5 ms·

Yeah, if you can wrap shleps like this in a painless interface, it would be incredible. I would pay _a lot of money_ for that. Especially for stuff like "Disp

by avn2109 12y ago

Yeah, if you can wrap shleps like this in a painless interface, it would be incredible. I would pay _a lot of money_ for that. Especially for stuff like "Dispatch someone credible-sounding to stand in line and negotiate as my agent with large shitty ossified organization X," where X might be a post office, utility company, embassy, real estate, etc, where their user experience disrepects my time. The dev who sits next to me has been trying to buy a house for a month, and he spends ~50% of his time on the phone with home inspectors, contractors, the title office and similar, basically telling them trivial facts or participating in silly naggy negotiations where they're basically gambling that he won't push back on the twentieth little crappy line item this week. This is a super-real pain point.

saraid216 12y ago
So you're saying that your coworker needs a real estate agent. Is there a reason, besides money, that he isn't using one? I say "besides money", because you said you would pay "a lot of money" for it, so you can clearly afford an agent.
- avn2109 12y ago
  No clue why he's doing it the way he is, and I know nothing about how to buy a house, but it sure sounds like a pain.
  - saraid216 12y ago
    His reason is almost certainly money. An agent's commission isn't insignificant. It's the opportunity cost of, well... what he's doing. If he's talking with contractors, he's probably also trying to figure out how to fix it up or modify it. I didn't need to talk with any contractors at all, so I don't know whether or not an agent would have helped.
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
      When we bought our house, the seller paid for our agent as well as theirs.
      - avn2109 12y ago
        If the seller is paying for "your" agent, is she really yours in the incentivized sense? eg. Zuckerberg's college buddy who fronted the money for early FB servers was sure that "his" attorneys had his back, right up until they stabbed him, because they were paid by Zuckerberg.
        GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
        Being little people, the laws apply to us.
  - CamperBob2 12y ago
    It is an unbelievable pain (having just gone through the process myself) and unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do to delegate the pain, short of giving someone unlimited power of attorney. Even then, the worst part -- the day-to-day uncertainty -- won't go away. A good buyer's agent can help to some extent, but the mortgage process is the real time sink. If you're a 1099 kind of person and you're not paying cash, your life will pretty much suck for a couple of months.

by avn2109 12y ago

saraid216 12y ago

So you're saying that your coworker needs a real estate agent. Is there a reason, besides money, that he isn't using one? I say "besides money", because you said you would pay "a lot of money" for it, so you can clearly afford an agent.

avn2109 12y ago
No clue why he's doing it the way he is, and I know nothing about how to buy a house, but it sure sounds like a pain.
- saraid216 12y ago
  His reason is almost certainly money. An agent's commission isn't insignificant. It's the opportunity cost of, well... what he's doing. If he's talking with contractors, he's probably also trying to figure out how to fix it up or modify it. I didn't need to talk with any contractors at all, so I don't know whether or not an agent would have helped.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
    When we bought our house, the seller paid for our agent as well as theirs.
    - avn2109 12y ago
      If the seller is paying for "your" agent, is she really yours in the incentivized sense? eg. Zuckerberg's college buddy who fronted the money for early FB servers was sure that "his" attorneys had his back, right up until they stabbed him, because they were paid by Zuckerberg.
      - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
        Being little people, the laws apply to us.
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  It is an unbelievable pain (having just gone through the process myself) and unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do to delegate the pain, short of giving someone unlimited power of attorney. Even then, the worst part -- the day-to-day uncertainty -- won't go away. A good buyer's agent can help to some extent, but the mortgage process is the real time sink. If you're a 1099 kind of person and you're not paying cash, your life will pretty much suck for a couple of months.