Incompetant Realtor Story #5688

[The Rabbi]

People may remember my last encounter with a Realtor, wherein he stuck the contract for sale in his pocket and forgot about it for 30 days until way past closing date.  That deal never did close.
So I am looking for another piece to buy.  I find one.  Call the agent.  She tells me to call back the next day at 3.  I do so and set an app't for 6:15.  At 5:30 she calls that something has come up, can we re-schedule.  OK, these things happen.  We reschedule for 10AM the next day.  I get out there at 10.  No one.  I call her cell number and get voice mail.  I leave a message.
I have yet to hear from this woman or get anything other than her voice mail.  Now maybe she had some real crisis and just couldn't help it.  But I dunno.

[garyk/nm]

Rabbi, you need to get yourself a real estate license.  Cut out the incompetent middlemen.

[Lee]

Find one with a long and successful history.  We went through an assortment of drunks and wierdos until we found the right one.  He sold us our last three houses.

[Guest]

When I was going to buy a house last spring (and decided not to) my realtor was a pretty decent guy. We've developed a chit-chatty email correspondence and if I ever do buy a house (or more likely some land) in the area, it will be from him.

[BozemanMT]

What are you doing to piss all these people off?  

seriously, that is just a bizzare story.
Don't even bother with that one, just wakk away.

[Desertdog]

Having sold RE a lifetime ago, I can can vouch that there are a lot of inconsiderate bufoons out there.  That said, there are probably more honest hard working agents than bufoons.

When you first call an agent simply ask for references and be sure to check them out.

Another problem some agents have is they go by appearences or they go for the BIG sale, ignoring the lower priced buyer.

[Matthew Carberry]

Rabbi,

You said you called the realtor, is that the listing agent?  The realtor representing the seller?

If so, they aren't giving YOU bad service, they're screwing over their seller by not taking your offer in.

You need an agent to represent YOU, don't use the listing agent, their only job is to take care of the seller.

Having your offer presented by an agent who can vouch for your pre-qualified status will typically interest the listing agent more than just you as Joe Blow walking up with no credentials.  About the only time they want an unrepresented buyer is if they think they can beat you up on the counter offer and keep both sets of commissions.  The usual commission (up here) is 6% paid by the seller.  If there are two agents, yours and the seller's, they split the 6% with 3% each.

In Alaska, both of the agent's fees come out of the seller's side of the transaction, so having your own representation is not just smart, it's also free.

[Brad Johnson]

So I am looking for another piece to buy.  I find one.  Call the agent.

I thought in one of the precvious real estate threads you said you'd found somebody that you actually halfway liked. Why not use them instead of the property listing agent?

Brad

[The Rabbi]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
First, I did have a license.  What a @#$% racket.  High fees, etc.
Second, I called the listing agent.  Whoever said she was screwing her seller with bad service by not meeting me and promoting an offer was 100% correct.
Third, I could easily hire my own agent.  And then what?  What is that agent going to do that I can't do myself?  I have been party to probably dozens if not hundreds of transactions as buyer, seller, agent, and mortgage broker.  I have training or experience in contracts, finance, and construction.  I have access to the MLS database.   The contracts I write are clean: price, fast closing date, with contingencies for mortgage (hich I can always get) and inspection either yay or nay (no repairs required).  What is the seller paying my agent 3% for?  That is just money on the table that can be used to negotiate a lower price etc.
In general I have noticed agents are more willing to work with unrepresented buyers since they stand to make twice as much.  They will tend to promote those offers over offers from represented buyers.
And no, she has not called me back yet.

[Matthew Carberry]

Didn't realize (or remember?) that you were in the industry Rabbi.

I tell ya what, if you do know what you're doing and you're not getting good service it gets hard to justify paying 3 or 6% of several hundred thousand dollars.  I once broke out one agent's commission by the amount of time he admitted to working on my sale ($410,000 price, that 3% was $12K) and it was something like $200/hour.

At that kind of hourly I would've been better off burning the place down for the insurance and giving that money to Cochran to make sure State Farm ponied up.

[Desertdog]

There is usually a cut-rate Real Estate company, such as Help-U-Sell@, where they charge a flat fee.

[Brad Johnson]

Third, I could easily hire my own agent.  And then what?  What is that agent going to do that I can't do myself?

ummm... represent your interests exclusively, maybe?

Brad

[ilbob]

Don't deal with nitwits - in any field of endevour.

RE seems to have more than its share of idiots though. The reason may be the low bar to entry. Here in Illinois you can sell RE by taking a class. The class is often taught by RE brokers, and sometimes they do not even charge for it if you agree to sell for them afterwards.

You get a lot of people in the business who have no clue how a service business works. They do not understand it is a fair amount of effort and a lot of nights and weekends. You might think they would just give up after learning the truth about the biz but many just hang on hoping to get a big score without much effort.

Best bet is to go to an agent you either know or who has served someone you do know.