the realtor

So we bought a house and we got a realtor. Heckyeahwoman was responsible for selecting him or her. Ultimately, she went with a him. Dave Tracy with RE/MAX if you're wondering. Yes, we're actually using real names now. Trying to give legit reviews here, folks. And speaking of reviews, he did actually get great reviews, according to my wife. So she did a great job in selecting our dude.

Anyway, yeah, we were initially confident in working with him. We soon found that he was kind of pushy about us signing the actual contract. But with the signing of the contract, and then with actually signing off on the offer sheets in that back and forth exchange, he was a little bit pushier than we thought necessary.

He's gotta eat, he's got a wife, I think he's got a kid; I get it. We could have always told him to chill the fuck out, but we wanted the house as badly as he wanted the sale. So it wound up working out.

Worth noting, he did work for us for a bit before the contract was signed, due to our moving out of state situation. His "I don't normally do this, but..." platitude didn't impress me at all. He did have a fair cancellation/contract termination policy though.

Technically, he or she is supposed to work for you more than a realtor, who is presumably working for the seller. In reality, they are working for themselves - much like anybody you will come across in the mortgage/housing industry. Also much like in life, no matter where you go, what you do, there are going to be people trying to fuck you. And not the good kind of fucking either.

To be fair, I don't feel as if our dude tried to fuck us. And I don't think he did. Maybe more of pushing to close the deal slightly at our expense - with the "at our expense" part being nothing more than cutting corners in the process. The cost of doing business, if that makes sense.

With him specializing in relocations and first-time home buyers, you'd think he'd be extra thorough or patient. Not totally the case.

Because we were moving from out of state, we did a remote closing, at our place in Michigan. Luckily Mr. Tracy was kind enough to do the final walk-through. Though he did miss a few things, like the flat screen wall mount left on the wall, as well as the empty Bose speaker wall mounts, yep, also left on the wall. Unfortunately our old-ass CRT isn't easily mountable. Also, the final cleaning wasn't what we expected.

We will definitely be there at the next final walk through, lesson learned.

When we did the inspection, a few of the outlets in the basement weren't working; the mental notes we made to have them checked out slipped our minds and we moved into the house with them still not working. Would have been nice to have him follow up on that for us. Obviously buyer beware, but still.

Having spent a good portion of my professional career in sales, not real estate, I was disappointed with the process. It could have been just that - the real estate process, or it could have been our dude's less aggressive approach, or it could have been him just getting worked by the sellers. I can't help but feel I would have negotiated better.

At the end of the day, I don't think I would use him again. That is less of a knock on him, than me thinking that we could have done it better ourselves. But we don't have our real estate licenses, so that's another thing for another time.

Now if I had friends that were dead set on acquiring a realtor or buyer's agent, I would pass on his name, with caveats. The main caveat would be: if you're a first time home buyer, sign up with him, but get much more involved and don't be afraid to tell him to chill.

Again, this was our first time buying a house and using a buyer's agent/realtor, so our inexperience obviously influenced our perception of how things went down.

Finally, for what it's worth, I have a general rule about not trusting a dude with a goatee. Kinda stupid, but he definitely had a goatee.

home ownership

After an extended absence, it looks like we are going to reignite Heck Yeah, Man here, focusing on our experiences buying and maintaining the HYM Inc. mansion/headquarters in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

That said, I'd like to preface this by saying that I am an asshole. I know it; those who love me know it, and that will probably never change.

Until June 8, 2012, I had never actually purchased a house. Never owned a home. Never did the homeowner thing. This is all first time stuff for me. But on the plus side, I'm not a complete idiot and I like to think that I'm able to give a fair audit of my (our) experiences here.

Overall the experience was very positive - we got the house we wanted, at the price we wanted, with the mortgage rate and terms that we wanted. At times it was kind of stressful, but in the end things worked out.

Stay tuned for my review of our experiences with the realtor.