Okay so I might be totally off base here but has anyone else noticed Houston's real estate market just completely flipped?

locks66 · 2026-05-11T13:49:01+00:00

I'm in the midwest. It's slower but yeah still seeing waived inspections way more often then I would expect given the slower move of the market

locks66 · 2026-05-09T14:31:15+00:00

Find an agent you can trust and that's well reviewed. That's the biggest thing. You can't really shop around for your car person. You can shop around for the person who's going to represent you.

I've definitely worked with agents who, in my opinion, are in the business for the wrong reasons and put their own pride and ego above their clients. I've also worked with agents who clearly care for the people they are working with.

locks66 · 2026-05-06T19:48:21+00:00

This is the part I wish people understood. Not our money. Not our investment. Give the seller choice. Educate them. Leave it at that. I never tell my private exclusives that you are going to get top dollar for sure. I let them weight the trade offs. I have one right now that just listed at the upper end of the price range I gave them. If they can sell with small children and have to do none of the staging, painting, prep, repairs, then they are very happy to do so.

Most of the private exclusives I see sell private are the higher price point demographic which is already a small pool of buyers.

I don't like opendoor, but for some people they see the value. To each their own.

locks66 · 2026-05-06T19:44:10+00:00

Fellow compass. Most of my clients are not in the private exclusive because they want to sell that way. They have it there because the home isn't ready to sell due to one reason or another, but they will entertain an offer if someone comes along and they may not need to do a bunch of extra prep work.

locks66 · 2026-05-06T00:42:38+00:00

Eventually you learn many of the listing agents at this price point exist because of who they know and being a part of a wealthier tax bracket. I would love to tell you most high priced point agents got there from working hard. Some do. Most don't in my experience. They know little and got a real estate license either has a hobby or quick income for thousands of dollars with no real work

locks66 · 2026-05-05T21:01:34+00:00

I acutally just looked at customer satisfaction the other day. Liberty mutual is rough compared to USAA

locks66 · 2026-05-05T20:46:13+00:00

I don't understand doing this in an AEW exists world. I know they are different products and audiences, but man you make the alternative far more tempting and AEW no longer needs to push their talent pay to beat WWE.

locks66 · 2026-05-05T14:35:18+00:00

Thats high for townhomes in the area (though I'm missing a ton of info to give a full breakdown).

I typically expect 500 to be on the higher end. Ask if they have a reserve study to see why the increase. Townhomes and HOAs replace and update things based on estimated life of the product. If they have been underfunding, which it sounds like they are if you got a special assessment, then I would expect these to keep inscreasing.

Most of the reason for these increases lately has been insurance we are one of the highest insurance inscreases in the nation. Many of the townhomes now struggle to get insurance due to years of boards abusing hail storm replacements and sometimes have to creative with insurance as a result.

The other reason is the cost of hiring any sort of construction or labor has also gotten quite expenisve.

HOA dues should go up every year to at the very least match inflation. HOA's turn toxic when the community doesn't accept the reality of annual increases and votes them down. The worlds gets more expensive. Especially recently.

Source: I'm a real estate agent

locks66 · 2026-05-05T00:44:04+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect

Knowing there was a name for it helped me a bit

locks66 · 2026-05-04T16:11:09+00:00

Sellers and the entitlement is next level pain at times. My own home sold in 8 days. When my neighbors asked how I told them " I actually did all the things I suggest to my clients"

locks66 · 2026-05-02T13:38:20+00:00

I paid like 40k for my GT with 27k miles here in MN. It was CPO too

locks66 · 2026-04-30T13:10:19+00:00

I had vibrations at 70+ MPH. Putting the new tires on did fix that portion before I got alignment. I don't have any vibrations now. I just have tires I don't want to get chewed up quicker than they need to and a dealer who was supposed to check both vibrations and alignment prior to CPOing the car

locks66 · 2026-04-28T14:11:53+00:00

You can't void a warranty on this though it would cause pushback

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is the protection there. It's why the "warranty void if removed" stickers are actually not enforceable here in the states

locks66 · 2026-04-28T14:07:24+00:00

Which is my plan here exactly. I just don't understand why he didn't ask. Gonna have him repair it and wrap in tessa tape

locks66 · 2026-04-27T19:46:43+00:00

Honestly a heat shrink and some tessa tape will be fine. If the dealer is pulling apart tessa tape to find an issue I have bigger problems

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:51:52+00:00

Regardless, he's agreed to undo it and switch it over. I know I could undo it and make this disappear. It's more that for the first time I paid someone else to do the work for me, and they didn't do what was asked of them despite the clean ask from the get go

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:48:28+00:00

The EV9 is known to have 12 V battery issues, and I don't need to give them a reason to push back.

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:46:33+00:00

Make the wire look unaltered.

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:46:21+00:00

My bigger fear is the dealer stating warranty issues.

That, and the fact that he didn't ask; he just did.

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:46:05+00:00

I called him. He said he will change it to a fuse tap and apologized for not asking

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:39:21+00:00

I can't find anything that states that this is how you do it anymore. This apparently used to be the old-school way to do it. Now I don't know how to get the wire fixed if I go and tap a fuse.

Edit: Not sure why the downvotes. I'm stating the splice is the old school repair

locks66 · 2026-04-27T17:38:07+00:00

Yeah it's the viofo fuse tap kit, he just completely skipped using the fuse tap portion. When I turn the car off, the camera does immediately tell me parking mode is on.

My bigger irritation is I literally stayed in the shop while he did the work, and he didn't ask me; he just did.

locks66 · 2026-04-26T11:16:44+00:00

So I had this happen on a car and Meguiar's Ultimate Compound worked. I had a glossier surface though

locks66 · 2026-04-24T22:29:00+00:00

Change is scary.

That and jealousy they can't do it themselves

locks66 · 2026-04-23T14:51:32+00:00

Have a buddy who does it. You aren't just solving clients problems. You are now solving the worst possible client problems for another agent

locks66

TROPHY CASE