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One blogger's view on Real Estate Agents (16 04 2007)
This world is full of people who set out on a career path pursuing illegal activities and end up becoming criminals. They rob banks, set up monopolies, commit fraud, engage in racketeering, etc. You may think these guys are scary, but the good news is that the law is on your side. The real scary criminals out there can do all those criminal activities and get away with it, legally. I call these guys…..Real Estate Agents.
Real Estate Agents are the modern day snake oil salesmen, the real bottom of the feedbag. These guys take; or rather steal an unbelievable amount of money from you without selling anything for you or to you. Let’s take a look at what I mean by examining what they want you to perceive is happening and what actually happens:
When Selling a Home - Perception: Realtors want you to think that they will sell your house for a nominal fee, usually 6% of the gross sales price. They will handle all of the set up, advertise the home, sell and negotiate with prospective buyers to get the most $’s for your home as possible. All with a friendly smile.
When Selling a Home – Reality: Realtors sell nothing for you. Their only sales job is to get you to “List” with them however they don’t sell anything. The word “List” is commonly used in place of sell and most people believe that is what they mean. It isn’t. It simply means they will put it on Realtor.com, place a sign in your yard and perhaps make up a flyer that people can take as they drive by. If you’re lucky, they will come and sit once for an open house, but trust me; even at the open house they aren’t selling the home. All of this you can do yourself for a mere fraction of what they charge. I have never seen them negotiate with a perspective buyer. If they negotiate anything, they negotiate with me, working to get me to reduce the price of the home or take that lower offer because there may not be another. Sure, they tell me how great the home is and float out these high numbers when they are trying to get me to “list” with them, but then once they have the listing and an offer comes in, the story becomes one of a sagging market and few buyers and we should be lucky and this may not come again.
When Selling a Home – Conclusion: Realtors just want the listing. Once they have that listing contract, they are in. As we will look at in When Buying a Home, realtors can show any other agents product so it is just a matter of time before another agent brings along a family that will place an offer. Realtors know this and don’t work hard after the contract. If you are in a hurry, you may be stuck. However, if you have time, sell your own home.
When Buying a Home – Perception: The agent wants you to think he is needed because they know the area or they can get the listings, or they will negotiate the lowest and best price. They will also claim to lend their personal experience as to whether you should consider a home or not as well as guide you through the difficult closing process. The agent will require you to sign a contract before they start pulling listings and working for you. All of this, they will repeatedly say is at zero cost to you.
When Buying a Home – Reality: You don’t need an agent for any of this! On a $300,000 house you would be giving away 3% or $9000 for nothing. That is right, it costs you $9000 to have an agent help you buy a house. What? You mean they lied? You bet. They always come back with the fact that the seller pays that money but let me remind you who has to go to the bank and sign a mortgage for it, YOU DO. Yes you are paying for it and buying nothing. Let’s look at that step by step:
1) Your agent provides listings – Try Realtor.com or FSBO.com or many other realty sites dedicated to home listing. You search homes in your area in great detail from asking price to how many bathrooms you want. The internet is a great tool and can be used for pennies. Realtors know this makes them useless and are creating sites that require a password, setting this up so that the only person who can give you a password is your contracted realtor. In conjunction, they are showing fewer houses on free sites like Realtor.com. That is criminal.
2) Personal Experience of the Home – Over 90% of the homes that a realtor has taken me to see have been homes they themselves have never seen. How can they sell me a product that they don’t know anything about? Actually, many of the instances have been complete wastes of time that if the realtor did his job, we would have never gone to see.
3) The Agent Sells the Home – The agent sells nothing. Whether it was my agent or an agent sitting at an open house, there is nothing actually being “sold”. Generally it goes like this, we walk in, look at the house, decide if we like it, the agent will ask if we like it, we will say no, and he will say no problem, I have more to show you. I would be really mad if I was the seller paying big money and nobody selling my house.
4) The Agent Guides you through the difficult closing process – Wrong. The closing agency does that. The realtor may help with a suggestion, but in the end I would suggest read the paperwork. Worst case, you can hire a real estate lawyer for $500 or less.
When Buying a Home – Conclusion: DO NOT USE A REALTOR! Believe me, take the time, and find a home you like then use the $9000 that the sellers already have baked into their asking price to negotiate a lower price, for closing costs, cash back, repairs, whatever, it is yours spend it wisely.
Lastly, have said all of this, the Real Estate world is one big racket. I can’t think of any other market that allows one company to sell another companies product. Thus there is no real competition. It is like trying to get the Ford dealer to sell you a new
Toyota, or wanting Dell to make you a Compaq computer. Even used car salesmen rank higher than these guys since they are trying to sell you what is on their lot. You can’t go to one lot and have them sell you a car on the lot next door. But Realtors get away with it. Their true con job is that big fat smile that they try to get you to buy because that is all that you end up getting. That is also why they put their picture on their business cards because that is all you are buying.
Dave’s Place
This world is full of people who set out on a career path pursuing illegal activities and end up becoming criminals. They rob banks, set up monopolies, commit fraud, engage in racketeering, etc. You may think these guys are scary, but the good news is that the law is on your side. The real scary criminals out there can do all those criminal activities and get away with it, legally. I call these guys…..Real Estate Agents.
Real Estate Agents are the modern day snake oil salesmen, the real bottom of the feedbag. These guys take; or rather steal an unbelievable amount of money from you without selling anything for you or to you. Let’s take a look at what I mean by examining what they want you to perceive is happening and what actually happens:
When Selling a Home - Perception: Realtors want you to think that they will sell your house for a nominal fee, usually 6% of the gross sales price. They will handle all of the set up, advertise the home, sell and negotiate with prospective buyers to get the most $’s for your home as possible. All with a friendly smile.
When Selling a Home – Reality: Realtors sell nothing for you. Their only sales job is to get you to “List” with them however they don’t sell anything. The word “List” is commonly used in place of sell and most people believe that is what they mean. It isn’t. It simply means they will put it on Realtor.com, place a sign in your yard and perhaps make up a flyer that people can take as they drive by. If you’re lucky, they will come and sit once for an open house, but trust me; even at the open house they aren’t selling the home. All of this you can do yourself for a mere fraction of what they charge. I have never seen them negotiate with a perspective buyer. If they negotiate anything, they negotiate with me, working to get me to reduce the price of the home or take that lower offer because there may not be another. Sure, they tell me how great the home is and float out these high numbers when they are trying to get me to “list” with them, but then once they have the listing and an offer comes in, the story becomes one of a sagging market and few buyers and we should be lucky and this may not come again.
When Selling a Home – Conclusion: Realtors just want the listing. Once they have that listing contract, they are in. As we will look at in When Buying a Home, realtors can show any other agents product so it is just a matter of time before another agent brings along a family that will place an offer. Realtors know this and don’t work hard after the contract. If you are in a hurry, you may be stuck. However, if you have time, sell your own home.
When Buying a Home – Perception: The agent wants you to think he is needed because they know the area or they can get the listings, or they will negotiate the lowest and best price. They will also claim to lend their personal experience as to whether you should consider a home or not as well as guide you through the difficult closing process. The agent will require you to sign a contract before they start pulling listings and working for you. All of this, they will repeatedly say is at zero cost to you.
When Buying a Home – Reality: You don’t need an agent for any of this! On a $300,000 house you would be giving away 3% or $9000 for nothing. That is right, it costs you $9000 to have an agent help you buy a house. What? You mean they lied? You bet. They always come back with the fact that the seller pays that money but let me remind you who has to go to the bank and sign a mortgage for it, YOU DO. Yes you are paying for it and buying nothing. Let’s look at that step by step:
1) Your agent provides listings – Try Realtor.com or FSBO.com or many other realty sites dedicated to home listing. You search homes in your area in great detail from asking price to how many bathrooms you want. The internet is a great tool and can be used for pennies. Realtors know this makes them useless and are creating sites that require a password, setting this up so that the only person who can give you a password is your contracted realtor. In conjunction, they are showing fewer houses on free sites like Realtor.com. That is criminal.
2) Personal Experience of the Home – Over 90% of the homes that a realtor has taken me to see have been homes they themselves have never seen. How can they sell me a product that they don’t know anything about? Actually, many of the instances have been complete wastes of time that if the realtor did his job, we would have never gone to see.
3) The Agent Sells the Home – The agent sells nothing. Whether it was my agent or an agent sitting at an open house, there is nothing actually being “sold”. Generally it goes like this, we walk in, look at the house, decide if we like it, the agent will ask if we like it, we will say no, and he will say no problem, I have more to show you. I would be really mad if I was the seller paying big money and nobody selling my house.
4) The Agent Guides you through the difficult closing process – Wrong. The closing agency does that. The realtor may help with a suggestion, but in the end I would suggest read the paperwork. Worst case, you can hire a real estate lawyer for $500 or less.
When Buying a Home – Conclusion: DO NOT USE A REALTOR! Believe me, take the time, and find a home you like then use the $9000 that the sellers already have baked into their asking price to negotiate a lower price, for closing costs, cash back, repairs, whatever, it is yours spend it wisely.
Lastly, have said all of this, the Real Estate world is one big racket. I can’t think of any other market that allows one company to sell another companies product. Thus there is no real competition. It is like trying to get the Ford dealer to sell you a new
Toyota, or wanting Dell to make you a Compaq computer. Even used car salesmen rank higher than these guys since they are trying to sell you what is on their lot. You can’t go to one lot and have them sell you a car on the lot next door. But Realtors get away with it. Their true con job is that big fat smile that they try to get you to buy because that is all that you end up getting. That is also why they put their picture on their business cards because that is all you are buying.
Dave’s Place
