What I've Learned About Realtors

[Julie Moriarty]

This is my first time selling a house. I bought the lot in 1986 and built a house on it and have lived here ever since. We listed the house about a week ago.

From what I've seen so far, this is what I've learned

- Realtors take rejection poorly. When I called one to tell him we were going with another realtor, he acted very offended and almost demanded to know why he didn't get the listing. Another who didn't get the listing wrote a very negative opinion about the house on the company website.

- Realtors learn their product (the homes for sale) through the buyers. They don't attend the realtor open houses to learn about the homes prior to showing. The first time they see the house is when showing it to a buyer when they are as clueless about the home as the buyer.

- Realtors learn about the customers by showing them one house after another until a buyer shows interest in a house. They wait for the buyer to contact them about a house the buyer saw on the Internet and make arrangements to show it.

I know my experience is very limited but based on what I've seen so far in selling our house and looking for another to buy, those three things above pretty much sum it up.

Is this typical?

[Al Launier]

I'm in my fifth home, all new, and through various types of realtors, each having different "motivations".

• Your first example is a reflection of a desperate, unprofessional realtor. How would he/she expect personal referrals to open up new real estate possibilities. I had a similar experience & was glad I decided not to use the realtor as his goal was purley selfish.
• I feel it's a good idea to have (3) independent, yet multiple listing realtors evaluate & price your home. Then consider the sale price they suggest & go with the one you have the most confidence with.
• Realtors not only learn the home from the owner, but from their own sales experience, plus comparables in the area that should be reviewed in detail with the seller. If comparables are not used, beware!
• Also beware of low-ball pricing by the realtor to give them a quick sale with minimum cost & effort on their part. Turnarond time is important, but not just to gain them their commission.
• Realtor commissions are negotiable! Don't be bashful about discussing this!
• The owner should have a reasonable expectation of the selling price before contacting the realtor as based on other similar sales in the area & judged from his/her own experience. Many factors are considered & important for establishing a reasonable selling price.
• Realtors should screen potential buyers for their personal preferences, financial qualifications, & not waste the buyers times running them through homes that don't fit their desires, or discover late in the game that they aren't qualified to buy the home.

My .02.

[Wade Lippman]

We bought our house after a realtor called us about it. He also called about a couple earlier houses.
A bunch of realtors came our realtor's open house when we sold the old house.
The realtor we didn't use was fine about it.
So, no, I can't agree with your generalizations.

OTOH when we bought a cottage 15 years ago, a realtor called me and screamed that she had shown me the same cottage several years earlier; why didn't I buy it from her.
Obviously she didn't take rejection well. Her rant didn't even make sense.

[Doug Ladendorf]

I guess we have been lucky, but there certainly are bad realtors out there. When buying our house we went with a realtor highly recommended to us. She was experienced, professional, knew her local market very well and listened to our requirements and wishes. She was patient with us looking at many houses until the right one popped up.

When selling a vacation cabin the market had softened. After a year with one realtor we switched to another who had come to us again highly recommended. She also knew the local market well and showed great patience after some time helped us get it sold and out.

[Ryan Mooney]

I've had mixed results as well, some realtors are fantastic and 100% worth the commission. Others should be run out of town on a rail tarred and feathered. I don't reckon that its a "realtor" problem so much as a "general people" problem but the overlap approaches 1 .

The first two houses I bought the realtors were simply awesome! The first one I was poor and out of college and he took me around more than was really worth his time for the price range I was shopping in and helped find a house that fit what I needed. The second one was working with us remotely and we had a very limited time to look at houses on the house hunting trip, he got all of our specs and wants via email and had a nice range of houses in that price range and specs all lined up so we were able to look at them all over a weekend and picked out a really nice house out. He also did a lot of the paperwork johnny on the spot across an ocean and helped us get the previous owner on the ball on moving out, showing up at inconvenient times to transfer keys/etc... (the POs husband had gotten a job relo and she didn't really want to move - they also had 2 semi trucks worth of stuff; how that all fit in that house I'll never know). Both of those realtors deserve some sort of "good realtor" badge of honor.

I sold the last house FSBO and bought this one FSBO as well. When I was shopping for the current house the realtor we were trying to work with pulled a lot of unethical games, like only showing houses that were under her agency (so they'd get both sides of the commission - "oh that house _juust_ went off market" - still on market 3 weeks later. uh huh I ain't THAT stupid) and other things that are at least unethical if not downright illegal. Luckily we ran into a nice couple doing the house FSBO and just bought it from them directly over a homebrew in their living room. The sale on the last house was border line a disaster as the buyer had zero idea what they were doing and also had to do a bunch of weird financing to buy the place ("can I get the keys now?", "has the money cleared escrow? No? well no then." followed by a long explanation to him about how escrow worked and how I "didn't actually have his money in my bank account yet"). Actually having a realtor to babysit the situation there might well have been worth the commission.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I've only sold one house, but your second point certainly was not my experience. The day after my house was listed, the listing agent had all the agents in his office at my house first thing in the morning. They did this routinely. They all walked through the house, asked me questions and generally educated themselves on my house. The house sold in 2 days. The sign was not yet on the lawn and the pics weren't up on the website.

[glenn bradley]

There are some good ones out there. I've bought a half dozen homes and one of the Realtors did their job. The rest were just paper pushers that I had to drag through the process. Very disappointing ratio.

[Art Mann]

I have a good friend who is a realtor and I'm quite certain that not all realtors are the same. He helped me shop rental property. He knew very little about the houses he showed me because most of them weren't his listings. He found them as listings from other realtors in the multiple listing service. Around here, that is very common. We inspected the houses together and often he told me not to buy the house or offer a very low price for various reasons. That is not typical. The listing agency is being hired to work as the seller's agent whether he tells his customer or not.

In general, I agree with Mr. Launier's comments.

[Bill McNiel]

Julie,
I think you posr would have been better titled "What I've learned about MY realtor". Generalalities are always dangerous.

[Mike Henderson]

In theory, the realtor has a fiduciary responsibility to their client, who is usually the seller. In reality, the realtor is only out for themselves. They get a commission on a sale and nothing if it doesn't sell. So they will push you to reduce your price because 5% of a sale at any price is better than no sale. And if you knock $10,000 off the price, you lost $10,000 but they lose $500. And losing $500 off a sale is better than no sale. They will also push sellers to make expensive changes to their house prior to sale even though the seller will not recover the cost by an increase in the selling price.

Do not EVER treat your agent like a friend. Never tell your agent anything that you wouldn't tell the buyer because it will often get repeated. For example, suppose you tell your agent that you would take $10,000 less for the house. You can almost be sure that the offer that comes in will be $10,000 (or more) less than what you're asking.

People are not frequent customers of an agent - maybe once every 10 to 20 years so the agent is not concerned about doing business with you again.

Agents are human and the commission structure incents them toward certain activities. If you understand the pressures on an agent you can ask yourself how you might (realistically) respond to those pressures - and that's how your agent will respond.

And now the other side: Agents have difficult jobs dealing with people who are stressed about buying or selling perhaps the largest asset they own or will buy. They buyer can't make up his/her mind, or they make an offer and then change their mind. And once they do make the offer, they're not very good at getting their documents in and following up. And they can't qualify for a loan. Then, (after the sale) they try to chisel the agent down on the commission, and threaten to walk away unless the commission is cut to 2%. And they get to spend long, boring days sitting in an open house. It's not a glamorous job.

Mike

[Moses Yoder]

Around here it is common to auction off property. We are selling my mom's house In August, the auctioneer is an old family friend. We checked around before committing to him and found out he really was doing us a big favor with his commission and experience. He will also auction off all of my parent's personal possessions to us kids. THere is not really a lot of stuff and 8 kids so no public auction. I guess it just depends on who you know.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Realtors are like every other profession. They each have different personalities. When we bought our first home, the first realtor with whom we got involved, just wasn't a personality match for my wife and I, so we found another one. The first guy was a little upset but what could he do?

I don't remember specifically our realtor for the 2nd house we bought when we moved to suburban Chicago. I know we looked at a lot of houses in the Joliet, IL area and bought one.

Our 3rd realtor I do remember. He came in from a vacation to show us homes for a week while his family of a wife, and 2 children remained camping on an Idaho river for the week over the 4th of July holiday. We bought a home and when the seller, removed part of what should have remained at the home, the realtor offered to pay for a replacement. We saw him often at various functions around the valley over the years. His daughter eventually worked for several years at the local FedEx office and I would see her 3-10 times a week as I picked up and returned parts, test equipment and paperwork.
He was honest to the point of hurting sales but he got our sale as a result.

As pointed out, generally realtors represent the seller. Don't be surprised if a realtor hard sells you on a listing listed by their agency. Historically, if company A lists a home for sale and a realtor from company B sells the home, they 2 companies split the fee. If a realtor sells you a home their company listed, the fees remain within the company.

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie,
I think you posr would have been better titled "What I've learned about MY realtor". Generalalities are always dangerous.

My observations weren't intended to be generalities. As I said, my experience in this arena is very limited. My realtor, the one we listed the house with, has been great, but she got the listing. Two that didn't were sour grapes. On the buying end, we've dealt with two brokers. Certainly not an exhaustive analysis. That's why I asked if my experience so far is typical.

The only thing that really bothered me was the sour grapes reaction. Ok, you didn't get the listing. But trashing the house? Now everyone who goes through that agency's website will see the realtor's comment and move on to something else. That's not only petty, it's damaging. And I have no recourse.

[Mel Miller]

He will also auction off all of my parent's personal possessions to us kids. THere is not really a lot of stuff and 8 kids so no public auction.

Auctioneers take huge commissions on small item sales. Do you mean to tell us nobody in your family can agreeably handle the simple task of selling these things to the rest of the family?

[Lee Schierer]

What ever you do, never call the realtor that is named on the sign in front of a piece of property if you are interested in buying it. Contact a different realtor from a different company as the one with the name on the sign represents the seller and not you. Only the realtor you hire can represent your interests.