Soooooo....this is how my morning started off:
Two realtors made appointments to bring their clients to the house. One at around 10:30am and one between 11-11:30am.
I get a phone call at 10:30am from Evelyn Wms of Long and Foster, who tells me her clients can't make it after all. Hmmmm... and she waits until the exact moment she was supposed to be showing up at my house to call to tell me this? Okay. Fine. Whatever. I let her know there's going to be an open house on Saturday and to tell her clients they can come to that if they're still interested.
I think "At least there's someone coming between 11-11:30"
Keep in mind by this point I:
- Had been awake since 6am thanks to baby waking up early
- Had about 20 minutes to myself during which I managed to: take a shower, get dressed, rinse the tub, vacuum the bathroom floor, clean the cat litter box, sweep the area around the litter box and wash all the dirty formula bottles and dishes from last night's dinner
- Ate 3 smushed granola bars and a handful of peanuts to keep me from falling over
- Cleaned the diaper genie only to have Frida take another pooh and had to specially bag the dirty diaper and run it out to the garbage can at the curb in order to prevent any lingering pooh smells from vexing the potential house-buyers
- Fed Frida about 3 times, having to wipe down the high chair, kitchen table, and floor after each time
- Shut the cats in the guest room at 10:15am in prep for the ensuing showings
- god knows what else because my memory is shutting down now
Sooooo... Matthew Salter of Remax 100 was supposed to be showing his client the house between 11-11:30. Frida was supposed to be going down for a nap at this point. She is starting to freak out. 11am - playing with her; 11:15am - giving her a bottle to try to quiet her "just until the realtor shows up so we can go out in the stroller and she'll nap then"; 11:30 - rocking her in my arms figuring "when they show up, I can just transfer sleepy baby from my arms to the stroller"; 11:40 - go online and google "Matthew Salter Remax 100" to get his phone #; 11:42 - call Salter's office & get his cell # from the receptionist; 11:43 - call Salter's cell phone & he answers it, at which point I introduce myself and let him know I'm still waiting for him & his clients and does he have an idea what time they'll be coming?
So, get this part -- Salter goes "Um, oh, my client won't be able to see the house after all today because of his work." To which I reply "Were you planning on calling me to let me know?" (read: when were you going to tell me this, asshole?) And he responds "Um, yeah, I was going to call you."
Yeah, right. If you're looking to buy or sell a house. Forget about that guy and find an agent who believes in at least common courtesy.
I talked to my realtor and asked her if realtors would take appointments more seriously if they were actually supposed to be meeting the listing agent. She laughed and said realtors are even ruder to other realtors!
If you are thinking of becoming a realtor, you might want to reconsider a profession where people take appointments seriously...
4 comments:
CALLING BS ON REALTORS: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY:
And now I have come across another reason to forego an agent and go FSBO (For Sale By Owner).
In their study, “The Value of Information in Real Estate Transactions,” Steven D. Levitt(University of Chicago and American Bar Foundation, author of the bestselling book Freakonomics) and Chad Syverson (University of Chicago and NBER), looked into the behavior of real estate agents to try to figure out whether they were doing the best jobs they could for the clients who were paying them. Their conclusion:
"Our favored interpretation of the data is that the combination of real estate agents’ information advantage and the form of the commission received combine to create distortions from first best. Homeowners are induced by their agents to sell too quickly and at a price that is too low."
The study is 34 pages long, but in a nut shell, they compared what happened when an agent sold a home for a client against what happened when an agent sold his own home. They found that:
"agents sell their own homes for 3.7 percent (roughly $7,600) more than they sell their client’s homes, and leave their (own) houses on the market roughly 10 days (10 percent) longer."
So if we do a little math, hiring an agent will cost you a 6% fee, and another 3.7% because the agent cares more about moving your house quickly than about squeezing the most out of the deal for you. That is a hair less than 10%. On a $500,000 home that means your agent costs you almost $50,000, and on a $1,000,000 home, that is $100,000. If you don’t have much equity in your home, that $50,000 might come in handy for something else.
There is No Reason to Use a Realtor in Your Real Estate Transaction. I am a Real Estate Broker Owner, I QUIT the National Association of Realtors. There is no Consumer Protection in Real Estate, this example is a small one, compared to the Damage Realtors can do and you the Real Estate Consumer Have No Recourse. This example happens alot, Realtor cause a Whole Lot of Undo stress.
my realtor sent me an email telling me how my showing went on sunday from 1 -2 pm - problem is -
no one showed up and i know because i parked across the street from my drive - i even called the office at 2 and told them no one showed.
He emailed me telling me they liked the house but it was too big but would keep it mind. I emailed back no one showed up and why are you telling me this and then I wanted him to send me the contract to end it with them (since my contract is up in 3 weeks anyway) he did not respond at all, and now today the office called to schedule another showing this week - I told them what happened and that my agent needs to call me.
Can I get into trouble for ignoring the request for a showing, if it is a real one, who knows, I think they do this to get me to sign another contract. He still has not called me, he knows he lied and that I caught him, what should I do now?
I wish I knew what to advise you Chris... I only know of one realtor, who works for Long and Foster in the Northern Virginia area, being good. She's always been truthful to us. I don't know what area you're in, but Kim McClary of Long & Foster has always shown us the most respect. She's the one who told us that realtors are even ruder to other realtors.
If you want to name names, feel free to post names of realtors you would advise AGAINST using.
I've mentioned Matthew Salter so far, but I could name others in the Northern Virginia area.... Libby Ross for one. She screwed us over when we were renting a house she sold out from under us. Gave us one month notice. I came home from a business trip to find my front door wide open and her showing the house around to people, completely ignoring the fact that we had a cat who could've run away. Didn't even call ahead to let anyone know she was bringing folks by. Didn't even give us the right of first refusal as tenants. Steer clear away from her because she has no scruples or sense of decency!
Post a Comment