"Best of" SE wisdom ! (eg: 1st offer = Best offer)

realtors still barter .. you work hard in the gym.. use your body

You mean for the 5-6% fee? Got any decent anecdotes?

Pricing Is Everything

- as you mentioned above, the buyers know the market best. they have been pounding the pavement for weeks, months or years before you throw your property on the market. If it is priced right (or a bargain) they will know and they will pounce. In this market, price cuts make buyers think more price cuts are on the way.

First born, second wife, third broker

Fall in love with not one but two apartments. (Or, as I tell my younger clients, "always have a backup boyfriend."

You're in your strongest negotiating position when you have a Plan B.

ali r.
author, "Diary of a Real Estate Rookie"
Http://tinyurl.com/2ag28z

How can we have a best of SE wisdom thread without "Buy now or be priced out forever"? Words to live by, I tell you.

Cartoon in realtors office 30 years ago....Drawing of an old man in a wheelchair....Caption: "Portrait of a young man waiting for real estate prices to come down"......Fast forward to 2010...same cartoon, new caption...."Portrait of a young man waiting for real estate prices to go up"

That's a great cartoon. I literally wince when I hear of people who looked for years, never pulled the trigger, analysis/paralysis (or irrational perma-bear) while the entire real estate boom passed them by. Friends sitting on 6-fig capital gains, while they still rent. It can only drive one to insanity (or to message forums?) So, yes, this qualifies as a pearl of wisdom. "Just do it"

Captive is so right -- listen to the rich dad, not the poor one. You gotta be in it to win it.

@Pelican, if the poster was from 1980, the old man would have been balking at prices in the 1940 or 50s. Envision looking at a $5000 property, and saying "Overpriced, I'll wait until it's $4500". Plausible at the time (10% is 10%), but now, the property sells for $750,000. It's downright tragic to think this happens to some people who end up lifelong renters with no equity.

tragic? give me a break.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/102603/why-your-home-is-not-the-investment-you-think-it-is

"Unfortunately for both groups, however, houses are not very good investments. For the grasshoppers, there's nothing quite as stupid as paying off your 2002 trip to Orlando in 2032, when you finally settle up your refinanced "cash out" 30-year mortgage. And for the ants, economic studies have demonstrated over and over that houses (1) cost more than most people make when they sell and (2) rarely match the long-term returns of stocks or other investments."

>> Friends sitting on 6-fig capital gains, while they still rent.

I have a (growing) list of people that have lost over $500k on their Manhattan RE adventure -- hard dollars, not unrealized losses.

You still got any pets.com stock for me to buy?

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal Lobotomy.

A tax abatement might not be the break you think it is.

"I didn't understand what I was signing." (See William Beaver House Foreclosure)

@skinny, of the people that bought from 1990 to 2010 (20 years) people have lost money in about 2 of those years. For the majority, a significant portion are now living at below market rents, and are sitting on huge tax-free capital gains. Good luck finding those odds elsewhere. And yes, if you're in the lucky 10%, you lost your downpayment. Yes, anyone still renting utterly and completely missed the boat, and there's tons of downside left. Tons. No argument there.

Real estate wisdom
==================
1) First offer = best offer (Savvy buyers know the market)
2) Realtors barter their fees and take 5%
3) Price realistically (First born, second wife, third broker)
3b) Stale listings.
4) Have a backup property you're willing to buy
5) Don't shop forever. Pull the trigger. (lifer renter)

Any others?