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Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. His job is to maximize his commission, which is usually shared with the selling realtor. We foun

by cpr 17y ago

Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. His job is to maximize his commission, which is usually shared with the selling realtor. We found that out when we bought our first house back in the 80's in Connecticut. A very nice older lady was our realtor, and she really didn't serve us well. (Lots of house issues swept under the rug, so to speak, until it was too late.)

Shooter 17y ago
"Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you." That is great advice, no matter what kind of transaction you're entering into. I actually got involved with the real estate industry because I hated how it worked. It is ridiculous that incentives are so misaligned in this industry. I thought I could change some things in my small corner of the world, but I was too naive, and it will take much longer than I thought for me to have any impact. Unfortunately, most consumers simply don't care enough about their money to educate themselves. Sad and irrational, but true. I will not work with anyone who stands to make more money simply by getting me to pay more. There is NO WAY they can represent my interests if that is the case. In my real estate brokerage, buyers pay for the actual services they use. They know the cost up-front, and there are no incentives for me to try to get them to buy a specific property or a more expensive property, because I'm not paid based on an (arbitrary) percentage of the property price. In 99% of cases, the money they spend on me will be spent whether I help them or not, so my fees aren't even an extra expense. Yet I still have to spend (relatively) much more time than my competitors to educate them about how and why I can help them, just because I am different. It's like the entrepreneurial cliches about the stupidity of introducing a completely new product (pioneers get arrows in their backs, right? It's easier to move to territory that has already been settled.) There are real estate companies with good business models and good agents...they're just very rare :-(
brk 17y ago
Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. No offense, but you have a firm grasp of the obvious. This is true almost 100% of the time when you are "hiring" someone to work for you. In any transaction you should do some research yourself, get some references, and so on. When buying properties, my wife and I have always used the agent as a sort of voice-command Googlebot. Tell her (it's been in a her in all of our cases) what we want, what our budget is (usually holding back about 10% of what we really want to spend), and then go over the listings we're sent. We'll often do a quick drive-by and scout the neighborhood first and then use the agent to make the appointments and shuttle us around, and then finally handle any paperwork. I always get a home inspection, and I go around with the inspector as he is going through the house. I also escort the inspector when he is going over properties I've sold (one inspector shorted out the fuse panel (yeah, fuses) when doing an inspection for a buyer on my first house. He was ham-handed when removing the fuse box cover, touched a fuse and made sparks. He tried to cite that on his report as a faulty fuse box and I called him on it and made him account for his own error). I also tend to make it pretty clear, in plain English, up front that I like to find realtors, lawyers, accountants, etc that I can work with over many years. Attempt to screw me now and you'll lose a significant amount of future/repeat business, plus referrals. Most people can spot a sucker, and can also spot someone who is knowledgeable. Spend some extra effort on the latter, and the whole transaction process will be easier and more rewarding.

by cpr 17y ago

Shooter 17y ago

"Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you." That is great advice, no matter what kind of transaction you're entering into. I actually got involved with the real estate industry because I hated how it worked. It is ridiculous that incentives are so misaligned in this industry. I thought I could change some things in my small corner of the world, but I was too naive, and it will take much longer than I thought for me to have any impact. Unfortunately, most consumers simply don't care enough about their money to educate themselves. Sad and irrational, but true. I will not work with anyone who stands to make more money simply by getting me to pay more. There is NO WAY they can represent my interests if that is the case. In my real estate brokerage, buyers pay for the actual services they use. They know the cost up-front, and there are no incentives for me to try to get them to buy a specific property or a more expensive property, because I'm not paid based on an (arbitrary) percentage of the property price. In 99% of cases, the money they spend on me will be spent whether I help them or not, so my fees aren't even an extra expense. Yet I still have to spend (relatively) much more time than my competitors to educate them about how and why I can help them, just because I am different. It's like the entrepreneurial cliches about the stupidity of introducing a completely new product (pioneers get arrows in their backs, right? It's easier to move to territory that has already been settled.) There are real estate companies with good business models and good agents...they're just very rare :-(

brk 17y ago

Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you. No offense, but you have a firm grasp of the obvious. This is true almost 100% of the time when you are "hiring" someone to work for you. In any transaction you should do some research yourself, get some references, and so on. When buying properties, my wife and I have always used the agent as a sort of voice-command Googlebot. Tell her (it's been in a her in all of our cases) what we want, what our budget is (usually holding back about 10% of what we really want to spend), and then go over the listings we're sent. We'll often do a quick drive-by and scout the neighborhood first and then use the agent to make the appointments and shuttle us around, and then finally handle any paperwork. I always get a home inspection, and I go around with the inspector as he is going through the house. I also escort the inspector when he is going over properties I've sold (one inspector shorted out the fuse panel (yeah, fuses) when doing an inspection for a buyer on my first house. He was ham-handed when removing the fuse box cover, touched a fuse and made sparks. He tried to cite that on his report as a faulty fuse box and I called him on it and made him account for his own error). I also tend to make it pretty clear, in plain English, up front that I like to find realtors, lawyers, accountants, etc that I can work with over many years. Attempt to screw me now and you'll lose a significant amount of future/repeat business, plus referrals. Most people can spot a sucker, and can also spot someone who is knowledgeable. Spend some extra effort on the latter, and the whole transaction process will be easier and more rewarding.