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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Mitchell R. White who wrote (34972)	4/25/2000 12:12:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Respond to of 70976

Mitch, OT *** OT Yes, 'near' Lockheed. We're on the other [west] side of town. Today's paper had an ad for an on-line realty which does charge a flat fee for being the seller's agent. I think that movement will gain, just like on-line discount brokers. Gottfried

To: Dr. Mitchell R. White who wrote (34972)	4/25/2000 12:20:00 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

OT Continued: 6% is only what the clueless pay. When you have property that sells itself, realtors bid for your services. I bought my Los Altos, CA home in the slump (1994) when homes were hard to sell and the sellers went with 5% (3% for buyer's agent and 2% for selling agent). I've seen flat $10K rates as well as other commission deals. Of course, the real estate community does not want you to know you don't have to pay the fixed rates. When I sold my townhouse, my selling agent would often tell me this or that was fixed and I would negotiate to lower it (even contract terms they will tell you are fixed and you can refuse to lock up one agent for 3 months or whatever). I've known engineers with real estate licenses that will handle deals for 1% selling commission and they use MLS to bring in the buyers. Makes a nice little addition to income selling coworkers' homes. I am interested to see when the home prices don't go above ask as it means the stock options are cooling off. Then again, one friend has a client that had a > $100M "Liquidity Event" and used a portion of the proceeds to buy a $25M home on 17 mile Drive - Pebble Beach - (in the Monterey CA area). I was told the client had net worth drop 75% in correction but still had one of those "B" s in total stock value. These people can afford to buy any time. RE: Texas Boom. Sounds like you need a "Proposition 13" that locks in property taxes to purchase price. Property taxes in CA can only go up 2% a year and will actually go down if inflation is negative! Sell your home and buy the one next door and your taxes can double... Ouch! Kirk out