patrick.net

In theory...a real estate agent should be very knowledgeable about protecting a buyer in any way possible from all the stuff that can go wrong
In theory...its not just the license but the long experience, having sold 100's of homes and having learned from experience of what could go wrong, what to look for
In theory...its a profession just like anything else, you wouldn't try to become a dentist in order to fix your teeth, would you?

In REALITY...real estate agents know nothing more about real estate than anybody that has common sense and gets a license.
In reality...real estate agents do nothing to protect the buyer but only whats best for themselves...which is..get the deal signed and delivered and at the highest price possible
In reality...real estate agents use boiler plate forms which attorneys have put together and when you ask a real estate agent about each individual point most of them canNOT even explain it
In reality...everybody and anybody can be a real estate agent - when you are a listing agent, the house WILL sell eventually and you do nothing except stand around on sundays, smile and tell people how charming the house is, how great the owners are and how nice the views are (even though the house has NO views at all)

This is from my own experience with realtors here in california. Basically, in our neighborhood EVERY stay home mom is a realtor. No kidding. And they do what for me...send me listings they only are supposed to have access to...how come I can find every listing they send me online, myself?

Times have changed, the internet is there now - Zillow etc...if a realtor did what they are supposed to do, I'd say..yes, you need an experienced fully fledged realtor, that knows everything and anything about selling/buying/building/inspecting a house...But they simply don't.

And now they are complaining that it takes 6 months to sell a house and the money is bad for the time you put in. You know what? That is what being a realtor is all about, buddy!! You were raking it in, in the past 6 years, made more money than god...and if you don't have any dough on the sidelines for now - you are definitely not my realtor of choice.

I am amazed just how lazy some of these realtors are, when they realize that it won't come easy...they walk away and send you an email per day with the latest listings, anybody can find online. These are the times where you have to work your butt off to stay afloat. But realtors are sooo spoiled from the past years, that it seems not worth their "valuable" time.

If I find a realtor that is all a realtor should be in theory, I'll change my mind.

I’ve dealt with 3 different realtors and I’ve never heard of one who has required signing a contract saying that you’d go through them if they showed you a property.

Read my post carefully. Before a real estate agent will act as buyer's agent, they slap down that contract. It is always free for a realtor to show listed properties.

It does not matter how easy the realtor's job may be. What matters is that too many potential buyers have attached themselves to an agent. The agent will only show the buyers homes that pay a commission, which means listed properties first and then begrudgingly FSBOs that advertise "3% to selling agent." They will not show a FSBO who does not offer to pay the 3% unless they have that buyers agent contract.

Educated buyers are hard to find. A few years back, I had one house that I was selling FSBO that caught the eye of a state trooper. He saw the sign in the yard when he was visiting his mom nearby. He looked at the home and wanted to buy. Unfortunately, he hooked up with a real estate agent who "because she knew him from school, was showing him houses for free." Since I was not willing to list the property, she talked him out of buying that house.

If a dentist does not do a good job, you will not come back in 6 months.

If a realtor does not do a good job, you will never need another one (but the bank may still hire her later to sell your house).

If you are not planning to do for living, don't waste your time on it. If you do it because you want to learn more to identify how bad the so called "professional" agents are, it's not a bad idea.

Use it to save couple bucks, it won't work that way.

To purchase a house with the right price, all you need is your negotiation skill, right timing and right attitude.

Think about using the listing agent as a double agent (represent your side too), it will weaken their power to fully represent the buyer side, since human is human. But first, you have to know well how to play the game and all the tricks that they can use on you.

Good luck.

i love realtards they push papers, do nothing, scam people out of money, sell overpriced delapitated homes in LALA land for imbecilic dumb asses. realtards.

HeadSet says

I’ve dealt with 3 different realtors and I’ve never heard of one who has required signing a contract saying that you’d go through them if they showed you a property.

Read my post carefully. Before a real estate agent will act as buyer’s agent, they slap down that contract. It is always free for a realtor to show listed properties.
It does not matter how easy the realtor’s job may be. What matters is that too many potential buyers have attached themselves to an agent. The agent will only show the buyers homes that pay a commission, which means listed properties first and then begrudgingly FSBOs that advertise “3% to selling agent.” They will not show a FSBO who does not offer to pay the 3% unless they have that buyers agent contract.
Educated buyers are hard to find. A few years back, I had one house that I was selling FSBO that caught the eye of a state trooper. He saw the sign in the yard when he was visiting his mom nearby. He looked at the home and wanted to buy. Unfortunately, he hooked up with a real estate agent who “because she knew him from school, was showing him houses for free.” Since I was not willing to list the property, she talked him out of buying that house.

I found it rather "interesting" when I moved to CA and all my work associates descended on me with two things -

1) All the RE cliches of buy now, it's your best investment, get in anywhere and build equity
2) I have this great buyer's agent friend that will help you

My impulse was naturally to run away. Oh my God, had I done what those people were telling me to do: get a ARM, plus a second mortgage for a down, buy any pile of rotting sticks and try to flip it ... I guess I *might* have timed the market and made some money, but more likely I would have been screwed like many of THEM were. One lady was trying to convince me around 2005 to buy a condo in her complex. By 2007 she was worried about foreclosure when her ARM was about to reset. Strangely, she was still pitching the idea of real estate to me - now she thought I should buy her place.

I tried to FSBO my house back east. Small City, great old house. The agents clearly were doing all they could to steer people away.

Sheesh.

zetabeos1 says

As before, many have no clue, or capacity to understand what they were really doing.

No need. The machine works just fine as long as:

1. Listing agents know how to type your the details into the MLS

2. Buyers agents know how to drive people around and fill out a offer

Once a contract is signed, it is a title company or lawyer, and a loan officer that handle the closing.

The fuel for the NAR real estate machine is that an overwhelming number of buyers think the first step to buying a home is to call a realtor. That concept is well known to anyone who has tried FSBO.

zetabeos1 says

When the bubble started back in the late 90s, It was one of the business publications described realtors as former Tupperware salespeople, flocking to RE profession due to the boom. As before, many have no clue, or capacity to understand what they were really doing.

Two years back I talked to an experience real estate agent. According to him 75% of agents are these kind as described above - "flocking to RE profession in boom-time". He was telling that most of these agents do not have any clue how things work in "normal" market.

In tough market most likely they will go back to Tupperware salespeople profession again.

I know all this because my wife and I both got our RE licenses in California 3 years ago — she became a Realtor — I just wanted to know more about the biz — and she is LIGHT YEARS ahead of me now, because of all of the experience she has gained in that time, as well as making some mistakes, and having her Broker protect/watch out for her to make sure that the mistakes didn’t affect her clients (because they were caught early on, before they could adversely affect the deal).

No offense. But I don't think the license + years of working in that area means experience. It's more tricks to play on buyers and sellers but definitely doesn't mean experience.

Wow! that was a long answer up above! LOLEach state has dfeifrent requirements. Contact a real estate company that provides training. Keller Williams, Century 21 are both good with good training programs. They can set you up with the license guidelines for your area. In most states you will need to complete a certain amount of clock hours for training. (different in each state) then you will need to take a state test and a national test.

HEY !!

What's with starting up a thread that has been dead since 2009 !?

Admittedly it was a good one, but now I feel embarrassed about going around clicking "like" om postings from 2009. And I'm not even up late because of drinking or some such.

I have a friend who last year did just that. In Boca Raton Florida of all places. He's done pretty well, he's made enough money to hire me do work on some software projects he has.

FormerAptBroker says

If you want to actually buy a piece pf property you should work with the listing agent and pay them a fee. A listing agent will work with you th beat up the seller and you can almost always buy a home for less when you work with a listing agent and let them "double end" the deal.

I tried that a few times in the last 6 months.

Firstly, most properties (that I'm interested in - urban areas) in the Bay Area are 100 years old and will have hundreds of pages of disclosures. I've approached listing agents and, surprisingly, they are unwilling to represent both sides of the deal because of all the existing problems with the house. They don't want to risk having legal problems after the sale.

They do, however, refer me to another agent in their brokerage. But, as housing is so hot right now, this doesn't really provide any advantage except for maybe some extra info about how high the bids are going. With so many buyers and so little inventory there is no using agent's greed to get a better price. Those days are gone (though hoping they'll be back soon).