patrick.net

Talking about Realtors(tm) and Mercedes. I once rode with a realtor(tm) on her supposedly brand-new Mercedes. I asked when she bought it, just to humor myself (and bracing for some hot airs about to blow by). As predicted, she said she'd just bought this car last week, brand-new. The car indeed looked clean, but when I glanced on the odometer, the reading was 23,500 something miles.

Must've been lots of trips back and forth Phoenix and Vegas.

_smile_

Of course there are good realtors. Deb over at Ben's is a good example.

Sales, in general, is a grueling business and cause psychosis in the most reasonable of chaps. A hack playwright made a name for himself by writing a piece on the topic, condemning us all to an endless stream of his humorless droning morality tales, all released to embarrassing shrieks of praise from the Times.

I wonder how much dislike there is on this board stems from a previous observation that many people here are either engineers or engineer-like, and given to analysis. There is a comical tension between sales ("These engineers turn out shit and think they are so smart") and engineering ("These jackasses are just empty suits, promising shit no one could build. And they get paid more!") Engineering is driven by mathematics and rationality, while sales is driven by emotion, usually fear or greed.

In any event, ScottC, for his hyperbole, seems like a reasonable enough guy to have a beer with.

Besides. Engineers smell.

Cheers,
prat

The world may one day lash out at these know nothings and expunge them form the process. They must expiate for their wrongdoings!

It's happening right now...... The worst time for a realtor is not the bust itself but the time just before the bust when it just starts to get slower. This is the time when all efforts fail...when advertisment and footwork expenses are wasted because the seller is still thinking up and the buyer is thinking down. You know this time right away when you read an article where a realtor recommends "pricing it right". They now have to drive virtually potential buyers around only to get a lowball offer......wasting their gas and they're almost sure that their buyer is just going to lowball....but that have to play the game anyway. No sales......they just keep bleeding financially and try so hard to convince the sellers that they need to lower their price.......why? So they can make money for themselves....but sellers are very hesitant to lower their prices especially the amount that would actually attract true potential buyers. I see this with my Mothers neighbors house which they were finally convinced to cut $50k off the asking price.....and even though their house is much better than the house across the street(that needed a shitload of work) that sold 3 months ago for $750k, it is priced $50k less and only had 1 offer $600k....and since they are not taking that, I'm sure the next offer will be much smaller.

This bust will be the worst any realtor has ever experienced in their entire life because of the magnitude of the runup. Hopefully for themselves they were smart enough to put away their massive boom profits for the long slow dry season they face.

I think TIM's post is very true:

The trouble with this “profession” is that honest people sink and sharks thrive.
In order to flourish, you have to be able to lie with a straight face, which not many people are able to do.

This holds true for almost all sales jobs.

Whilst some realtors probably start off with an ounce of honesty, they have to lose it to stay employed.

Yes...you must convince the buyer that they must buy. Buyers will usually ask questions regarding a piece of property. I have dealt with many in my time and I always hear stuff like....."It's a great investment"....and "It will be worth alot more in a couple of years". Now...would you think a realtor would say...."this house really isn't worth what they're asking" or "Now is a bad time to buy real estate",....What would you do if they did say that? You'd say "Ok.... See ya" and nothing would be sold....they would be broke This is why our friend ScottC won't answer the question I asked, "Is there ever a bad time to buy?".

Bottom line is if you were to be an honest real estate agent, you would have an alternate job for when it truely is a bad time to buy so you don't have to lie or misinform. Real estate is a seasonal job! For those who do it as there only source of income, you can't really blame them when the market isn't good any more than you can blame a homeless man for shoplifting.

Excuse me, may I call BS?

In this thread?

No.

Cheers,
prat

Well, we tend to see what we want to see.

Scott has shown through many many posts to be extremely knowledgeable about the industry, and probably knows a lot more about the ethical standards of RE agents in a rational market. But an irrational market skews the data.

_applauds_

Cheers,
prat

Realtors have no reason to exist, they are intermediators, and technology is about disintermediation. I won't use a realtor for selling my home, my wife will take the exam to get the licence and get ourselves listed at MLS. 3 of my friends get the realtor licence themselves just for pocketing the commission when selling homes themselves. Realtors don't know anything else I don't know when it comes to homes and area, they can't negotiate better than I do, what do I need them for?

Do it yourself, get a licence, it is educational for ourselves too. Pay the annual licence fee so that you get the same marketing exposure to MLS, and save yourselves tens of thousands of dollars.

@ TWIT: Do you post at Ben’s? If I may ask, under what name?

I don't much anymore. I do lurk there though. Perhaps I'll start up again. SQT, do you ever toss in with the underclass over there? Cause I'll be honest, I'm here for two reasons: the housing bubble and the chicks. And it looks like we are almost out of housing bubble.

I always enjoy your posts.

_smile_ Thank you very much.

Cheers,
prat