Ray

I'm sorry ..there is not ..such a load of toffee you Realtors speak ...
anybody can and do do it without you help

AdobePinon

Well, put in those terms, there are Realtors here I wouldn't trust to sell me a $500 used car, let alone a $400,000 house. I trust and hope that you are not one of them.

Lord Lionheart

Realtors - Comparing them to used car salesmen is an insult, to used car salesman. I dealt with them in the hot CA property market. They were too busy flipping the houses themselves on any half decent house. The general public got the left over highly inflated crap that the estate agents couldn't flip themselves.
One realtor even bought a house he was selling for a client for less than my offer,from the 68 year old woman owner he was supposed to be acting on behalf of.
A month or so later he flipped the house for an extra $70K, wonder if she even saw my offer?

David Richardson

If the Realtor didn't show the seller ALL the offers , they would be in violation of RE law. Make no mistake, there are many and quite complex laws surrounding real estate transactions. I can only speak to GA but there are certainly Realtors who are buying and selling on their own account and still more buying on behalf of investors. That is what drives the market and here in GA has led to many, repeat many areas that were blighted or depressed coming back to life. Thats capitalism, folks.

David Richardson

To your point, Ray. Yes there are sellers who succeed on their own. Two facts for you from GA - 83% of for sale by owners come to a Realtor within 120 days and homes sold by a Realtor get 16% higher prices ( yes, Ray you have to deduct the commission). Also, the services that provide bare bones plans to help you sell have to be paid up front. Realtors are only paid if they get to the closing table.

David Richardson

My point was that the perception of Realtors is quite low despite our licensing, training and oversight by the local boards and the State.Many other jobs that interact with the public in a financial arena require no licensing at all. 50% of people who take the RE classes do not get high enough grades to even take the State exam and 30% of exam takers fail on the first attempt. Yes, I'm one of the good guys......

Ray

Your just not getting the message ..typical Realtor ...we don't want to hear about you business.. The only people who ever come here and go on and on about their job are Realtor.....
WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT..........

Manc

you've just described Insurance brokers too......................and the public think we're rip off merchants too.

which we are.

Lord Lionheart

I called the realtor and he claimed he bought it for investors ( with his money, what a nice guy). He then got scared and put it in his wife's name a few day's later.
I then called a lawyer, who said I would have to prove in a court of law that he had not shown his client my offer, perhaps she sold it to him for other reasons. ( she could like him, be mentally unsound etc. etc. etc). At that point I decided not to pursue it.
I very much doubt she saw my offer for thousands more than his, but I had to prove it, not just by showing simple maths of giving a higher offer than he bought the house for.
I guess he was such a charmer that money didn't matter to his client, and it was just a coincidence he bought the house he was supposed to sell for his client for substantially less

AdobePinon

Happens round here a lot. I know of at least three similar stories. Plus I almost couldn't get a mortgage for my place because my development was so full of realtor-investors - the underwriter was very suspicious.

David Richardson

Awful. Here they would have hauled his/her behind in front of the RE commission and had him/her present the offers in sequence with time and date stamped faxes, purchase and sale agreements etc so that he/she could prove he behaved correctly. Did you have an agent representing you? If you did, that agent would have called him/her in front of the commission or ther issue might not have occurred at all. If not, you started out at a disadvantage. Remember, buyers don't pay so why not get qualified representation?. RE laws have been tightened considerably here in GA over the last 5 years because there were so many holes in the old laws that you could drive a truck through them.

Dogbyte

Ray,I suppose when you have actually been involved in the buying your house etc over in the US, I know it can be boring, but us newbies or wannabees do take pointers from the conversations and take the items, we believe, may benefit us when we get off the 'Mayflower'.You also will hold very valuable info concerning living in the USA as you are obviously well travelled,done it seen it and got the tee shirts.You could be of great value to us,doesn't that make you feel wanted.

Elvira

Ray is - not could be - of great - nay, immense!! - value to all of us here at BE.

Does he give a flying fig about being wanted? Naaaaahhhh

Lord Lionheart

Yes, but guess what. He had previously worked at the office of the RE we were dealing with. When I tried to get her to follow through, she just said 'He's not returning calls'. I thought "why do we have you as an agent, I can make calls myself that don't get returned" and dropped her.
I consequently found all the information on the house through another agent and the LA county assessor's office on-line site. Anyway, that's enough. I get mad just going over it again

Ray

Never felt the need to be loved ..
But we will give you all the advice you need or want .. Before you
get involved with certain sales people..and believe me you will need it ..

Consumer protection is pretty much zero in the US ..
There is no such thing as the Sales of Goods act ..or advertising standard ..
You will learn the term .limited warranty ...
It dog eat dog ...

Realtor and their 75 hours of training .. big deal
I spent 200 hours just learning to handle one particular item in
my past ..

I used to own the Florida Forum ...The spamming by realtors became so bad ..we stopped all realtor from joining... and complained to their
various bodies .. waste of time ... auto protect when into gear..