[TN]

They are all criminals whether they break any laws or not.
anyways...
Just had a deal fall apart cuz of our dodgy-moron-lazy agent.
Luckily we are getting our earnest money back.
Here is what she did to piss us off...
Number one she refused to amend our last two offers. Well, she eventually did the first one after stating the seller would not take our offer...they did. then we got a positive mold report with total remediation required & she refused to amend the offer (contingent on said inspection) so her boss had to do it for us (cancel the offer that is). She disclosed confidential info to the seller & his agent who is a friend of hers. Did not work for US once we wrote an offer.

so frustrating.
it works out in our favor cuz we think the house would have ended up being a money pit. I mean, who builds a foundation out of terra-cotta blocks?

thanks for letting me rant.

 

[stoney]

Yelp and every other review site you can possibly find. Ruin her.

 

[dump]

Suck to hear about your experience... I haven't had the misfortune of trying to buy yet.

Did not work for US once we wrote an offer.

Contrary to what they might appear, tell you or otherwise, most real estate agents do not work for the buyer. They work to get the absolute highest possible price for the seller (and in return, the best payday for themselves). They generally don't give a damn about anything else.

 

[X3pilot]

Report to the local board of Realtors, BBB, etc.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

Coat her car in slices of bologna.

 

[eaterofdog]

Stick her hands in a paper shredder.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

My agent was helpful, hard working and a milf.

 

[Da Peach]

Suck to hear about your experience... I haven't had the misfortune of trying to buy yet.



Contrary to what they might appear, tell you or otherwise, most real estate agents do not work for the buyer. They work to get the absolute highest possible price for the seller (and in return, the best payday for themselves). They generally don't give a damn about anything else.

That chapter in Freakonomics tells the tale!

 

[Pesqueeb]

Yelp and every other review site you can possibly find. Ruin her.

Are you mad? Remember what happened to Drkenan?

That chapter in Freakonomics tells the tale!

Real estate agents really are all scum. [coolstorybro] When we bought our first house in the state of WA, after many ordeals I will not relate here as I am not yet drunk, I called the real estate office one afternoon after we had signed and were supposed to have received the keys, and proceeded to give the poor admin who happened to draw the short straw the most horrific dressing down I may have ever dispensed, while my parents sat and listened. I still feel a little guilty because the wrong woman received the full brunt of my wrath. We wound up getting the keys from the sellers agent and never again did see our real estate agent, which was probably best for everyone involved. [/coolstorybro]

 

[DirtyMike]

I wont call them all scum, our RE agent worked his ass off to get us into our house at the offered price. But the honest hardworking ones are hard to find. When you find one, you stick with them

 

[Ciaran]

I wont call them all scum, our RE agent worked his ass off to get us into our house at the offered price. But the honest hardworking ones are hard to find. When you find one, you stick with them

My agent was great. Found a house for us in an area we thought we couldn't afford, got the people out when they were lagging trying to get a few more days to move, and when they also tried to take the nice chandelier and other light fixtures she got them back for us. She also kicked the inspectors ass when he needed it.

Much like lawyers, they are mostly, but not all scum.

 

[stevew]

TN....wait until you have your first house built....that's when the fun begins.

 

[Beef Supreme]

My realtor has made over 25 grand off me. He has saved me far more.

 

[Ciaran]

TN....wait until you have your first house built....that's when the fun begins.

Try remodeling a beach house and dealing with the coastal commission. Ack!

 

[eric strt6]

Try remodeling a beach house and dealing with the coastal commission. Ack!

ahh you screwd up, replacement in kind is the key word. You can change stuff, bring it to code even make it bigger if it is structurally a safer repacement in kind. I never dealt with them even though I was at the end of the trail leading to the beach due to those wonderous words.

 

[Ciaran]

ahh you screwd up, replacement in kind is the key word. You can change stuff, bring it to code even make it bigger if it is structurally a safer repacement in kind. I never dealt with them even though I was at the end of the trail leading to the beach due to those wonderous words.

It's my inlaws house. They built a second apartment on their property. I watched the people next door remodel too... they tore down the entire house except for ONE WALL. That made it an improvement, not a new construction, which the coastal commission would not allow.

They din't screw up. They know the ins and outs of thsi stuff better then anyone I have met so far. They have been doing this since the 70's.

Yes, I am hoping to retire to the beach house someday. Sadly, they want to sell it. Of course if it sells for enough it will also pay for my wifes early retirement But then we'll never get to live there

It's a fantastic house too. Right on the cliffs above the water in San Diego (Ocean Beach).

 

[TheMontashu]

Suck to hear about your experience... I haven't had the misfortune of trying to buy yet.



Contrary to what they might appear, tell you or otherwise, most real estate agents do not work for the buyer. They work to get the absolute highest possible price for the seller (and in return, the best payday for themselves). They generally don't give a damn about anything else.

More money? or No money?? Gatta keep the customer happy and actually have the deal go through

 

[stevew]

It's a fantastic house too. Right on the cliffs above the water in San Diego (Ocean Beach).

they're fvcking nuts.

 

[stoney]

What ever happened to writing a contract for a flat rate with a bonus % based on the total amount of money saved over a given offer amount? Real estate agents really are not incentivised properly, but they need you more than you need them.

 

[dump]

That chapter in Freakonomics tells the tale!

Haven't read it... should look it up.

 

[jonKranked]

Coat her car in slices of bologna.

has to be soaked in coca cola for the desired outcome to be achieved

 

[I Are Baboon]

[csb]

We've only bought one house but it took us a year to find it. We burned through two agents. Agent 1 was just dumb and useless. Agent 2 was serviceable and did just enough to get the job done. The only person who seemed to have his sh*t together was our lawyer (which was free since I had a legal benefit via work).

[/csb]

 

[dante]

What ever happened to writing a contract for a flat rate with a bonus % based on the total amount of money saved over a given offer amount? Real estate agents really are not incentivised properly, but they need you more than you need them.

Good luck, Realtors® protect their own through a pretty sleazy setup. 6% from the seller of the house split evenly between buyer's Realtor® and seller's Realtor®. You can't make a deal with one of them, because there's always the Realtor® on the other side to contend with. It's why FSBO and flat-fee MLS listings are, or were, gaining popularity.

Ours was informative, nice, and relatively worthless. She first showed us new development houses (and would have received a kickback/incentive from the corporation building the houses, I'm sure), and then some others that didn't really fit our need. We ended up sending her a list of ~6-8 houses that we wanted to check out each week, and then we'd go look at those. Did all of the leg-work in tracking down houses we wanted to see by searching MLS listings, doing a quick drive-by through the neighborhood to see what it looked like, etc. At least she didn't screw up any of the paperwork, and for that she gets an "A" in my book.

Can't remember the Freakonomics chapter, but isn't the difference ridiculously small? 3% of a $20k difference in price is $600, and then subtract out the commission that her real estate company gets, and it's almost nothing.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Can't remember the Freakonomics chapter, but isn't the difference ridiculously small? 3% of a $20k difference in price is $600, and then subtract out the commission that her real estate company gets, and it's almost nothing.

yup. Your seller agent basically has no incentive to see you get an extra 20 grand out of your house. The premise in freakonomics was that a realtor almost always got a higher price for a comparable home while on average (IIRC) only waiting an extra couple weeks to sell.

 

[jimmydean]

That sucks, dude!

My agent was good, but all he dealt with were bank owned properties and got a crazy good commission % out of it. He was a true buyers agent. No listings, no dealing with sellers, straight to the bank.

 

[drkenan]

Are you mad? Remember what happened to Drkenan?

I wonder if their webmaster ever looks to see how many times that picture has been hotlinked. I don't know if that's even possible but it sure would be funny!

 

[golgiaparatus]

I'm with you. Buying my house was one of the most unpleasant things I've ever done.

 

[ridiculous]

Everyday I see an article/post/tv clip about how grimey the real estate market is. I have always thought I would write my own offers via a real estate lawyer but that doesn't look like it will get me far either. Especially after reading this thread.


Hell, even trying to rent a place here in Baltimore sucks.

 

[Ciaran]

they're fvcking nuts.

Why? The cliff is stable, and was actually reinforced a number of years ago. The house is not in any danger.

Cost? Because it's an expensive house? The have two apartments they rent as vacation rentals. They make more from those two apartments than my wife and I do from our jobs combined. And the house is paid for.

So maybe they are not so nuts.

This is the view from their back deck at night....

And their real estate agent found the house for them at a great price.

 

[Pesqueeb]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I understood it as they are nuts for selling the place.

 

[Ciaran]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I understood it as they are nuts for selling the place.

Hmm... I thought it sounded like he was saying they are nuts for living in a house on the cliffs. Well, it wouldn't be the first time I misunderstood someone.

Either way, I wish I was as successful as my in laws.

They are kinda nuts for selling it but they are tired of doing the work of renting the vacation rentals. You end up having to clean the apartments each time a new tenant comes in. They are 70 now and have been doing this for the last 15 years or so.

Of course selling it means real estate agents get involved which brings this post back ON TOPIC!

 

[TN]

Funny thing. We will be living two blocks away from this dumb broad. I hope she gets tired of hearing my motorcycle.

 

[bean]

Our agent was great. He suggested that we make our initial offer lower than we were planning to, and got under our target price on the first round of negotiation. Then suggested that we go back for more, and got it.

I think he was one of the agents that realizes that making a little less money in the short term is going to make him more over the long term when we use him again, or recommend him to others.

He's also big into bikes.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Our agent was great. He suggested that we make our initial offer lower than we were planning to, and got under our target price on the first round of negotiation. Then suggested that we go back for more, and got it.

That's some groundbreaking techniques, yo.

 

[bean]

That's some groundbreaking techniques, yo.

Ground breaking? Perhaps not. But what really would be in real estate?

Helpful to us? For damn sure. It saved us a fair amount of money.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

Ground breaking? Perhaps not. But what really would be in real estate?

Helpful to us? For damn sure. It saved us a fair amount of money.

Yea, but did you really need a real estate agent to tell you to come in a fair bit less than you were willing to spend on your first offer?

 

[bean]

Yea, but did you really need a real estate agent to tell you to come in a fair bit less than you were willing to spend on your first offer?

No. But that's not what I said he did.

What I said is that he suggested that we start even lower than we would have. And when we were already happy with the price he suggested we go back for more. Market knowledge helps there. Experience with negotiating helps.

I understand the basics of negotiating, but I don't do it that often and I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I find it difficult to read how far people can be pushed, and I tend to let emotions get in the way of getting the best deal. My wife is even worse and will usually just say yes to the first offer. And despite casually looking for a couple of years, and seriously for months, we weren't going to understand the value of houses as well as someone who spends all his time working in the area. Nothing earth shattering, but I'm confident that on our own we would have ended up paying substantially more than we did. So we were happy with the guy's work.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

No. But that's not what I said he did.

What I said is that he suggested that we start even lower than we would have. And when we were already happy with the price he suggested we go back for more. Market knowledge helps there. Experience with negotiating helps.

I understand the basics of negotiating, but I don't do it that often and I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I find it difficult to read how far people can be pushed, and I tend to let emotions get in the way of getting the best deal. My wife is even worse and will usually just say yes to the first offer. And despite casually looking for a couple of years, and seriously for months, we weren't going to understand the value of houses as well as someone who spends all his time working in the area. Nothing earth shattering, but I'm confident that on our own we would have ended up paying substantially more than we did. So we were happy with the guy's work.

Gotcha, I misread what you said. At first I thought you were planning on going in and offering the asking price and was amazed he suggested offering lower. Reading comprehension fail.

I will say when I bought last year (and the 7-8 months of looking leading up to it, including 2 offers on houses before finally getting the third) I learned more about real estate and everything associated with it than I ever thought I would. I also learned how fast and easy money can fly out of your pocket.

 

[bean]

I also learned how fast and easy money can fly out of your pocket.

That's for sure. It seemed like every other day I was writing another check for a couple hundred dollars.

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

That's for sure. It seemed like every other day I was writing another check for a couple hundred dollars.

Exactly. Also sucked paying for an inspection/water & air tests for 2 houses that I didn't end up buying. Money wasted. The deadlines to get stuff done were insane as well.