Be careful when selecting a realtor to represent your home.

[thedarkwolf]

I play around on realtor.com at work every now and again. About half the houses I look at only have one pic and it is usually a crappy one of the outside. Granted the houses I'm looking at are cheaper so maybe they are so shitty on the inside they don't want to post any of those .

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I play around on realtor.com at work every now and again. About half the houses I look at only have one pic and it is usually a crappy one of the outside. Granted the houses I'm looking at are cheaper so maybe they are so shitty on the inside they don't want to post any of those .

Again, it comes back to home prices and commission. If the home prices are low and the commission is only 3%, that could mean a commission of only $4500 on a $150,000 house. After flyer printing, commission split with your broker, weekends spent doing open houses, photography costs, professional membership costs, and of course regular living costs, that $4500, which isn't even guaranteed, gets diminished a lot. If you were in a slow and low priced market and could only sell six $100,000 houses a year for an income of $27,000, you would definitely NOT be inclined to pay $150 to someone to take professional photos of a house.

If you take your own photos that's 6 x $150 = $900 that you just "saved."

 

[JulesMaximus]

Sorry, I work with hundreds of them a year. I know my shit. There are good ones. But a LOT of bad ones. I've even fired a few for having bad ethics.

So does my wife surprisingly enough. You're correct, there are a lot of bad ones... even unethical ones. My wife has reported some of them to the board of realtors for some of their behavior.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Sorry, I work with hundreds of them a year. I know my shit. There are good ones. But a LOT of bad ones. I've even fired a few for having bad ethics.

How many houses have you purchased? Have you witnessed the Real Estate agent's actions in the actual buying/selling process? Negotiating/working out issues/closing/etc?

 

[gorcorps]

I play around on realtor.com at work every now and again. About half the houses I look at only have one pic and it is usually a crappy one of the outside. Granted the houses I'm looking at are cheaper so maybe they are so shitty on the inside they don't want to post any of those .

I'd read those more carefully, because when I was looking around any listing that was like that was a foreclosure. The ones that were actually in good standing and for sale were listed better with proper pictures. Have you tried trulia? It's a nicer layout IMO, and has decent filters to apply to your searches so you can get rid of those foreclosures and such easily.

 

[rh71]

A lot are old timers. We interviewed some (when we were selling) before deciding on one who was actually in the modern age. She even set an account up for us on listingbook.com to keep track of who was looking at our property. The first place people look for a home is online...

 

[Doppel]

IMO it is mainly a bullshit profession infested with people who are functionally worthless at other white collar work. There are few exceptions. Some are worth their cost and will represent the seller well or buyer by I think most just go through the motions. Study a bit pass some idiotic test and now fancy themselves a real estate magnate.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

*sigh*

I fired one of them as a client a few days ago because she was so rude she made one of my photographers cry.

She also kept on going on about how much money she makes per hour. So think about it - as a homeowner, would you want an agent who only thinks about how much money she makes an hour? Say that she shoots for $150 an hour. She needs to spend four extra hours to get that $10,000 higher selling price for you. She only makes 3% of that $10,000 since that is her commission, so $300. That's only $300/4 = $75 an hour. Is she going to do it? You can bet she won't. I mean, her time is worth $150 an hour, right?

And today I'm reading the house description than an agent typed up for a house:

Comic Sans, Red Font, Yellow Highlight

8 Rivers Largest FIVE Room model - Currently used as 2Master Suite/3 Hall Bedrooms, One Bonus and One Den Room. 2 Car Garage Fits 1 large Size and 1 Caompac Size Car.

 

[beachchica]

It has to do with the math, the commissions. An extra $10,000 in the selling price is a LOT to you, but to the agent who gets a commission of 3%, it's only an extra $300. Most won't work that hard to get that extra $300. They'd rather sell and move on to the other listing.

Fast sales are key because most of them have put their own money on the line to advertise your home. If your home doesn't sell or sells slowly, that's money out of their pocket or lost. Since agents have their own money on the line (usually), they go one of two ways:

1. They invest as LITTLE as possible in advertising your home. That way they keep their risk low. And of course this sucks for you. These are Realtors that you want to avoid.

2. The GOOD ones know that with proper investment in advertising and with their own skills and reading of the market, they will sell the home and recoup their costs. And this is good for you. These ones generally put the time in to learn the systems, tools, and various forms of internet marketing and data gathering because, hey, they have a lot of their own money on the line.

To be fair, something like 90% of all sales come from the mls. Advertising is more about impressing the seller than creating results. The only real skill involves being able to read the market and set the price. And most of the time even that is pretty easy.