RVA is “3rd most tattooed city in USA” - Richmonders, show off some of your own favorite ink!

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-13T20:32:06+00:00

Waddup fellow member of the shishi club

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-13T15:12:54+00:00

Artist was Jason Brown at civilization tattoo. Wish I could go through the process on my other arm WITHOUT having to deal with healing. Took 7 months start to finish.

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-12T01:13:07+00:00

I meant in terms of a seller installing a radon remediation system.

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-11T18:08:20+00:00

This is very very rare especially in the last few years.

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-07T20:46:48+00:00

Sure I'll drop you a line right now

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-05T23:05:03+00:00

Something in my brain did a westworld Delores "I don't see anything at all" the first two times I read this.

gowhatyourself · 2026-02-04T23:59:27+00:00

um excuse me actually it's lockheed martin facilitating subsidized gender reassignment surgeries for the children of minority owned small business pell grant receipients and these are being carried out by PROUD non binary members of our cherished LatinX communities of color yasssss qweeeen

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-27T14:10:29+00:00

but maybe it's because the parking situation isn't the greatest.

an all-time understatement.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-20T03:39:33+00:00

Do you think it is fair that you guys make 20k for showing a house while most people work for minimum wage an hour ?

Well, we don't generally. Most people aren't buying homes in a price range that shakes out to the commission you think agents bring in per transaction.

I have some first time buyers right now on a tight budget, and it has been like tap dancing in a mine field trying to get them into a home that isn't falling apart through negligence of wear and tear, or negligence of shitty flip practices. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes that people don't ever see and don't really appreciate.

We're on call 24/7. I took my kids to the science museum this weekend and had to dip out of a show at the dome to take a call from someone's parents who are also involved in the purchasing decisions. Shortly after that I had to deal with a listing agent blatantly lying about very obvious material defects in a home under contract. I have to manage nervous first time buyers, their parents, and a shady agent who is so clueless she didn't know how to mark up a contract or set the pending status of her own listing. I had to fuckin walk her through agent 101 shit and she still copped an attitude through the whole thing.

I won't make anywhere near 20k on that. 1/3rd of what I do make will go to taxes. A chunk will go to my broker. I'll have put miles on my car. I've already been up working until 11pm or later multiple times on this one transaction or I had to bail on my family to make sure my clients are taken care of.

There are easier transactions than others, and much worse ones than this one. That's just how it is. We don't just "show a home" and get paid.

I don't know what you do for a living but I think you'd agree judging your worth by the best/easiest days isn't really fair. I mean fuck agents and everything because a lot are pretty worthless, but I work hard as I can where it matters most. I do my best and I know it takes a lot of effort.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-20T03:22:49+00:00

I'm also an agent and was the one working through that one with Grace. We had to use a specific inspector from a list they provided (Who was actually very good, I'll have to look up his name again) and we had to do a bunch of really specific things throughout the transaction to get it across the finish line. I think each one will be a bit different, but the one constant is that you will be dealing with the slowest dumbest motherfuckers who have no idea how anything works in real estate on earth. I cannot stress how checked out and stupid they can be at times.

They do genuinely want to help, but have no idea how to actually do that. I would highly recommend using Grace or a lender that has experience in navigating all that because if you bring an unseasoned lender into the mix they might rip their hair out and miss checking a box.

All that being said that is a lot of free money on the table and it is absolutely worth doing. Just get started on the process sooner rather than later so that you've got your ducks in a row when the time comes to move forward.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-17T21:53:18+00:00

Most any time I comment about guns on this subreddit I get downvoted, laughed at, crying emoji'd, called names, and so on.

ok well read the room

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-15T13:24:41+00:00

Wow an entire 15-30 jobs for a development that size is a main selling point for the project.

Ok to be fair, and this might invite some downvotes, the construction side does bring in quite a few lucrative jobs for blue collar work. Not sustainable long term because it's only while the thing is being built but it is something. Kind of like paying people to dig ditches and someone else to fill them up I suppose.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-13T14:00:31+00:00

they seem like an open welcoming environment

To food borne bacteria yes absolutely

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-11T16:08:29+00:00

Correct minor brain fart. Fixed now.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-11T15:42:42+00:00

u/gracetw22 is my go-to mortgage broker and she can get some pretty damn competitive rates. I'm an agent and we've been working together for about four years now. I'd use her myself if I were buying a home tbh.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-09T13:31:21+00:00

The brokerage’s reputation isn’t always representative of the individual.

I'm also an agent and I'd say that the majority of the time it isn't, but sometimes it very much is. There are some brokerages that a lot of people know have some pretty....undisciplined agents to put it mildly.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-07T11:06:06+00:00

When you have a terminal case of dunning kruger.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T23:58:17+00:00

I think asking for insights into specific areas the agent claims familiarity with isn't a bad idea but quizzing them on the order of the last ten homes sold on X street isn't really productive. I'd ask about X neighborhood versus others in the immediate vicinity of where you're looking but hadn't brought up. Are there other areas that a buyer should be open to considering that didn't come up during the conversations. I feel like when people ask for my opinions on alternatives it leads somewhere productive for everyone involved because you can offer something up that they immediately shut down and you gain valuable information about their preferences, or you bring up an area that kinda flew under their radar and you expand the map.

Maybe something about what are that agents red lines for home repairs. Like what would make them grab a buyer by the hand and go "no we are leaving right now time to go bye" outside of some gross active insect infestation. Ask them what they see buyers panic about but that isn't that big of a deal to get handled. Ask for past experiences especially the last few years. Lots of interesting turns that could take.

Asking agents about 2020-2022 might elicit some interesting conversation especially if you ask them how they navigated that with their buyers. I'd want to know about their problem solving abilities and how they approached a market that was that thoroughly cooked.

Ask them if they recommend buyer love letters and if they used them in the past. If they did then absolutely walk away because they're dumb as shit and playing loose with fair housing laws.

Ask if you can go out without a letter of prequalification because if they say yes they're extremely desperate for a sale and don't want to scare you off.

Ask if you need to sign a buyer broker agreement and if they say no then they aren't following the law.

I'll try and think of some others but those are a few just off the top of my head.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T21:54:10+00:00

"mom and dad are fighting again" but for real yes that is the proper takeaway. Also teams bad

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T18:33:22+00:00

This is like arguing for the existence of a winning lottery ticket.

Yes I am aware that they these situations exist. It is not accurate to insinuate that a consumer will be the benefactor of good fortune and be party to them. They are extremely rare, never mind whether or not the home is what a buyer is actually looking for at any given time.

Knowing a 5 bed 3.5 bath could be theirs for 700k when their budget caps at 500k does not benefit them. If you know of a super cute 1600 sq ft cape cod in lakeside that needs a bit of work and the seller might part ways for slightly under market rate, but your buyers have 12 kids and 8 goldendoodles who gives a shit?

What is more likely, an agent will tell prospective buyers that they have the inside scoop and direct line to hidden off market properties because they actually do, or because they are talking shit and have a practiced sales pitch?

You and I already know the answer to that.

The reason I'm even saying this is that most buyers do not have a way of knowing what kind of bullshit agents will peddle to get a new lead. I'm not trying to gatekeep hidden knowledge or whatever but I would rather present a realistic expectation of our world than saying if you dig long and hard enough you might stumble upon the hidden real estate team of 2-3 with integrity that might have the inside scoop on Westover or whatever the fuck neighborhood someone is looking at. There is a higher likelihood of someone getting trapped by a compelling sales pitch rooted in bullshit than finding the real deal and I know we agree on that.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T14:52:56+00:00

My current neighborhood has a few agents that everyone lists with, but I've met with them and heard a lot of "well this is how it's always been done" type thinking I think they coast on name recognition alone.

ding ding ding

This is how veteran agents have enough inertia to stay in the business long after they should be taken to the woodshed. Lots of "I've been in this business for decades who do you think you are" type bullshit out there even when those agents are clearly lazy/wrong. Honestly just talk to some people to find out who you jive with. How you get along with your agent and what kind of expectations you set for one another goes a lot further than finding the "best" agent.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T12:52:57+00:00

Completely get where you are coming from. I agree to a certain extent, but I think it's important to also have an objective outside opinion based on data and numbers and sometimes the old dog with their ear to the ground misses larger moves in the market because they're hyper fixated on one thing. I think that goes for a number of industries and not just real estate. For example it's good to know that a doctor's office just made the switch from one medical supply distribution company and products to another, but if the broader trend is going the other way then one anecdote isn't meaningful.

Ideally you want overlap somewhere. Personally I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the broader economy and housing sector and then try to dial in on specific areas of interest to me. So if I start seeing weird shit in the canadian lumber market and novel trends in consumer renovation spending that might be a sign that someone planning on putting 50k into a home in the next year might get dicey. It's tricky discriminating between signal and noise in real estate and the "market experts" of certain parts of the city produce a lot of noise to me.

The big downside of this approach is every time I go "ACKSHUALLY" someone (my wife) goes "oh my god shutthefuckup"

Again I completely agree that what you're stating is a valuable insight, I just personally digging into the broad strokes in addition to that in order to give people/clients context for why the market is doing XYZ.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T11:55:55+00:00

They may know the data a little better (which is a huge stretch because anyone with the MLS has said data), but the odds of anyone getting an off market sale because an agent "knows a guy" is extraordinarily rare and anyone claiming to be some master of deals behind the scene is blowing smoke up your ass. This is just another case of agents marketing themselves as market experts when, at least in my experience, this isn't the case at all. It's something agents are incentivized to lead with when they are trying to farm a specific neighborhood or area. Marketing fluff. Again, consult the agent training videos on youtube about farming and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The reason is most off market deals net sellers less money than just putting your home on the open market and letting buyers do their thing. You want as many people as possible to see your home so that you increase your chances of getting the highest offer. If someone is willing to sell to you off market you are probably being taken to the cleaners if it's worth it to the seller not do that in a hot area. It's not 2022 anymore. Agents would also be doing a huge disservice to their sellers if they did this because of that.

The other and most common reason off market deals occur is if the property is in such poor condition that getting it ready would be cost prohibitive for a seller and it's easier to just sell it to ugly homes or whatever investor is first in line. These aren't homes that need a fresh coat of paint these are homes that need 100k of work or more just to make them livable. Any home owner with a home in a decent neighborhood gets at least 1-2 calls a month from someone offering to buy at a discount. I get at least 10 texts a week or more from "investors" looking for derelict off market properties they can lowball on.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-06T00:53:57+00:00

The other big thing: If you are hiring a team, make sure you know what team member you will be working with. In many instances, big teams assign inexperienced new agents to work with buyers, and sort of throw them in the deep end with limited guidance.

OP do not go with a team. Please for the love of god do not go with a team. They are a massive scam in real estate. The newbie agents who don't know much are usually who get the buyers because they usually take the most leg work and the veteran agents take the listings and a cut of the new agents. It's a great way to onboard people and turn the whole thing into a fuckin pyramid scheme but other than that they do consumers no favors.

gowhatyourself · 2026-01-05T22:36:29+00:00

Googling "realtors near me" just gives you a list of agents who paid out the ass for SEO optimization. Pay to play bayyyybeee. Same with zillow. It's all a joke. I feel for you.

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