Realtors Suck

Yes, it’s a blanket statement. Yes, it’s stereotyping. It’s totally wrong in every logical and reasonable sense, but damn, I’ve yet to work with a realtor who didn’t try to either a) screw me out of a LOT of money, b) outright lie to me, c) listen to anything I have to say or d) rush me to the point of absurdity so I’d just SIGN EVERYTHING – “You don’t have to read all of this! It’s just legal mumbo jumbo!” In many cases, some have tried all of the above.

Latest episode:

I just opted out of a sales contract after receiving the Draconian HOA agreement and asking neighbors how tightly it was enforced. One neighbor didn’t want to talk to me about it and the other three I spoke to said it was ridiculous and if they had known, they would have never moved into the neighborhood. This was the last straw in this deal. We had to get out of it. Anyway, guess what the realtor says, “Yeah, I, um, like, already processed your deposit, so you’ll have to wait, m’kay?” Luckily she hadn’t processed the check, so I put a stop payment on it. Why process a deposit before all contingencies expire?

Let’s go into this sales contract. We told her our absolute ceiling was $455K for everything. We made an offer of $440K on a $485K house. Our realtor comes back with, “They want the sales price to be higher, but they’re willing to pay closing costs. If you pay $465K, they’ll give you $15K toward closing costs. So you’re under your ceiling at $450K! How’s THAT for a negotiation?” It didn’t seem right to me, but my wife, bless her heart, agreed with the realtor. For some reason, that was enough for me not to think about it anymore, so we accepted. This is not why we opted out, just to make that clear. It’s a mistake we made and we accepted it and were moving on. Strike one on the realtor. She said, “Since you didn’t fight the counter-offer, that will be good for negotiating after the home inspection.”

The home inspection was last Friday. ALL of the windows need replacing. I said to our realtor, “Well, this is the time for negotiation. Let’s get them to pay for the window replacements.” What did she say? “I don’t think they’ll replace the windows. I’d advise not to ask them.” Everything else that was found to be wrong with the house, the seller is required by law to fix. The windows were the only “extra” thing. But, no, our BUYER’S AGENT doesn’t think it’s worth asking. Strike two.

Another recent incident with another realtor:

I drove an hour away to look at a house in Charleston, WV. I get there and the realtor didn’t know how to operate the front door lock, so we couldn’t get in. No shit, this is what he said to me, “We can come back next week… or is this something you’d buy today?” WHAT!? Dude, this isn’t 2004!


Bottom feeders. When the market’s going great, they’re impossible to get in touch with, but when the market sucks, they’re like vultures. Defense lawyers and car salespeople are steps above them.

A co-worker said, “Welcome to the Northern Virginia housing market. The worst of its kind.”

I know that good realtors are out there. I’ve heard tales of them. I just haven’t had the pleasure of working with any of them.
In 2000, we were in the market for a house. We told our realtor we wanted a starter house, fixer-uppers were okay, but no ranches and no split-levels. We gave her our price range.
She showed us a whole list of ranches and split levels starting at our upper price range and going up. We refreshed her memory, and looked at a couple of cape cods.
Then we’d go weeks without hearing from her. We’d find a house that we wanted to view, call her, set it up, and it would be under contract.
We’d go weeks without hearing from her, call her, and she’s say, “Oh, I’ll run the multi-listings for you again, you can pick them up at my office.” I’d drive out of my way to get a list full of nothing but the same ranches and split-levels, all starting at our upper price range.
We gave up, called another (affiliated) office, and discussed our problems with the manager, who arranged a new agent for us. This new agent wouldn’t return phone calls. Ever.
We bought a house that was FSBO with no agent.

2007: We bought a bigger house and put ours on the market. The agent we worked with was clueless. “What do you mean you want to take your stove?! You can’t take your appliances! It’s just not done!” Then he got very very lazy. I listed the house on Craigslist myself with the realtor’s approval, understanding that he’d still get his cut. We finally got an e-mail through Craigslist from a woman who had been trying to contact the realtor for a week to see the house, but he wouldn’t answer her phone calls. We called him to see what the trouble was. His answer?
“Oh, yeah. She called me. I never called her back. Go ahead and show her the house yourself. You know the drill. If she makes an offer, I’ll write up the paperwork.”
We fired him.
She bought the house.
Her realtor, which she aquired later, was a pain in the ass that defied description.

I am never buying or selling a house again if I can help it.

REALTOR checking in.

First of all, are you talking about a licensed real estate agent or a REALTOR? The commission licenses agents, but the Board of REALTORS oversees them and holds them to a very strict code.

If anyone in my office did anything like that, they would be out the door. The customer comes first, particularly when buying something as expensive as a house.

We go over all legal documents with buyers before letting them sign anything. We listen to buyers and handle their objections.

I don’t know how it works in Virginia, but in New Jersey we have both the Real Estate Commission and the Board of REALTORS to contend with. I would contact them both and file a complaint.

My office works above board and with the customer, having found out that dealing with the commission and the REALTOR Board is a royal pain in the ass on a good day.

I’m with you about realtors as a general rule, but not about the windows. When you say they needed replacing, what do you mean? Were they broken, or just old fashioned and out of style? If they’re broken, then they need replacing. If they’re just old but they work fine, then the fact that they’re old is part of why the price is low to being with. If I’m the seller I say, buy the house and replace them yourself, I’m not screwing around replacing windows for you.

All the seals were broken in the windows, and all the argon gas leaked out. So the windows all had condensation inside. They needed to be replaced.

Annie, nothing personal here, but are we now obliged not only to capitalize Realtor, but to refer to REALTORS?

I’ve had good and bad real estate agents, so I’ll confine my negativity to this “Realtor” thing.

Why exactly do members of your profession think they are uniquely entitled to a Capitalized Job Description? We don’t have Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers and Baristas, so why Realtors?

Lemme know if I need to address you as Annie-Xmas, REALTOR™, as I don’t want to be any snarkier than necessary. :cool:

REALTOR is trademarked in capital letters and as a REALTOR I am duty bound to type it that way. I’ve been a REALTOR for so long that I do it without thinking, and it doesn’t look right to me if it is typed any other way.

Every piece of paper I’ve ever seen from any REALTOR has it written REALTOR.

I forgot to tell the OP that he could also talk to the agent’s broker. Wherever there is a real estate agent, there is a real estate broker. Whenever an agent is fined and/or suspended, the broker also gets hit with hefty fines. Not only is dealing with the commission and the REALTORS a pain in the ass, it can lead to losing money.

REALTOR: I know your subdivision (in which you are selling a house through me) doesn’t have gas, but the buyer wants to if you have any gas logs in the fireplace, and if you do, he wants you to leave them.

Umm…yeah, I know you’re blonde, but what kind of a diagram do I have to draw here?

-Joe

realtor.com is your friend.

I can relate. I was thinking of moving into a smaller house and had an agent show me 4-5 houses that I had found on realtor.com and 1 FISO with a sign up. She showed them, but told me she couldn’t get hold of a FISO house with the contact number on the front lawn. She said she’d keep trying to get hold of that owner, and was going to get back to me with some info. on local mortgage options.

I never heard back. I called the FISO number myself, got someone right away and saw the house by myself.

Long story short, 2 months later when I found asomeone I could work with I thought it was best to officially sever my ties with the original realtor. She was absolutely shocked, shocked! that I wasn’t thrilled with the service she was providing.

What really fries me, however, is a situation with my church. The church bought a property (lots of land and an old house) for a possible building site. Long story short, a few years into the process a used church building came on the market and it made more sense to buy that. So we did and listed the first property. The listing agent has ties, her father is a member of the congregation before his death. Agent figured a 8% commission on the sale. The going rate is 6%. When I first questioned this, I was told that she would be doing much more than a typical agent. Whatever those things were, they were not obvious and never spelled out. The property was never on the local houses for sale show on the local access cable, had 1 open house showing, and had an ad in the local “Houses and Lifestyles” magazine that looked like all the others. Whatever.

Well, due to the housing recession, the property was on the market for 11 months and we’re finally going to sell it for $50,000 less that we bought it for 5 years ago. As part of the closing deal, the agent made this big deal about how she was going to sacrifice and cut her commission down to 6% (i.e. the going rate). Several members of the board are running around singing her praises because she was willing to do this, wanting to send her a special Thank You note.

I’m not sure that’s the correct response when an agent bravely decides not to screw over the congregation her father used to attend.

Unless your agent was also the broker, she could not negotiate the commission. Only brokers can negotiate a commission, and you should have something in writing with the broker’s signature stating what the commission is.

We’ve had people try to negotiate commssions at the closing, only to have the Broker nix the change. In one case where the agent did accept a smaller commission, the difference was taken from his share of the commission.

REALTOR. That cracks me up.

Yeah, sure they wouldn’t.

In today’s market, they’re replace the windows and give you foot massages for a year if you asked for it. That’s just a realtor trying to close a deal with as little hassle as possible.

Just another profession that brings nothing to the world and just sucks at the ass of a transaction that could be done without them.

Recently I’ve had two realtors ask me real sheepishly, “what do you do for a living?”

When I tell them, I see a shadow of disappointment move across their face as they realize they have no way of even asking, “are there any openings.”

Sorry dude. Some of entered jobs where actual intelligence and skill are required.

Their ranks are thinning though, and the next time people are buying houses again (2012 at the earilest), they’ll have all the kinks worked out of the online equivalents.

Annie, no disrespect meant, but how can an industry have such a pervasive bad reputation without some credibility to the complaints that we see over and over again.

What I discovered is that REALTOR’s or just plain old real estate agents are in it for the deal. They don’t represent you as a buyer or a seller, they represent cutting the deal. It’s one of the most competitive, throat-cutting businesses out there.

I, too, had a bad experience with a REALTOR who shared confidential financial information with the seller’s agent putting us in a disadvantageous position. It’s disappointing to discover that you’re truly on your own for probably the single largest investment that you’ll ever make.

My in-laws ran into this. This was about 15 years ago, when they were looking for a bigger house. They found a lovely home, the owners were charmed by my SIL (she was a pre-teen at the time, and was enthralled with the fountain in the front yard and was playing with it the entire visit) and they exchanged phone numbers.

Well, my in-laws made an offer on the house, and the agent told them it had been denied. Confused, since the offer was near the asking price, they called the owner.

Who said, “You made an offer? Really? First we’d heard of it.” It turns out the agent was miffed the lower offer would have meant a lower commission, so she was trying to keep the house on the market in hopes of getting either the asking price or higher. The owners were anxious to sell, as they were moving out of town and had already purchased their new home.

Long story short, I believe agent got chewed a new orifice and my in-laws moved in.

Good God, that is just obnoxious!

JANITOR!

I live in DC. I know a great Realtor if you are interested. Not sure if he works in N. Va, but I can attest to his honesty and integrity.

The offer’s much appreciated, but I think we’re going to go this one alone from now on and reluctantly deal with listing agents only.

REALTORS have to present any and all offers. End of discussion.

If that had been taken to the Board of REALTORS, both agent and broker would have been fined.

When I bought my house I had exactly the opposite from my REALTOR. She whorked her ass off, and did a great job for me.
No complaints.
Then my son bought a condo a few months ago, and the builder’s agent was an idiot.
My son and his SO asked me to come along to the paper signing to start escrow.
She tried to get them to sign blank forms (No Fucking way, bitch)
She mis-explained forms (can’t you read bitch?)
And pretty much did not know her ass from a hole in the ground.
A month later the builder fired her, and hired someone else.
On a more positive note, I was able to negotiate her out of most of her commission.

I’ve had good experiences myself, but I do have a rant. What is it with these ads the National Association is running? “This is a perfect time to buy a house. Homes are your best investment.” Right, when prices are nosediving. Over 10 years it looks good, over 1 or 2, not so much.

The late night male enhancement ads are more believable.