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Why is such drivel being posted in the Real Estate section? This stuff needs to be in the miscellaneous section so it doesn't waste readers time here. This is the second such post on this particular thread today.......please take it to miscellaneous. Thanks.
Realtors Are Untrustworthy says
piss off
Wow, never have such words been so eloquently spoken. Please take your own advice.
Would you also tell them it is best to make any offer to the listing agent so your offer will be the best so they can double dip? That would leave you with only the houses you are the listing agent on to show......but you want to make $$$ so you do not tell your customers about the benefit of only making offers to the listing agent. Then what the hell.....maybe another little omission to get the commission.......next thing you are telling them it's an investment, the bottom is in, prices can only go up from here.
There needs to be a whole new flat rate system for house sales but that will never happen. When I bought/sold a house in Brazil the realtor got 6% there.....why not 5 or 7 or a flat rate????? Realtor who was so nice also turned out to be an asshole only interested in $$$$$. This seems to be world wide.
28! Funny stuff. What about that buyer that wants to see 20 different houses in 14 subdivisions and takes the Real Estate Agent three full days of driving them around? 25 gallons of gas, three days spent to be told none of these are what we are looking for.
I think I would be flat out honest. Listen to what the client is looking for and show them that. If they say 220K is the maximum, then that is all they are sent. But what about that 235K house that has been falling in price for two years, should I send that as well since they may accept 220K?
Bottom Line: The customer should determine what they want and how they want to be treated. Do they want a daily, weekly, monthly e-mail? Do they want to know about schools, traffic, crime, etc...?
What do you ask the car salesman? Show me the paperwork for the last sale of this same type of vehicle?
It is like politics. You would start out with all the right intentions, but eventually grow tired of the dirtbags that waist your time and start treating everyone the same.
A perfect model would be to sell a house like any other piece of property. Put it up on craigslist and sell the frigging thing. Why is it any different than selling a couch? Sure it is a huge amount, but even all the more reason to remove the leeches from the equation. I'd love to use a middle person to sell my $100 couch. I'd gladly give them the full 6% fee. They can do all the background check on it, the inspection, title search to make sure I actually don't still owe anything, etc. etc. Why don't they help with my couch? I'd tell you why. MONEY and lots of it!
I can afford to be honest, I don't care anymore
May be you are the needle in the haystack that realtor Greg is talking about. :)
it seems from my point of view, that the slick talker will always win...
Absolutely. This is why the whole way RE is sold needs to be changed. The agents who really do have their clients best interest in mind lose to the one's who will do/say what it takes to close the sale. Just like politics....say/do whatever it takes to get elected and then do what is in their own best interest.
I can afford to be honest, I don't care anymore, I make plenty of money from my rentals, and as a professor. But basically, it seems from my point of view, that the slick talker will always win...
Yes, someone who does not need, or care about it for that matter, the income is the only way to overcome the corruption of the current pay structure.
However, I do still see a conflict of interest in that you invest in rentals. Would you let a "good deal" pass through your hands to a client that you know would love to buy the house?
robertoaribas says
I can afford to be honest, I don't care anymore
May be you are the needle in the haystack that realtor Greg is talking about. :)
House worth 650 and falling? Tell them the truth and they will hire the agent who tells them it's worth 700 and rising.
Today's buyers appreciate honesty, integrity, and an understanding of how and why prices are changing. But today's sellers more often hire whoever gives them the most optimistic expectations. Liars get rewarded.
These may not be the real estate professionals we want, but they are the real estate professionals that get hired time and time again.
I have a very dim view of realtors, mostly due to experience with them. I've often thought that, if I wanted to, I could be a different kind of realtor... an honest one... a straightforward one... one that actually had his client's best interests in mind versus my own pocketbook. But then I thought, could I actually be successful this way? Is the profession innately corrupt, with only the dishonest and lazy being able to make the most money? I guess I think "yes".
But, anyway, if I ever wanted to be a realtor, here's how I'd be. Would I make more money/be more successful, though, than the stereotypical lazy, greedy realtor?
I would...
... put a preference towards finding homes for buyers, versus just wanting to sit back on listings, waiting for someone else to bring the buyer.
...assume buyers use the internet for general searching, and thus I'd actually ask them what they really want, and only present them with homes that match that using criteria not usually available on internet searches.
...if asked, tell them my honest thoughts about home buying, which are, only buy to live there. Assume zero to very little appreciation in the future.
...tell buyers to only buy what they know they can afford, and not what the bank tells them they can afford.
...for my listings, take good pictures, write descriptions and spell-check them, and even do minor touch-up work myself to make the home more attractive.
...advise sellers on prices they're likely to get... price it to sell, versus pricing it to get my maximum commission. If the house is not in contract within three weeks, then I'm not doing my job.
Anyway, I could continue rambling. With the above said, would I just be wasting my time doing all that, or do you think it might actually make a difference?
#housing