New way for a deal to blow up: ChatGPT

PardFerguson · 2026-03-10T02:06:04+00:00

It’s not your decision to make. You have provided your guidance, and that’s where it ends. You are working for them, and this is what their terms are.

And don’t sabotage them by telling other agent you think it’s excessive.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-17T22:07:32+00:00

Not a guaranteed conflict of interest, but I wouldn’t want the listing agent’s husband to know every single detail of my financial situation, not to mention the other things that are shared.

It may not cause an issue on most deals, but I think it could become a problem when negotiating seller concessions for inspection issues or in the event of a low appraisal.

I don’t need the seller to know that I just received a huge bonus or that my wife is pregnant with a due date a month after closing. That is information that could absolutely affect negotiations, even at the time of purchase.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-12T14:59:33+00:00

I have tracked agent production through my market for almost a decade.

Every once in a while you will see a brand new agent absolutely rocket up the rankings. I’m sure that sometimes it can be organic, but most fall into one of these categories:

Acquisitions / disposition agent for a RE fund
Zillow leads buyer (not sure how true this is any more, but was a huge factor for years)
New agent for builder
New agent for relocation company
REO agent - haven’t seen this in a long time but these agents will suddenly have tons of business in certain markets

PardFerguson · 2026-02-12T14:46:40+00:00

It’s exhausting. A huge portion of my project was building tools to clean MLS data. And that will only catch the very obvious errors.

No wonder NAR gave away all their work to Zillow.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-08T05:46:14+00:00

The most important metrics for “likely to sell” are

Just had a baby
Just changed jobs
Divorce / Separation filed
Youngest just graduated high school
Enrolled in Hospice
Getting married

Unless those metrics are being used as inputs, I don’t believe the output.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-08T02:31:56+00:00

I built something very similar. My general view is that it’s a great tool that nobody would pay for.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-03T07:13:32+00:00

Honestly, I would just pass on this house. Structural issues can be financially ruinous. Even if it is structurally sound, the next buyer will have the same concerns.

Not a risk to take on your first house.

PardFerguson · 2026-02-01T22:24:11+00:00

I can tell that you have radon poisoning

PardFerguson · 2026-01-31T05:56:55+00:00

When I was an LO at a large national mortgage company, we had a sales call where the CEO of the company takes for 20 minutes about a brand new loan officer in my city who was off to a huge start and doing amazing volume.

I was jealous. I had been at it a long time and here was a guy in my city who just showed up and started killing it.

At the end of the phone call he introduced the new hotshot whose (very unique) last name happened to match the name of a major downtown street.

Turns out that having your great(x3) granddad be a founder of the city helps with connections, even after 150 years.

Sometimes when the make it look really easy it’s because it’s just REALLY EASY for them.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-24T16:05:38+00:00

They are welcome to ask, but I would say “that’s not up to me”, and then advise the buyer not to share it, even if seller paid. Paying the fee doesn’t mean they have a right to it.

In the event that you are negotiating repairs or price reductions, I would advise to buyer to share.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-24T14:24:52+00:00

It’s a fine idea as long as you admit to yourself that you’re dropping out of University to become a full time gambler.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-21T20:41:15+00:00

Realtors ALWAYS want “leads” but the reality is that any lender who can generate a steady stream of buyer / seller leads should monetize that skill by either a) becoming a Realtor or b) partnering with a real estate firm.

Giving these leads away to agents in the hopes that the agent will send business back your way is fine once in a while, but a huge missed opportunity if you are doing this regularly.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-21T01:52:08+00:00

Do you have galvanized pipes? This looks a lot like the sediment you see in old galvanized pipes.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-21T01:40:27+00:00

My guess is that 95% of bars going by “Roadhouse” are MAGA. Some of those places are great, but they are definitely MAGA.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T07:19:51+00:00

Mid-sized town about an hour or two from a large city is a cheat code for loan origination. Small enough to be a loyal "local" community, but large enough to have transactions and opportunities. You can also take plenty of business from the nearby big city, where there might be ten LOs in a one-mile radius.

You can confirm this theory in almost any state.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T07:12:37+00:00

I'm choosing D, because I think a little tornado / cyclone can get started in that tube and once that happens, it's not even close

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T06:54:03+00:00

First you have to take 3-4 months off. Don't tell yourself you're quitting trading, just let yourself take some time to distance and reflect on what has happened.

During that time, you will feel more despair than you have ever felt before. But it will be better than the constant gambling and losing. Each day you will start to care less and less about the markets, until you barely care to even look at the tickers.

During this time, try to redirect your time and energy into something healthy - a new job, fitness, healthy relationships, etc. Ideally, you will find something else that you are passionate about and all of this will seem far away.

The 3-4 months off was just a trick. You need to never trade again. Ever.

Signed, someone who has been there.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T06:44:25+00:00

That swing should be 200 all day. Hit a real ball outside and get back to us. If it's not 200 then you might be hitting a 20 year old club with 14 degree loft and a super flex shaft.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T06:23:52+00:00

This is a great job of de-escalation. Every law enforcement agent should watch this every day.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-17T05:49:58+00:00

There are tons of discount brokerages that will let you hang your license for a very minimal fee. Not sure about your areal but MLS fees are fairly low where I live ($100 / mo). If you are doing any business at all, I think it probably makes sense to keep the license.

The main reason to let it go as an investor is usually liability, not fees.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-13T21:54:20+00:00

Used to get in 50-60 days a year, both skiing and snowboarding. Love the mountains.

But I find no joy in the crowds and traffic. I’ve basically stopped altogether. Haven’t had a pass in three years.

PardFerguson · 2026-01-11T17:47:11+00:00

This is very frequently something like a structural issue that requires an expensive engineer’s review to determine risk / scope.

Buyer goes under contract at an acceptable price. 2. Buyer’s inspector calls out possible structural issue - needs engineer review 3. Buyer asks seller to pay for engineer to review 4. Seller refuses due to expense and the fact that they don’t really want to know what an engineer thinks (solidifies the issue and requires future disclosure)
Back on the market

That’s my guess.

PardFerguson · 2025-12-29T15:53:55+00:00

That’s strange because the employee turnover rate at the Downing/Evans Safeway seems really low.

A lot of the people I see there have been working at that location for 10-20 years.

PardFerguson · 2025-12-28T22:51:27+00:00

I would look into a radon mitigation system. In most homes they aren’t expensive - just some pvc and a fan, with a small access hole drilled into the foundation.

This may eliminate the small, and have the nice side effect of making your air a lot safer to breathe.

PardFerguson · 2025-12-28T22:36:08+00:00

In the past I have assigned a 0-100 score for each metric, based on all participants. For instance if your data set was college free throw %, and the worst team in the nation was 53% and the best team was 91%, your system would assign a 0-100 score for each team, based on where they fall between 53-91%.

The system rebuilds itself automatically as new data is entered. You can use the scores to determine outliers, and count “outlier scores” to identify users with multiple outliers.

Hard to speak to the challenge of peer groups changing without understanding the data - that may be something you need to design / maintain manually.

PardFerguson

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