March 25, 2008

The results are in... and the death of the realtor profession can't come fast enough




HP Poll Results:

realtors are:

Liars
521 (62%)
Conmen
505 (60%)
Thieves
401 (47%)
Immoral
457 (54%)
No longer needed
593 (70%)
Leaches
472 (56%)
Forever discredited
507 (60%)


Votes so far: 837
Poll closed

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

While there are plenty of con artists, sleaze bags and scum in the realtor profession I think the majority are just deluded and rather unintelligent creatures. Most of them really believe that real estate can only go up.

These were people that entered the profession because there was a demand for housing and realtors. These were people that had no other real qualifications or job prospects.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see another objective poll. The people on this site fail to see the truth, not all Realtors are bad. If that's the case, then every poster on this site must be a small minded parasitic idiot!

P.S. Yes, I'm a real estate agent and damn proud of the work I do!

Anonymous said...

Bankers, Realtwhores®, politicos, the list is quite lengthy.

Anonymous said...

Real estate agents who can bring real expertise and value to the table will always have a place in conducting complicated transactions, or transactions for a remote principal. They may also have value as in-house employees for property companies.

However, their value (such as it ever was) in conducting small-scale residential real estate transactions between individuals has been severely compromised by the interweb.

I could see, even today, hiring a realtor on an hourly basis for consultation about marketing strategy, or about staging your house to sell. It might be worth $500 or $1,000 to get some expert advice. But there is NO service the agent can offer that is worth 6% of the sale value. There just isn't.

And it completely baffles me that a buyer would EVER work through an agent. What value can an agent possibly bring to a buyer unless the buyer is mentally retarded?

It seems to me that there are three reasons that people keep hiring real estate agents for their small-scale residential real estate transactions:

1.) Information arbitrage and the MLS;

2.) An old-fashioned supersition that you need an agent to conduct a transaction; and

3.) The parties' fear of making a transaction without someone to hold their hands and wipe their bottoms.

Anonymous said...

"P.S. Yes, I'm a real estate agent and damn proud of the work I do!"

Why not post your name then, as*hole? Too proud of tha WORK you do??

ALL USED HOUSE PEDDLERS MUST HANG

Anonymous said...

realtors are:

Liars 521 (62%)

Conmen 505 (60%)

Thieves 401 (47%)

Immoral 457 (54%)

No longer needed 593 (70%)

Leaches 472 (56%)

Forever discredited 507 (60%)
----------------

With all those qualities, maybe they can all go try being fire fighters!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Nice to see another objective poll. The people on this site fail to see the truth, not all Realtors are bad. If that's the case, then every poster on this site must be a small minded parasitic idiot!

P.S. Yes, I'm a real estate agent and damn proud of the work I do!

March 25, 2008 7:36 AM
===========================

I gotta agree with the man Keith. While I have had realtors who were beyond useless during the sale process, and one or two who were outright crooks, most had to really put out 200% plus to get the deal to the settlement table. I've seen a good buyer's financing get yanked a day before closing. I've seen a title insurance company pull out an hour (that's right, one God damned hour!) before scheduled closing. I've seen wrong tax paperwork submitted by the city that had to be corrected and faxed back and forth between the realtors office and city hall while you are waiting at the settlement table, I could go on and on.

Did I ever worry, NO!
That's what the realtor was getting paid for. My job was just to be there, sign some papers, and either collect or deliver a check!

There are good ones out there, and if I ever buy/sell again, and if I decide to use a realtor, I have their cards!

Anonymous said...

Oh, agree with the man EXCEPT the part about me being "a small minded parasitic idiot!"

Talk about over-the- top lumping together. I guess he was pissed.

Where's Osman these days, anyway?

Anonymous said...

..looks like it probably "back to the pole"-- dancing..or pouring drinks...

Anonymous said...

Liars
Conmen
Thieves
Immoral
No longer needed
Leaches
Forever discredited

All of the above

Cant wait for the day when buyers and sellers get have direct communications and negotiations without the greedy middleman.

Mid Hudson Valley NY

Anonymous said...

Not all used house salespeople are bad, just a whole lot of them. They're also harder to spot than the mechanic who squirts oil on your struts and tells you they're leaking or the dentist who tells you you're going to need gum grafts when you really don't. You're also dealing with the potential for hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses if you buy an expensive house in a rapidly declining market. They're not all crooks out to get you to pay them a 6% fee regardless of your personal risk. Just a lot of them and you'd better watch all of them very carefully if you don't want to get talked out of your financial security. House prices are only at the beginning of the great downward slope and the used house salespeople are in a panic as they see their income diving too. Watch what they tell you in this moment of their desperation. They're only human and care a lot more about their own finances than they do about yours.

Anonymous said...

Anyone in sales has to be a conman to make a living. Think about it.

Anonymous said...

Realtors in general are not corrupt manipulators they are just ignorant like the rest of american citizens. The industry needs to upgrade the educational requirements to obtain a license. A good start would be a 2 year program including finance, economics, law, and history.

Anonymous said...

who are the sheep going to sue when they dont know what the hell they are doing when buying a home?

Anonymous said...

I just had lunch with a real estate broker. I asked him what he thought about the dishonesty in the profession. He said it was a "fun challenge" and he enjoyed "playing the game". I told him real estate and mortage brokers werre part of the reason the economy was "unraveling" at the moment. He thought that was okay, as long as he got out fast enough. I think he missed my point.

Anonymous said...

Child pornographers are higher than realtors:

- They don't lie to their customers.
- They screw other people. Not you.

Anonymous said...

you know i'm just curious???? To the retards on this site that bash realtors I am guessing that one of a few things happened:
1. your ex either is a realtor or left your sorry ass for one that is very successful.
2. You yourself have no potential and are not quite smart enough to be self employed.
3.Against the advice of a realtor you overloaded yourself trying to keep up with the jones's and now that you can't pay for it ...it's the realtors fault of course.
4. You really can't buy a pot to piss in because your credit is fried and don't really know a thing about real estate other than what you see on t.v.otherwise you would know the value of a realtor.

Anonymous said...

Sound like the previous poster/REALTOR(R), is a little pissed off becuase the gig is up, and he will be eating Top Ramen very soon; if not already.

P.S. Get a REAL(R) job.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice to see another objective poll. The people on this site fail to see the truth, not all Realtors are bad. If that's the case, then every poster on this site must be a small minded parasitic idiot!

P.S. Yes, I'm a real estate agent and damn proud of the work I do!

March 25, 2008 7:36 AM<<<


you are a scumbag and need to be beaten with a rubber hose and tarred and feathered and rode out of town on a rail.....stay tuned, this is going to happen to all of you creeps....

Anonymous said...

With all those qualities, maybe they can all go try being fire fighters!

Sorry but relatwhores don't know how to water the garden with a hose, so they're disqualified to be a superhero fireman. Although, realtwhores might learn another required qualification to be a superhero fireman: take pictures without shirts next to fat chicks.

Anonymous said...

4. You really can't buy a pot to piss in because your credit is fried and don't really know a thing about real estate other than what you see on t.v.otherwise you would know the value of a realtor.

Showing your true colors with that filthy language, eh? Do you see how realtors really are, rest of the world? Pay attention.

Anonymous said...

Tangelo nailed it.

No, not (quite) all agents are bad, but they don't perform a service that is worth anything even approaching 6% of the value of a house.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if I can describe how I feel about Realtors, but let me try:

Crack whores working the streets of Compton have a more dignifying profession.

Anonymous said...

Hey Realtors,

we dont care if you like what you do or if you're a good guy or not.

the point is that you add no value in the world of realestate,
you only make things complex and add cost to the process of buying a home.

surprise surprise, most people are capable of buying a home and negotiating a price on their own,
once the MLS cartel is busted, both sellers and buyers will benefit from the 6% savings.

Oh wait, who will be driving me around the neighborhood to show me houses with features i specifically said i dont care for.

Anonymous said...

The 98% of incompetent realtors really give the rest a bad name. I've dealt with about 20 different ones on various deals. 2 I trust, 1 I sort of trust, the rest should be tied in a burlap sack and beaten senseless.
One realtor accused me of illegal activity: I had an option to sell a house--somehow that was against the law, but she couldn't cite the rule-- but was willing to overlook that if I listed the house with her. Needless to say, another realtor for a buyer came along and had no trouble with my option and we closed very quickly.

Another realtor wouldn't put in a bid on a fixer house. I saw online that the listing real estate company owned the house, had bought it a year before for 100K. They had it listed for 300K. It was worth 300K if it were in excellent condition. I told my person to offer 200K since I would have to make repairs and the sellers would be still doubling their money. She was "embarrassed" to even go present my offer to them, and further more told me that she didn't want to work with me if I didn't offer at least the asking price. So much for that 'relationship'.
The two realtors I use now really do negotiate on my behalf and will put in rock-bottom offers if I want. They will apprise me of my chances realistically. My experience is that the rest are only concerned with bidding up the prices to ensure the largest fees. Let's be honest, talking down the price actually means less money for the agents. It's a built-in gotcha.

The National Assoc of Realtors is the #1 lobby in the country. They want to make sure they're never hit with anti-trust suits from their actions of inflating prices, shoring up a system of conflicts of interest and discrimination against dealing with non-realtors or discount brokers. That is what I object to.

Calif. investor...

Anonymous said...

The NAR SUCKS !!


Hopefully a few trial lawyers sue your organization for the past several years of bs.

Anonymous said...

For the last 7 or 8 years real estate sales people were creeps (all of them)

Don't you find it funny that none of the so-called good Realtors turned in the bad ones that were pumping up prices and telling lies to dumb people.

How many Realtors followed their own codes of ethics (maybe 1 percent)

I know the job of the real estate sales person and there is no way that they didn't push people into toxic loans and set it up with the mortgage brokers . If people knew how many of you creeps got kick-backs for pointing someone to a creep loan agent they would be shocked .

Your industry lied to people about bids on property and you played one game after another to lure the sheep to the slaughter .You pumped up the price of property just so you could keep selling the lie of "real estate always goes up '

Where did you real estate sales people get off on taking people to properties that they couldn't afford . Why didn't you turn in the creep loan agents that you knew were fraudulent .
You didn't stop the fraudulent buyers because you taught them how to do it .
You creep salespeople blackmailed the appraisers just like the loan agents did .

Don't tell me that you didn't know what was going on ,you just didn't care because of greed . You knew those borrowers didn't qualify and they would need to refinance or sell .

You peddled a bunch of lies and myths and you took your talking points from the NAR .

You didn't earn your money because property was just selling itself .You didn't protect the buyers or the sellers . Its all blood money that you got and your going get bad karma for it .
Wait until all you cash-back fraud
creeps get busted along with you creepy double-escrow con job people .

You all knew what the rules/laws were and you all violated them .

How you could take first time buyers and take them to the slaughter is so evil . "Buy now ,or be priced out forever." Trying to scare people into buying ,shame on you ,you damn creeps .How do you like yourself now .

Your mommy and daddy didn't raise you right .

Anonymous said...

I disagree with 'Forever discredited' people are stupid give it 30 or 40 years and they WILL fall for it again.

Anonymous said...

Anyone can avoid all of this by using HutHound.com. For sale by owners can list their properties for free and avoid the hassle and cost of a realtor.