff, if you ask me.
Deal falling through
I was lucky that my second deal never fell through, but sadly, the same can’t be said about the first one. It fell and fell hard.
I had to go back to square one, and that meant listing the house all over again. My morale was low, my time was wasted, and quite frankly, I never wanted to even interact with any interested buyer at that point. My agent took care of everything while I took some time off, but even he didn’t look as active as he looked when we started.
Repairs
So here’s a fun fact: We have companies that buy homes as-is, but here I was, busy making repairs and spending the little money I had on a home that I didn’t want.
You know what? Now that we’ve mentioned them, let’s just end this blog here and move on to the next one so that I can explain to you how those companies operate.
