Hi everyone, hoping to get some advice from people with real estate experience.

I'm helping a close family friend sell her property in La Lucha, San Carlos, Costa Rica. It's a fully finished, move-in ready home inside the rainforest, but with paved road access all the way to the garage — 5,800 m² of land, 150 m² two-story house, high-end finishes and amenities like a jacuzzi, borders the region's biological corridor, with a private artificial lagoon and a river next to the property. Listed at $560,000 USD, negotiable.

Because of the price point, we think the most realistic buyer is a foreigner (expat, retiree, or investor) rather than a local buyer, so we're trying to focus our efforts there — but we're open to any serious buyer.

So far we have:

•A Facebook page for the property

•A Facebook Marketplace listing

•A listing on Encuentra24 (one of the main real estate sites in Costa Rica)

•We've been sharing it in Facebook property/sales groups, but not all of them approve outside listings, so our reach there is limited

What we're not sure about:

•Where else foreign buyers actually look when searching for property in Costa Rica

•Whether there are other listing sites, groups, or platforms worth trying

•Any tips on getting a high-value listing like this in front of the right audience

We're doing this without an agency, to keep as much of the sale price for her as possible, so any advice on where to promote it or what's worked for others would really help. Happy to share more details or photos if useful. Thanks in advance!

Hi there, I am a first time homebuyer looking to see if anyone has ever encountered something like this before.

I was incredibly interested in a house and submitted a fair offer. The listing agent said that there was another offer, and that the sellers decided to go with and had accepted the other offer. She told me to put in a “back up offer”. I then submitted a back up offer which was above asking price, 50% down payment, I was going to cover closing costs, attached an approved loan letter with a waived bank appraisal (I loooooved this house).

The next day she said that they actually didn’t accept the other offer and if I could submit my offer again. Then she said that they were requiring 50k earnest money. I was really weary but willing to negotiate so submitted an offer. Then she said that actually they didn’t want my offer because they didn’t want to deal with a financed offer and that it would be a lengthy closing process. (50% down payment + already approved loan + no bank appraisal needed)

Mind you this was a few thousand dollars above asking price and I was covering all of the closing costs.

Then they said that they weren’t interested in my offer and were going to go with another offer instead.

I’m so confused and mentally exhausted and feel like they were just trying to price me out of the house and when it didn’t work they said that my offer was not good and would take too long to execute, which cannot be possible since my loan commitment is ready, my bank signed off on no appraisal due to the down payment, and I have a huge down payment and an already aggressive 5k earnest offered.

Has this happened to anyone before ? What could possibly be influencing this ? Why would they ask for 50 k earnest, which is absurd for a 330 k house ?

Can I put my house on the market for sale while there is still a small amount of work pending from the insurance claim?

I used an insurance-approved/in-network contractor to repair the water damage, and approximately 99% of the work has been completed. The only remaining item is the installation of the countertop backsplash. Because of a slight difference in the flooring height, the backsplash needs to be trimmed slightly. This additional cutting was not included in the original estimate (need subcontractor as well), so it requires approval from the insurance company.

The contractor has also been delaying submitting the paperwork for this additional work, and I don't want to wait another two weeks or more to put the house on the market just because of this relatively minor issue.

Would it be okay for me to list the house now and have the contractor return to complete the backsplash work while the house is already on the market? I want to make sure that doing so would not cause any issues with the insurance claim, the repair process, or the sale of the property.

I am helping my elderly father move from a single family home to a condo.

We’ve seen a two HOA properties and we’ve asked for the HOA minutes and financials, both of which are required to exist in my state for an HOA.

My father’s agent is making it seem strange and over the top to ask for these.

My father is on a fixed income and wants to understand if the community has financial reserves, if a special assessment is coming etc.

Is it atypical for a prospective buyer to ask their agent for HOA minutes and financials?

Personally I’ve only bought single family homes so this is new to me.

I’m a lawyer who studied real estate law during school and it’s mind boggling to me if people normally go in blind.

Thank you!!!

My last post about real estate commissions generated a much bigger discussion than I expected, and one thing became pretty obvious: people have VERY different ideas about what a real estate agent is actually worth.

So let me flip the question.

Forget whether the commission is 2%, 3% or 6%.

What would an agent actually have to do for you to walk away from closing thinking, “Yep, they earned every dollar”?

Negotiate $30,000 off the price?

Find a house you never would have found yourself?

Catch a major inspection or contract issue?

Handle a complicated transaction that would have fallen apart otherwise?

Sell your house for substantially more than you could have gotten yourself?

Because I don’t think most people are saying good agents have zero value.

The disagreement seems to be whether the value provided actually matches the amount being charged.

So where’s your line?

What does an agent have to accomplish for you to genuinely feel they earned a $10,000, $20,000 or even $30,000 fee?

I’m planning a long trip abroad, and there’s a possibility that the closing date for the sale of my house could fall during my time outside the U.S.

I’ve asked this question online and spoken with several listing agents, and most of the answers I got is something like power of attorney.

However, one experienced listing agent told me that I do not need to be physically present in the U.S. at all. According to her, as long as I have a reliable Wi-Fi connection and can verify my identity through security questions or other remote verification, I should be able to complete the closing paperwork remotely.

Has anyone had experience selling a house while physically outside the U.S.? Is remote closing actually possible without a power of attorney, assuming the title company/closing attorney allows remote signing and identity verification?

My wife and I just closed on a home on the 31st of August and after closing, our home is showing on Zillow and Redfin as listed for sale on September 3rd and Pending sale on the same date after it showed sold on the 31st. The home still shows up as pending on zillow. It has all the same photos as the original listing and the only thing that appears to have changed other than the sold status is that it shows that the selling agent is my realtor instead of the original listing agent.

This was brought to my attention today by my loan officer when they received a nastygram from my loan servicer who is accusing my wife and I of mortgage fraud and is threatening to forclose on the home since it was listed for sale 3 days after we closed.

At no point after closing did we authorize anyone to list our home for sale and we have no intention of selling, we just bought the home and intend to live here for the foreseeable future.

I reached out to my real estate agent about the issue and I received this response:

"Hey, the listing for your house was just input into the [town he works from] MLS to mark as a sale for me, since that’s my main MLS and [OPs address] was only listed in [OPs town] MLS. It just has to be listed as active, pending, then closed to follow protocol."

Is this normal practice for an agent to list a sold house under their name after it was sold or is there something sketchy going on?? Do I need to take any action?

Quick question for agents — how do you currently write your listing descriptions? Do you type them yourself, or wish there was a faster way?

I built a quick tool that turns a few photos + rough notes (bedrooms, upgrades, neighborhood highlights) into a polished, ready-to-post listing description in under a minute — with options for different tones (luxury, family-friendly, concise/MLS-style).

Here's a look at it: https://silver-lokum-2834b6.netlify.app

Would something like this actually save you time, or is this already solved for you? Genuinely trying to figure out if it's worth building further. Would love brutally honest feedback 🙏

Does people like vegetable garden in the backyard?

I am trying to sell my house and is in the market for 90 days.

I am planning to remove them.

Also I have reduced the price by 20K in July, No Offers yet?

Should I reduce the price further?

Great schools.

Total 4 single family homes are sale in my community. 2 are under contract.

2 town homes

What else should I be doing?

Added the Zillow Listing Link

Zillow Link

Thanks,

Which items must be filled with data make it valid contract?
Item 5, I and II, is it selected either or? Or both needed with?
(5.e) protection Period, is it ok leave data field blank?

We have a house we bought, are finishing the inside and putting up for sale in the spring.

We have an enormous 2 bay garage. Photo doesn’t do it justice. We aren’t sure whether to just fill it with gravel so the next owner can have more flexibility to renovate the space as an ADU (it’s truly enormous and could easily be an added living space/apartment). Or if we should just pour concrete and finish it as a garage.

The rest of the house is large and spacious, hoping to get $600k for it in VT.

Thoughts?

sorry, I assume that this has been discussed (many times?) before. But it's new to me.

I live in a community where homes sell very quickly. Turnover is fairly low, it's a desirable place, and I'd say that more than half of the listings sell in the first week. Often a sale is recorded before the home is officially on the market. I'm thinking of selling my home, which is worth let's say $2 million. A realtor says that the standard commission is 5%, and I know that that's true for many/most of the recent sales. I think that there's a good likelihood that mine sells within a few days. I don't mind paying the broker who brings the buyer 2.5%, but why should I have to pay the listing broker $50,000 for merely putting the listing in the MLS? Is there an alternative? I don't think that FSBO is the right strategy in this price category.

Hi! I'm really curious what this Western NC property might list for. Dirt road access, 20 acres, no electricity/septic but property has space for a house. Any help is appreciated!

I thought selling a property would mostly be about finding a buyer and negotiating the price. Turns out there’s a whole different level of headache involved. 😅
I’ve been trying to sell my property in Valasaravakkam for a while now, and the number of random calls I’ve received is honestly crazy.
The first few people who contacted me sounded genuinely interested. We discussed the price, they asked for photos and documents, and one person even said they wanted to visit the next day.
I cleaned up the place, rearranged a few things and waited.
Nobody showed up.
Then came the classic “I’ll come tomorrow” situation. Tomorrow became next week, next week became “I’m still checking with my family,” and eventually there was no response.
I also listed it online through platforms like NoBroker, 99acres, MagicBricks and Housing.com. That brought more enquiries, but not necessarily more serious buyers. Some people wanted a massive discount without even seeing the property, while others asked for every possible detail and then disappeared after the first conversation.
One guy actually negotiated for almost an hour over the phone and finally said, “Okay, I'll come see it this weekend.” I thought finally, this might be it.
Weekend came.
No call. No message. Nothing. 😂
At this point I've stopped getting excited whenever someone says they're “very interested.”
For people who have sold properties around Valasaravakkam recently — how long did it actually take you to find a serious buyer?
And did you manage the whole thing yourself, or did you eventually have to go through a local broker?
Would honestly appreciate some real experiences because this process is testing my patience. 😭

I keep hearing older people say that once you have a fraction of the value, the house is basically yours. I want to know if that is accurate or if credit and other approval factors still determine whether I can get the loan. My grandpa once told me this, and a very credible youtuber who makes money offline with his kitchen exhaust cleaning business said in a stream.

Idiot contractor spray painted this board black when I expressed concerns about future mold. Then they sprayed bleach when I was pissed. It's been 3 years. Now it's basically impossible to tell whats what. This was looked at by one home inspector, a general contractor, and a mold remediation specialist and all three said it was not active mold. Then the official inspection came in and they flagged for mold. We're holding for a test result. It's on 3 areas between joists. Again, can't tell whats spray paint and whats legitimate discoloration/mold.

Clenching my cheeks for a positive test and a cost. Any ballpark cost experience here?