I think the thing with rea…REALTORS®!!1 is that it’s a profession with rather low barriers to entry, and few demands on a person’s time or schedule, that particularly appeals to people like housewives, who tend to generate business on the basis of personal connections instead of any technical proficiency. Stuff like multi-level marketing seems to have the same appeal, and you often end up dealing with the same subset of people.
We’ve bought and sold three homes now and have never had a problem with our realtor, but then, he’s family. Lucky us.
I guess if you find a good agent you should cling to them like a lamprey then. When we bought our house we used the sellers agent as our own and she was a peach. Yeah, I know that means she didn’t have to split the commission, but as my girlfriend and I both work in the industry we knew that she was 100% above the board on everything she did, she was available to us damned near round the clock, and told us everything that we should ask the buyer to fix or replace even before our home inspection. I’d use her again in a heartbeat.
We bought our house in South Carolina from an agent, and used her about 10 years later to sell it.
I figured somebody who’d be willing to drive out to our house at 9pm with papers for us to sign was serious about her work.
Yeah, but people don’t, and realtors KNOW IT.
Get real.
You’re in the process of buying a house, and a realtor acts like an asshole. What? This is a time in your life when you’re looking for MORE forms to fill out, and more hassle to deal with? Or you’re just going to get a new one and move on?
And realtors know it, and they fall back on this party line that you keep touting.
What do you think? Everyone who takes the 3 week night school course and gets their rubber stamp is some paragon of virtue?
It’s a field for shysters, hucksters, hustlers and anyone who didn’t go to college looking to make a quick buck of the hard work of others.
When we sold my mothers house 3 years ago we contacted several agents. The first two were the biggest sellers in the area. The price they wanted to sell for was in my estimation about 8 thou too low. I figured that a few bucks off the top made it easier to sell. They would get a big commission ,not quite as big but it would be an easier sell. They sold a lot of houses that way.
I found another agent and got what I thought was the right price. The 240 bucks difference to the first agents was worth low balling the house. The 8 grand to me was not.
The freakonomics guys did a story once about how realtors houses stayed on the market longer than other people’s houses.
The point?
The few hundred they get from selling my house for $10,000 more isn’t worth the weeks of extra work.
But, the several thousand they get from selling their house for $10,000 more is.
If you change your mind, I have a great realtor in Northern Virginia whom I just used.
You guys are freaking me out. We’ve had great luck with our agent so far; he’s shown us exactly what we’ve wanted to see, helped us refine our search along the way, and been upfront about flaws in various houses. He’s also encouraged us to wait if we weren’t gung-ho about a given house, has had no problem taking us to see dozens of places (30+) and has been informative and helpful throughout.
Our settlement date is Monday, so hopefully we’ll have no problems between now and then!
If they sell their house for $10,000 more, wouldn’t they get…$10,000 more? 
10 is several. 
I see a promising real estate career in your future.
When the wife and I bought our house two years ago we got the real short end of the stick. The woman we used did literally nothing but get some papers ready for us and tell us who to use for the home inspection. The home inspector was an idiot, but after reading his stupid contract there was nothing we could do. He didn’t find the large cracks in the closet because there were boxes in the way, told us there was a gas leak from the heater an needed to be shut off.
When we went back for the last walk through, the heater was on, though we were told it wasn’t, but everything else was ok. We let the previous people stay for an extra week because we were going to be out of town anyway, when we came back there were huge holes in the wall, up to an inch, and they left us with $200 worth of junk pilled on a door hanging above the washer and dryer. The door would have fallen had I not fixed it.
Later we found out the guy who lived there was fixing the place, but had not gotten permits and such. The electric wiring is really bad, as in he ran a whole circuit for one outlet, but connected the built in microwave to half of the house. If we use the microwave with anything else the power goes out.
When we called her on it she said all houses are left like that. There’s no way in hell I would ever use her again. She’s friends with friends and she will not talk to us if we see her. I think she’s just mad that we sold our other house without her since the guy across the street knew we were selling.
Need I remind people that most real estate sales people are working for the sellers; not you the buyer. Their interests come first.
If you’ve contracted a buyer’s agent and are getting screwed, then that’s a whole different issue.
See the OP. She was a Buyer’s Agent.
No-one is denying that the profession has an official code of ethics. What people seem to be annoyed about is that a much-greater-than-expected percentage of that profession ignore the code, and that there seems to be little in the way of self-policing among many real estate workers.
and
Jesus H. Christ, people!
If the people who work in the industry are so self-important that they have to capitalize every letter in their job description, then good for them. But no-one else is under any such obligation.
There’s an extra “k” in there.
I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with your real estate agent. I’m both an attorney and a REALTOR myself and you’re right. The low barrier of entry with the potential to make a quick buck without knowing what the hell you’re doing means you’re going to get your fair share of bad apples. But that’s not how it should be and it’s not the way I want to practice.
I take the agency relationship seriously and I’m not there to waste people’s times. Our livelihood is contingent upon our reputation and I’m not willing to jeopardize that to cut corners and hopefully squeeze out another $100 on a deal.
Do others? Well, yeah. In my short time in this business I’ve heard absurd horror stories like one agent who hosted an open house, left exploded food all over the microwave and pissed on every toilet seat! I mean…are you kidding me? No wonder we have such a bad reputation.
So I’m sorry to those of you who have had clueless or downright fraudulent agents out there. We’re not all like that.
My bad experience with a real estate agent was my brother-in-law - we found the house, he made full commission for showing us one house and screwing up the paperwork. He was my sister’s real estate agent, too, and wasted most of their time showing them houses that didn’t match their criteria. Of course there is the family expectation that we will use him again for our next house sale and purchase. We really, really don’t want to - we want to get maximum dollars for our sale, and I have no confidence in him coming through for us.
ETA: Forgot the part where I had to calm HIM down when there was a glitch in the sale. :rolleyes:
And for the record, I don’t have a dog in the realtor vs. REALTOR11!!!111 discussion, but for the love of all that’s holy, people, it is not pronounced REE-LA-TER. I’ll accept REEL-TER or even REE-ALL-TER, but the L comes after all the first vowels, not in the middle of them.
- featherlou, ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE CLERK
I’m sure that’s true.
The question, i guess, is what the downside is to being an asshole? That is, while there are certainly professional codes of ethics and state laws to follow, what incentive does the real estate professional have to follow them in his or her day-to-day practice?
After all, the fact that some people in the business act unethically, and yet apparently (in many cases) continue to thrive, suggests that there is some reward (or at least very little penalty) for being an asshole. They clearly weigh the costs of potentially losing their livelihood against the benefits that accrue from doing their job unprofessionally, and decide that it’s worth the risk.
If i decided to become a realtor, went through the appropriate training and licensing, and went into business with the intention of doing my job ethically, honestly, and with a commitment to providing good, professional service to my customers, would that be enough to help me advance professionally at the expense of the shysters? Or would i be at a disadvantage because i took my work seriously?
It’s a good question and I think that, in the short term, the bad agents will win. Those with no qualms about losing their license or even just getting fined, can say or do anything, promise anything, and hope to cash in on the quick buck. That’s the same anywhere, really. Take a parallel example with the sub-prime market. The people handing those out like candy back in 2004 knew it was bad. They knew it. But they did it anyway because it made them a ton of money, they got quota bonuses, and everyone was happy! Now that it’s all hit the fan today who’s there to take the fall. Not the people that set up the loans. They took the money and ran. They aren’t there anymore. Heck, the businesses aren’t there anymore half the time.
So as I said, in the short term, the bad ones absolutely have an advantage. But long term? The real estate business is based on your reputation. Your bread and butter comes from referrals and that’s only going to happen when you treat someone right. So if you want to stick around, you’d better not screw people over.