I had a listing for a few months that didn’t move. Finally got it under contact and buyer had all the inspections done. They walked because the engineering report came back. There was less than 1 inch of movement in the basement, and they had a few suggestions, but they were really vague on what to do about it. Seller had a secondary engineering report done. It was much more clear, and she agreed to do the fix they recommended. In the meantime she also did some much needed updates and we were going to relaunch back to active next week.

The issue is this. She did NOT want to disclose the first vague engineering report. I felt it was necessary - even though I agree it was not super well done. I told her that it was now part of the information that needs to be disclosed, get in legal trouble with a future buyer. As her agent, I could not just pretend it didn’t exist. So she ended the contract, found a new broker, and I just saw it active today.

I can’t give him a heads up because I owe confidentiality to my previous client. I’m actually friends with him in real life, I feel bad he might get pulled into lawsuit in the future. I also don’t want to “poison the well” for her home sale. I also think the future buyers need this info but again, I can’t give it. It just totally sucks and I’m venting mostly - but have you ever been in this situation?

If brokerage is supposedly such a high-margin business, why do most brokers still seem pretty “normal” or informal? I don’t mean that negatively, but when you look at places like Dubai or LA, even the average real estate agent seems to present themselves like a proper professional — well dressed, polished, strong personal brand, good social media, professional property tours, etc.

Why hasn’t that culture really developed in Mumbai?

Is becoming a successful broker actually that difficult unless you already have a strong network and connections? Does the top 5–10% make most of the money while everyone else struggles?

And if someone were starting from zero in Mumbai today, could they realistically build a serious brokerage business through networking, sales and personal branding? Or is real estate one of those industries where relationships built over 10–20 years are almost impossible to replicate?

Also, do clients actually care if their broker looks and feels premium? If someone came in with a strong personal brand, professional property videos, good communication and a much more polished experience, would that genuinely help them close more deals?

Would love to hear from people actually working in Mumbai real estate especially brokers who started from scratch. What am I missing about this industry?

Please remove if this is the wrong place to post.

I want to offer brokers priority services for their realtors, for any septic pump outs before inspection or sales. As a realtor what would incentivize you more? Priority service or a discount price to industry standard in the area? We were recently hired to do a pump out before inspection and figured it might be something to look into. Thanks! Not trying to promote just wondering if this is of benefit as a realtor.

A post I read today got me thinking about this. The seller was about 10 days from the date they wanted to list and still didn’t have paperwork, photos scheduled, or a clear idea of what happened next.

I’ve always felt like even if dates move, the seller should understand the sequence pretty early. What needs to be done, when photos happen, when paperwork gets signed, when the listing goes live, and what the first week looks like.

Curious how other agents handle it. Do you give sellers a written timeline upfront, or keep it more flexible until the house is actually ready?

First, I understand each market and situation is unique so just looking for some general insights. Old enough to have been through the selling process multiple times but not since the changes to the buyers agent contracts. In "the olden days" as the seller we'd figure 6% for commission, 2-5% to help seller with closing costs, and $2k for miscellaneous inspection issues (we've always taken good care of our properties and kept them maintained). These costs after we've done usual clean up touch up things. We're going on the market this fall, how do these assumptions stack up against what professionals are seeing in the marketplace. I'd like to set my expectations before we start interviewing agents. TIA

Just looking for general thoughts or critique on something I’ve been considering. It’s hard to frame a question because I don’t even know what to ask.

I’ve considered moving back to my home state to work as a land agent, actually start as a buyers land agent under somebody else.

I’m currently living with my wife+ kids 7 hours from home. We have been here a decade and interested in going home but there just isn’t much work there in my field.

I’ve been in love with the idea of owning land my whole life. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors fishing, hunting, hiking, and walking my own properties as I do some buying/selling of land as well as pretty active tax sale investing. All of which I’ve been incredibly successful with. I’ve also flipped a couple homes and had a couple lakefront airbnbs. Also successfully

I like to think I’m pretty knowledgeable about tracts of land and most things outdoors but maybe I’m exaggerating. I def enjoy dealing with it.

I currently work in a factory making 100-150k a year but I sit 12 hours a day about 3.5 days a week and it’s wearing on me. I’m 40 and ready to get out of this.

Thinking of getting back home and trying my luck at this but it’s a huge risk as far as moving my family, giving up my job, giving up my beautiful lake home with a 2.87% rate.

Based on your professional experience does this seem like a terrible idea? I understand I won’t compete financially with my current job but I have a large(very large?) nest egg of investments.

I do worry about things like health insurance though.

Any thoughts are welcome. Sorry I don’t have more specific questions. Just seeking some advice.

I'm trying to better understand where RESPA applies when it comes to referrals.

I know RESPA prohibits certain referral fees involving settlement services, but I'm unclear about referrals to businesses like plumbers, electricians, roofers, landscapers, etc.

If a Realtor refers a client to one of these types of contractors, does RESPA have any restrictions on that referral since the contractor isn't providing a settlement service?

Not looking for legal advice, just curious how Realtors and brokers generally understand this distinction? Thanks!

Hey everyone,

The August 2026 real estate stats for London and Middlesex County are officially out, and the summer cooldown has turned into a full-on shift in buyer leverage. If you've been waiting for the market to cool down before jumping in, the numbers show we are officially sitting in strong buyer's market territory.

Here is the quick and raw data comparing August 2026 to July 2026 to show you exactly how fast things are shifting.

• Sales plummeted by 27.5% month-over-month. Buyers have completely retreated to the sidelines.
• Average home price dipped below the $600k mark to $598,989 (a 2.5% drop from July).
• Months of Inventory (MOI) skyrocketed to 7.17 months (up from 5.29 in July). This is the highest selection of active homes relative to sales that we've seen in a long time.
• The "Luxury" dip: While average prices dropped by over $15,000, the median price barely budged (down only 0.4% to $560,000). This means entry-level and mid-range homes are holding steady, while high-end properties are seeing steep discounts.

The Raw Numbers (Middlesex County - August vs. July 2026)

Key Takeaways & What's Going On:

1. Massive Buyer Leverage: A Months of Inventory (MOI) ratio of 7.17 months is an undeniable buyer’s market (typically, anything over 6 months is considered a buyer's market). Buyers have 2,847 active listings to choose from in Middlesex County, and they are successfully negotiating an average of 3% off the asking price (represented by the 97% sale-to-list ratio).
2. Sellers are Pausing (The December Plunge): While new listings dropped 10.3% in August, expect this to dry up even faster over the next few months. Historically in London, new listings plummet by 65% to 75% between September and December as sellers pull listings off the market for the holidays.
3. What This Means if You are Buying/Selling:
   • Buyers: If you are shopping right now, you have massive leverage. You don't need to skip conditions or rush into bidding wars.
   • Sellers: If your home has a "layout challenge" (like a single bathroom in a multi-bedroom house or dated finishes), it will be heavily exposed in this 7-month inventory environment. Proper pricing is more critical than ever. Many sellers will choose to pull their listings and wait for the January listing bounce when fresh buyers return for the New Year.

What are you seeing out there on the ground? Are you seeing price drops in your neighborhood, or are well-priced places still moving?

Am putting an offer on a house valued at $550K. Initial offer was $510K plus several furniture items and home decor as house was well staged. Seller countered $535K and no personal property. I’m prepared to counter offer at $525-$528K and leave the original list I asked for. Would this be the recommended strategy as those items are important to me but I don’t want to lose the house over them.

For context I do not believe you should ever be pressured into buying anything ever especially a house. I am not looking for pressure tactics. However, I have one couple who has looked at 50+ houses and aren’t committed to a specific location but more so a broad general area and they’ve changed their price point a few times - honestly I know this is Real Estate and is what it is. I have another client who has an extremely low budget and we have yet to look at anything that would pass inspection and we’ve seen maybe 4 properties total. However, we saw a great home that would more than likely pass and is in his budget but it is about a 45 minute commute to their job and is on the smaller side. I don’t think this house will stay on the market for long and I don’t want them to miss this opportunity bc from everything else currently in their area I don’t think another one like this is going to happen. Comps show this house is already priced under due to motivated sellers. How do other experienced agents get their buyers to start the process of buying rather than keep looking for ages?

Hi All,

I would like to know what brokerages are paying for a full-time ISA.

How much do you pay hourly? What percentage do you pay on a successful transaction.

Wanted to start a discussion about on going active seller service.

Do you think multiple touch points per week is better or one comprehensive one?

Also what days are you doing this? (For Clarity I'm only speaking to the scalable activities. I call anytime they need me or anytime there's activity etc.)

Option A)

One comprehensive weekly email report that covers everything

Option B)

Multiple Auto Updates throughout the week, plus one comprehensive email that breaks down the data

Option C)

Multiple Auto Updates throughout the week, weekly soft touch ( email or call ), one comprehensive report every 2-3 weeks

What's everyone doing?

I’ve been working with a friend that I met outside of real estate and after interviewing many brokerages ended up joining hers based on the training and support they offer (an office paid mentor that helps new agents with their first 3 deals and the agent keeps their entire commission). My friend (not the paid mentor) has been helping me with random questions and offering advice.

She knows that my boyfriend wants to buy a house soon. and he does but he’s also still trying to build up his funds before he does, and isn’t quite ready yet. well she asked how it’s going and i said he’s talking about waiting a bit longer and she insisted he’s just getting cold feet which okay fine, but then she suggested that she be the lead agent and take the commission and she would give me a referral fee for it. which I thought was kinda crazy because I first of all want the experience and also who’s to say I won’t have closed a few deals before he’s ready to buy. And the referral fee would be no where near what the actual commission would be. she said so that it would be done right and would walk me through everything. which the issue here is that the agency i joined pays someone to do that, they have a mentor that is on salary and is already going to help me with my first 3 deals and i keep my entire commission. i really feel like she’s trying to pull the wool over my eyes by saying that she wants to make sure that it’s all done right.
I want to believe that she has my best interests in mind but I’m so stunned she would suggest that.
Any advice please let me know :(

I've been thinking about how scattered listing launches get. You go live on the MLS, then it's a mad dash to get flyers done, post on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, send something to your database, update Google Business, and somewhere in there you're hand-tweaking the same caption five different ways because each platform wants a different tone.

The agents I talk to either have no real plan and just post whenever they get a spare hour, or they have a system but it still eats half a day to get everything out the door.

Curious what your actual sequence looks like. Do you launch everything day one, or stagger social across the first week? Do you email your database the same day it hits the MLS or wait a beat? And does anyone actually post on Pinterest for listings, or is that a waste of time?

Genuinely want to hear how people handle this. The "post and pray" approach has never sat right with me but I also don't love spending an entire afternoon on one listing's social when I could be prospecting.

Got licensed and am interviewing brokerages, I interviewed exp realty and some traditional brokerages in my area and as a new agent what would be the best? Any pros and cons for cloud based since that’s the direction I’m thinking of going?
Thank you!

When shopping for a house, I am completely mystified why anyone takes a picture of their bathroom tub completely covered by their shower curtain.

Honestly, no one cares how nice the shower curtain is. We want to see the TUB we hope to buy.

How do realtors not know to tell their clients this?

Hi everyone! I’m on Oʻahu and looking into getting my Hawaii real estate salesperson license. I currently work full-time, so I’m specifically looking for recommendations for online/ self-paced 60-hour pre-licensing courses that are actually good and prepare you well for the exam.

For anyone who has taken an online course:

Which school did you use?
Would you recommend it?
Was it truly flexible enough to do around a full-time job?
How long did it take you to finish?
Did you feel prepared for the state exam?

Also, for those who are currently real estate agents in Hawaii is it realistically feasible to work a full-time job and be a real estate agent on the side? I’m curious how people manage showings, clients, open houses, etc. while working a regular 9–5.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations or experiences, especially from people who are doing this part-time! 😊

How often to wait to find first leads? I just started a few months ago I know it takes time. I’m doing 2-3 open houses a week have some buyers but they are passive. I just started this week making it a goal to meet 3-4 people a day and hand my card out it’s been tough but I’m doing it 😂🥲

Recently moved to a new city (Tigard,OR) out in the Portland metro area. Have no sphere of influence out here, because I am from Utah and was licensed in Utah before moving to Oregon. (Still licensed out there just on active referral status) I only had one transaction out in Utah, so I don’t have very much transaction experience at all.

My partner and I moved out here for his career (property management), and ironically dreamed of living in Oregon or somewhere in the PNW before the opportunity came up. Finances are tight with only him working, due to the fact I am trying to build my business and am not bringing in income. He is understanding, because I pushed him into the property management industry and was supportive as he had to go through job changes, low pay, etc. while he was entering into the industry until he finally landed on a good paying job out here in Portland. However, even with him being supportive and understanding I am very conscious of the money that is going out, the stress it has put him under, and the lack that I am bringing in to our household so I feel bad.

Before getting into real estate I was a manager and head of the quality assurance department at a call center, and never had issues paying my bills and was pretty financially sound. Things have been a bit unstable since deciding to pursue real estate which was to be expected, but it’s definitely been a rollercoaster. I am unsure if I should join a team, or get a morning/night job while pursuing real estate full time and leaning on my brokerage’s mentor that they have for new agents to guide me so that I can at least bring some income in and pay for my signage, photography, marketing, etc. while I build up and not have to ask him for money which I feel guilty doing.

Since I have little transaction experience, no sphere of influence in a new state, and limited income would it be more beneficial for me to join a team so that I can use their signage, photography, marketing, and most importantly have hands on experience like shadowing, having them listen on my calls, and watch how they hold listing and buyers presentations? It sounds good in theory but curious to know if anyone has had any bad experiences with joining a team. Not worried about the splits, because getting the ball rolling and having good coaching and support is more important than the splits if it ends up being what I hope.

However don’t want to pay someone a split if they are only going to hand me a script and stick me in the corner to make calls with no support. I’ve made thousands of calls in my life especially given my previous industry, so I am comfortable making them. Would like to watch someone else doing it at a high level and converting and have them guide me through my calls because I am just going based on scripts I have picked up and YouTube videos of live cold calling sessions. Also really want to service my clients at a high level so I want to make sure I have the right guidance for when I am handling the transactions so it feels as smooth as possible.

Have done open houses out in Utah and was door-knocking 100 doors per open, circle calling, posting on social media, running Facebook ads for the open house, handing out flyers, asking if they knew anyone looking to make a move or if they were looking to make a move, keeping in touch with my sphere, but I still was not converting clients and maybe that was due to me not giving my pipeline enough time to come to fruition before moving out here or having a conversion problem from not saying the right things but I wasn’t able to get any transactions from any of those efforts before moving out here unfortunately.
Thanks for the help in advance and sorry if it was a long read.

Hi all, I’m 18 graduated high school at 16 and just started my 3rd year of college out of 5 and I absolutely hate it. I took calc 2 in the spring and calc 3 in the summer and I got complete burnt out. Since I transferred from community college I can only take 3 classes this semester because my community college didn’t offer them, circuits 1, e math and engineering statistics. All three out of three professors have below a 3 on rate my professor and they are the only options. I am completely demotivated to do anything for class, even ChatGPT my homework.

I just got my real estate license two months ago and I’m think of just working as a realtor till I have enough to start as an investor, I met a few investors just networking around places I go in life and they all gave me really good advice on how to start investing.

I just don’t know what to do, drop out and go full time as a realtor and save every penny to invest, stay in school for the degree and put my self through metal hell and make me miserable, but I can say I’m an EE. My passion growing up was I’m going to be an EE and I’ll work as an engineer (I have dozens of personal project), then I got introduced real estate. Read a few books on it and loved the idea of just buying a crack home and making it look beautiful and put a tenant in there then just pull all my equity out. Just any here to see what people say, one thing worse than bad advice is trusted bad advice.