patrick.net

CL says

wondered what you guys thought? :)

Gosh, I just don't know.

I look forward to hearing the opinion of this forum on realtors. No real idea what sort of responses you'll get.

With car salesmen, there's no illusion: they represent the dealership, and are your adversary. Wear a raincoat to protect your clothing from the slime which will be oozed all over you. It's even clear legally that they're not your friend.

Realtors, however, do not represent the party they legally represent, because they represent nobody but themselves. Plus, they don't know, and don't care to know, anything about real estate or the market. What they are expert in is back-door dealing with other realtors, collusion, and getting any contract signed which will get them the money.

Iosef V HydroCabron says

I look forward to hearing the opinion of this forum on realtors. No real idea what sort of responses you'll get.

I do.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

DIE, REALTOR FUCKS, FUCKING DIE!

That! :)

They are salesmen. Have you ever known honest salesmen?

Realtors of course in a free market would not exist because if you clearly saw the fees you were paying you'd object.

Information about prices is the secret information that car dealers don't wish people to know. However, smart guys are finding out online the exact dealer costs for cars. Today you can let several dealers bid *against each other* for your business to buy a car. This is how it should be, a free market with the consumer having knowledge.

In real estate there is still an archaic outdated system to fleece the house buyer of $10,000 in fees and commissions just to buy a house.

Mutual funds are another example. Previously all mutual funds carried a commission, or "sales load" of up to 5.75%.
However, if you were buying this product, you generally made money on this purchase over time, so people becoming rich over time would not complain too much. They received planning services in exchange for this commission.

But people had decided that they didn't want to pay this 5.75% sales fee, and now most funds are "no load". Even Fidelity previously sold funds with a sales load but eventually people figured out they could buy similar funds with no fee.

Realtors are like most salesmen, they are interested in the transaction taking place to make money. The transaction may or may not be a good deal for the consumer. The consumer must be careful always and not confuse the arrangement.

This topic is SO inefficient. It's so much easier to list why Realtors AREN'T bad.

For example:

Ceffer says

This topic is SO inefficient. It's so much easier to list why Realtors AREN'T bad.

For example:

We can list the ways they add value: To wit:

CL says

What would you tell a friend who thinks Realtors add value?

How many other Commission based sales people would say...

"There are higher other multiple bids being offered, so make
yours even higher to assure you get it."

Walk onto any Auto dealer and they treat you better than a realtor.
At least they are dealing with you, here and now, and not trying to compete with
other fictitious buyers which dont exist to inflate the prices and their commission.

Dan8267 says

Have you ever known honest salesmen?

Lots and lots in Business to Business transactions... there is a big difference
when dealing with a rep from IBM, HP, GE or other F500 company.
Your whole career hinges on honest representation...

One slip up and your fired or even worst...

thomaswong.1986 says

Dan8267 says

Have you ever known honest salesmen?

Lots and lots in Business to Business transactions...

One slip up and your fired or even worst...

Does not apply to business to consumer sales involving non-repeat customers as in the real estate business.

Yes, the key to morality is the twin pillars of empathy and reciprocity. This is why science, not religion, is effective at advancing morality.

Iosef V HydroCabron says

Realtors, however, do not represent the party they legally represent, because they represent nobody but themselves. Plus, they don't know, and don't care to know, anything about real estate or the market. What they are expert in is back-door dealing with other realtors, collusion, and getting any contract signed which will get them the money.

One of the biggest problems is that realtors don't have a real fiduciary duty to you. The lack of duty is even more important when one agency is a dual agent -- i.e. one realtor from that agency is a buying agent and another is a selling agent. Lawyers are not allowed to do this on related matters because it'd be a breach of ethical obligations, and there are burdens to representing adverse parties even when the matters are clearly unrelated and there is no conflict of interest.

In a dual agency situation, you should know damn well that your agent is sharing your confidential information with the other side in order to make the deal. Both agents only get paid if the deal happens, so their interest is in making it happen.

In addition, most agents I've run across seem to have little value in the things they are supposed to be experts in -- e.g. the overall real estate market, elements and features of a house, things about the neighborhood, etc. When I ask real questions that are material to purchasing the house, most realtors try to dodge the question because they don't know. It's very rare that they are honest or open. I've only ever had one real estate agent tell me it was a bad time to buy, and that was the guy I'd probably hire.

If you think about it -- there are other experts that are much cheaper to higher than someone who gets a percentage of the transaction, even though their value has no relation to the value of the transaction. You can hire a lawyer to do the paperwork, you typically hire an inspector, you can check out the neighborhood yourself at various times of the day and week and meet some of the neighbors to confirm, etc.

No doubt, there are some realtors that add value, but most of them suck.