With waaaaaaaaaaaayyy to many realtors out there now, and home sales down in areas 30%, 40%, 50%+, it's time the "old school" realtors turn on the newcomers, and tell them to get out of dodge.
The desperate grab for crumbs is likely going to lead to some realtor on realtor violence, a lot of backstabbing, and also deal sabotage. Even though the NAR "forbids this". But desperate times call for desperate measures.
Here's a hilarious article by a realtor urging other realtors to get out. Thanks Marinite for the link
Is It Time for a Career Adjustment? By Christopher Galler, Senior Vice President, Minnesota Realtors Association
Some of you will wonder if we have lost our minds writing this article and asking members if it is time for a career adjustment. Others will think it is time for us to think about a career adjustment, while another group will thank us for saying what they know is a significant industry problem.
Why is my trade association asking me to consider another career? As an "Association of People" we have committed ourselves to helping you grow your business. Through advertising, education, forms, industry research, professional standards, risk reduction, and lobbying we have provided members with ideas, trends and publicity to help grow your personal business.
As a "Trade Association" we must defend and look out for the general welfare of the industry. This means helping members understand that it may be time for them to make a career adjustment so as not to harm the structure of the industry for those pursuing it as a career.
We're not talking about different service structures; they are part of what consumer's desire. Our concern is that the value of utilizing the services of a real estate broker/agent will erode because of agent over saturation.
At the same time sales are falling, agent numbers are increasing. We have more brokers and agents than at any point in the state's history.
There are too many agents in the business chasing a declining number of deals which has two implications (a) compensation dilution for many real estate professionals (b) the public face of real estate professionals is not near the best it could be if brokers terminated non-productive agents now – keeping them will have a negative impact on the dollar value the public will put on our services as homes sit on the market longer
November 06, 2006
This evidently is the point in the housing meltdown when realtors turn to cannibalism...
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"the public face of real estate professionals is not near the best it could be if brokers terminated non-productive agents now, because keeping them will have a negative impact on the dollar value the public will put on our services as homes sit on the market longer"
WOW! So let's create a trust and drive up prices. I hope they get a doublewammy and competition is allowed. I like the supply, it means prices will drop. Poor Lee-Ann who has been in the industry for 20 years refuses to work for less than 3%. Oh well, I guess it's time for her to go since the 1% person is getting all the deals.
Don't use a realtor, period. Pay a lawyer 200 dollars to check the documents before you sign them. They'll go away if you stop feeding them. Honest.
The message of the article is superfluous - even realtors will figure out that if they aren't making money they will have to go get honest work. But it's too late to stop the tremendous decline in the credibility of this once respected group.
The secret is out - realtors are parasites, they are sand in the gears of the american economy. Their poster-child? David Lereah. Nuff said.
ah
so it is possible to have too much of a good thing
"This evidently is the point in the housing meltdown when realtors turn to cannibalism..."
I was VERY surprised to see this frank admission of just how badly Realtors have screwed their clients:
Home Equity Withdrawal (HEW) has been significantly strong over the past seven years. Many of the consumers who withdrew funds for cars, vacations, and lifestyle have little or no equity. Add to this the number of clients REALTORS® have served who took out 80-10-10 or 80-20 loans on their homes. Without significant appreciation, they will not have the equity, and we know that (they) do not have the personal savings, to make that next housing move in the near future.
With so many of their former clients enslaved to mountains of debt, Realtors have succeeded in killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Blaming realtors for stupid financial decisions made by "adults" is pure nonsense. People need to grow up and take full responsibility for their own financial decisions. If you are considering signing a note obligating yourself to $500,000. of debt for 30 years (ARM, fixed etc.) I would suggest that you understand all of the ramifications of that decision. Maybe reading the note would be a good idea. If you don't understand what you are reading , don't sign it. If your are going to rely on the opinions (possibly uninformed opinions) of others (realtors, doctors, lawyers, accountants, stock salesmen, etc.)then you must be prepared to suffer or prosper from that decision as well. Grow up and take full responsibility for your lives.
Looks like the UK is having Amerika type problems of their own..see you can leave the country but you can not escape what is coming, no one is safe in this Economy:
http://tinyurl.com/d8q6j
UK Bankruptcies
Bloomberg is reporting U.K. Third Quarter Personal Bankruptcies Reach Record.
Personal bankruptcies in Britain climbed to a record in the third quarter as surging house prices and rising interest rates pushed consumers to take on more debt than they were able to repay.
Individual insolvencies in the three months through September totaled 27,644, up 5.7 percent from the previous quarter and 55 percent from a year earlier. It was the highest since records began in 1960, the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry said on its Web site today.
"The increase is quite shocking,'' said Louise Brittain, personal insolvency partner at accountants Baker Tilly. "There's an expectation now that people can have what they want, when they want, on credit. At this rate, we will have personal insolvencies continuing at about 110,000 a year.''
Insolvencies have created a boom in debt advice services from specialist lenders including Debt Free Direct Group Plc, which said yesterday that first-half sales almost doubled as the number of personal financial consolidations it handled jumped. The company said that its full-year profit will "comfortably'' meet market expectations.
Consumers are also taking on more debt in relation to their income to afford homes whose costs are rising faster than their salaries. Abbey, the U.K.'s second-biggest mortgage lender, said Oct. 31 it has begun offering individuals home loans worth five times their wages, because of continuing gains in house prices.
It's lovely isn't it?
Bankruptcies are soaring but the response by the biggest lender in the U.K. is to increase loan amounts "because of continuing gains in house prices". Even as home prices in the U.S. are collapsing, lenders in the U.K. somehow think home prices can keep rising orders of magnitude faster than wages and rents. This same situation is playing out in Canada, Europe, China, and obviously the U.S.
Blaming realtors for stupid financial decisions made by "adults" may very well be pure nonsense. I completely agree that people need to grow up and take full responsibility for their own financial decisions.
However, the reaction I believe you are seeing is that realtors ask for such high fees (3% on a $300,000 house is $9,000) that, if they're not explaining and helping people understand exactly what they're getting into, what are they paying for? What do realtors do besides drive people around, push their own mortgage brokers and title companies onto people for the kickbacks, and hold their hands while signing documents they don't understand? That sounds more like a $300 job, not a $9,000 job.
Realtors can't claim to be professionals in order to make large commissions, then turn around and not offer professional services like explaining the ramifications of different types of mortgages. I think there are too many examples of that happening and that's what the backlash against realtors is all about.
I agree that many realtors are overpaid but the consumer decides whether to hire them or not. Second, the seller pays the commission. If the Buyer wants professional advice they should hire a financial counselor or attorney for that specific purpose. Some realtors are very well informed and offer solid advice but unfortunately it is hard to separate the great from the pretenders.
Here's a joke for ya,
How many realtors does it take to
......nah, this is too easy!
How many realtors does it take to whine and cry about their jobs?
All of them!
HOUSING AND THE CPI
The numbers are in folks and they are not pretty. The Great US Housing Boom has busted. Home prices have declined on a year-over-year (YOY) basis for the first time since the early 1990s. The chart below shows how quickly housing turned from boom to bust.
http://tinyurl.com/ubn88
And the Stock Market reaches new High's HAHAH! What a friggen joke..if you sheep are falling for this good luck to you, you deserve everything that is coming to you..
Sandwich Shop update:
8 man crew now down to 5, sandwich time wait 2005--10 to 15 minutes//sandwich time wait 11/07/2006 5 minutes..yup economy is chugging along full steam.
"This evidently is the point in the housing meltdown when realtors turn to cannibalism..."
The National Ass. of Realtors has done it again. This time, they are going after the last of the 'greater fools' like mad dogs. We all saw their BUY NOW campaign. As if that weren't enough, the NAR has now posted RAVE REVIEWS from a few of its paid shills:
“Local REALTORS® at a media event yesterday said it's a lot better to be selling in today's ‘normal’ environment than in the five-year real estate boom when prices climbed 20 percent a year and multiple bids over listing price were offered on the first day.” — The Baltimore Sun, Nov. 4
What a crock of shit! Prices are falling, sales are in the toilet and this 'normal' market is better than selling quickly for over the listing price?
“It may go down as the ‘Got milk?’ moment for the housing sector.” — The New York Times, Nov. 3.
'GOT SCREWED?' is more like it!
“The NAR ads say there are strong arguments for prospective buyers to jump into the market, with interest rates remaining relatively low and inventories of unsold homes still high.” — Reuters News, Nov. 6.
Strike while the iron is cold. Get in now, before the housing market crashes.
But wait, there's more! A NEW AD will appear in newspapers November 10-12 and in January, 2007, the NAR will distribute this asinine propaganda on radio and television.
The NAR, like the snowbound DONNER PARTY, is camped at the summit. The cannibalistic feeding frenzy has already begun.
Blaming realtors for stupid financial decisions made by "adults" is pure nonsense.
Really? For somebody you are paying many thousands of dollars to represent your interest---remember the phrase "real estate ***agent***"---I think we ought to expect and demand honesty, intelligence, prudence and wisdom.
Certified Financial Adviser/Planners have far stricter regulations and duties to serve the best interest of their clients.
Why do overly coiffed Realtors(tm) get a break? Is it all just about the pillows and the granite? Screw that.
Hey Realtors(tm): THIS IS A REAL, SERIOUS JOB, NOT AN OPPORTUNITY TO SCAM.
>>I agree that many realtors are overpaid but the consumer decides whether to hire them or not.
This is true
>>Second, the seller pays the commission.
This is false, the buyer pays the commission. Without the buyers funds there is no transaction. Buyers need to negotiate better rates from their representatives (or hire lawyers for $200 or whatever).
>>If the Buyer wants professional advice they should hire a financial counselor or attorney for that specific purpose.
Indeed, but it is way easier for Keith and his blog to blame realtors.
There is no doubt that there are too many agents and brokers. The vast majority add no value to any transaction in which they participate.
What the majority of the country doesn't understand is that the individual agent makes very little. Example $100,000 home sale, agents will get anywhere from a 45-85% commission split with the brokerage. For new agents lets assume the standard 50% split. Total commission on the deal is $6,000, split this between two brokerages, $3,000. Now split it again for the brokers split, $1,500. Now pay all the office fees and any advertising, gas etc. You end up with less than a typical pay check. All this for working with a buyer or a seller for weeks and sometimes months.
The agents that survive in the business aren't necessarily the best at selling real estate or the most enlightened when it comes to state laws. They are the agents that know more people and can get more people to work with them. In 26 years working in this industry I have seen many very capable people enter the profession only to fail because they lack the personal network to succeed.
That litte rant asside, the regulation of real estate agents in horrendous, but the regulations for mortgage brokers is even worse. The mortgage brokers and the loan officers are the true culprits in the housing bubble. In Ohio, a real estate agent has to take roughly 40 hours of specialized classroom work to qualify to take the state exam. A real estate appraiser has to take 78 hours, intern for 2 years under a certified appraiser, then obtain a college degree and take an additiona l 40 hours of education. A mortgage broker has to take a one day course and doesn't have to take a test. Hmm guess who handed out the money, came up with the "creative financing" and allowed people to buy homes they couldn't afford?
There is no doubt that there are too many agents and brokers. The vast majority add no value to any transaction in which they participate.
What the majority of the country doesn't understand is that the individual agent makes very little. Example $100,000 home sale, agents will get anywhere from a 45-85% commission split with the brokerage. For new agents lets assume the standard 50% split. Total commission on the deal is $6,000, split this between two brokerages, $3,000. Now split it again for the brokers split, $1,500. Now pay all the office fees and any advertising, gas etc. You end up with less than a typical pay check. All this for working with a buyer or a seller for weeks and sometimes months.
The agents that survive in the business aren't necessarily the best at selling real estate or the most enlightened when it comes to state laws. They are the agents that know more people and can get more people to work with them. In 26 years working in this industry I have seen many very capable people enter the profession only to fail because they lack the personal network to succeed.
That litte rant asside, the regulation of real estate agents in horrendous, but the regulations for mortgage brokers is even worse. The mortgage brokers and the loan officers are the true culprits in the housing bubble. In Ohio, a real estate agent has to take roughly 40 hours of specialized classroom work to qualify to take the state exam. A real estate appraiser has to take 78 hours, intern for 2 years under a certified appraiser, then obtain a college degree and take an additiona l 40 hours of education. A mortgage broker has to take a one day course and doesn't have to take a test. Hmm guess who handed out the money, came up with the "creative financing" and allowed people to buy homes they couldn't afford?
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