I know "never" is the likely answer, seeing that the NAR is one of the biggest contributors to our corrupted Congress, but I think the Great Housing Crash is going to cause such a populist stink in 2008 that even politicians who've accepted the NAR's dirty money will turn on them in order to keep their jobs.
And watch for the Presidential candidates to really start honing in on the housing crash and the NAR as an issue, especially Ron Paul and John Edwards.
I'd like to see one realtor, just one, write a mea-culpa, and apologize for the damage that commission-hungry realtors inflicted on their fellow Americans these past few years. Just one realtor with a conscience, just one realtor with a soul.
For HP's realtor readers, this is your chance. Make a name for yourself in the industry. Turn on the monkeys at the NAR. Stand up. Do the right thing. And come clean here.
November 19, 2007
When will the National Association of Realtors and their army of 6%'ers be forced to admit their role in the Great Housing Con?
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62 comments:
I will start off that I do not like the way we buy and sell houses and the use of realtors. It is wrong for the times we live in. But....I dont blame them. If they can sell a house to someone that was approved, then they are not doing anything wrong.
Shouting "real estate never goes down" and "it's always a great time to buy", while not discussing the fundamentals, the price to rent ratio, or what's truly going on in the market with the client, so that they can earn a commission, is not wrong?
It's wrong. It's immoral. And it needs to be called by its name.
Not going to officially happen. It will happen unofficially via realtwhores who also get burned by all of this.
Friend of mine who is still RE drunk illustrates the level of denial that is still out there. Despite me sending him all these blogs, short sale/REO listings & subsequent regular listings that price match w/ huge DOM #s his response to me:
YOu really need to buy something in the next 6-12 months because DC is different and BRAC is going to make RE take off in our local area around the base.
I ask him for his data that supports his arguments. His response is evasive at best and at worst its the standard realtwhore line. He just ignores my sound, reasoned arguments based upon contemporaneous facts and circumstances. Yet, my friend is a smart guy and works in the accounting field and has made alot of good investment decisions. His TH is not one of them. He did get it from a desparate home debtor who had a toxic loan and walk away without paying any transaction costs. But his motive to buy a TH was due to his wife putting a Susanne on him. He should have sold his condo to lock in the gain & get a 20% 30 year fixed, but his emotions got the better of him and he kept it as a rental, and did an 80/20 for the TH, both of which are ARMS. He raves that his wife's condo is worth alot of money also. He will be underwater soon and be forced to sell assets to keep the falling knife he decided to catch from being fatal, but that's all his problem. I rent and therefore I own this market right now!!
Got GAS?
Happy Holidays! (The last ones you get).
Screw America. We deserve what's coming.
Gotta DIS-agree with you here AL-QWAFFER. Realtors are salespeople. Nothing more nothing less. Blaming a salesman because you bought something you shouldn't have bought is silly. Talk about not taking responsibility for your actions.
Of course they will say shit like r/e never goes down. They are salespeople remember? What would you want them to say? DON'T buy a house from me because renting is a better bet? Come on dude get real.
If you walk into a Best Buy every salesman there will tell you you NEED a 70" plasma. If you believe the salesman and you pay $5K for a TV, whose fault is that? Not the salesman's.
I personally know several realtors who I consider to be ethical people. But it's a crowded market, and often the less scrupulous can win business by doing or saying things less honest. That dynamic is working right now as the less ethical operators offer inflated estimates of what price a seller's home can fetch.... they do this to get a listing, in the hope that they can hold on to the listing as the seller gives up and cuts the price. The honest realtor who tells the seller like it is may not get the initial listing.
Dudes?Come on.
Greed on both side of the coin man.This sh!t will never stop.Starts from the top ,middle ,and foundation all at the same time.
Uncle Scam wouldn't have it any other way.The Easter Bunny Bible has the majority of it's verses devoted to .......Money.The hypocratic oath is just a formality in medicine ,and all the love parents expouse for their precious little ones takes a back seat to careers/money evident by the way we send kids to the government babysitter.The Justice (money laundering enterprise)System is our finest example-Pay-UP and you too will be found pretty much not guilty.
UNCLE SCAM ;)
"When will the National Association of Realtors and their army of 6%'ers be forced to admit their role in the Great Housing Con?"
---------------------
Next question:
When will WHAT freeze over?
I predict that this time next year, we're not going to have a lot to be thankful for...
No one blamed the stock brokers for the dot com crash. Why blame the realtors? It is like blaming blood-sucking leeches for taking your blood. That is what they are supposed to do dummy. You should have kept away from them.
I think the consumer is to really blame for not being responsible. No one in this world can make financial decisions for the consumer. It is their duty to make sound choices of suffer the consequences.
Keith,
The typical real estate agent of the past few years was a "ex" something or other. Or, they did real estate part time. It said a lot about how the NAR viewed this process of buying and selling homes.
As far as I can tell, the complete drop in NAR standards started towards the end of the 1990's. Anybody and everybody went into real estate. NAR, like the devil on a recruiting binge, welcomed them all with a toothy grin and open arms.
This completely untrained, unsupervised group went on to help facilitate the looting of home ownership in America.
Some of these people are so dumb I doubt they understand what they have done. I'm certain few realize the epic magnitude of what is happening and their part in it.
The people at the top of NAR, that's a different story. They knew exactly what they were doing. But before they go to hell, they need to go to jail for criminal racketeering.
We just need to find enough prosecutors with the will to do their job.
Happy Thanksgiving week HP'ers.
I'm tankful for...
War
George Bush
High Inflation
The NAR
The Liberal Media
Lawyers and Lawmakers
Hillary Clinton
Syphilis
Leaky ass syndrome
SCREW YOU ALL!! AMERICA ROCKS
Despite the NAR's role in the recent housing boom, we only have to look in the mirror to see who was ultimately responsible for this fiasco. As Americans we have a love affair with blowing bubbles, housing being the latest example. I doubt it will be the last...
Poor old Charles Ponzi. Had he been born 80 years later, he would have been a giant in the real estate and financial industry.
For more info and a nice photo of Ponzi, check out this morning's post on my blog
I just got done shagging a realtor this morning.They sure no how to take care of their client, god bless.
anon 1:14
I was in DC over the weekend. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere I was expecting every 2nd house/th to have a for sale sign in front of it. Quit the opposite in reality. There were few if any for sale signs in Georgetown and the area immediately around it.
I'm not saying rush out and buy something. I'm just saying I didn't get the sense that DC was in Las Veags or Phoenix kind of a situation.
And the "it's different here" does have some merritt in DC. Recessions don't matter. Government employment always increases.
What needs to be said is the same thing that various Popes have been saying to America since the 1960's. We have constantly been warned about GREED. Now I know people don't like to hear it, but there is a penalty to be paid for all this GREED. The situation is collapsing now and we probably won't be able to stop it. I agree with Keith, It's IMMORAL, It's WRONG and it needs to be called by it's name.
Real Estate salespeople are not financial planners. . .do you take advice from a used car salesman? advice from late night TV salesmen who promise diets and exercise machines to make you loose 100 pounds?. . .perhaps street vendors in Tijuana selling "silver and gold" bracelets?? . . .well if you do, you deserve to be in foreclosure for believing RE people. . .this whole thing sounds so much like the 1998-2001 internet scam (remember all those TV talking heads and "analysts" who said "it's different this time?". . .well, it wasn't! . .I knew the internet stocks were crap, but I bought and sold (holding for no longer than one month) and paid my mortgage off with the proceeds.
Folks - I will give you ONE piece of financial advice you can take to the bank. . .take a Taxi once a week, especially in places like NYC and Las Vegas, etc. . .ask the cab driver about investments. . .if he/she is buying internet stocks - GET OUT (of stocks, not the cab). . .if he/she is buying real estate - SELL your house!!. . .I have been in the market since 1976, and this always works. . .when everyone is doing something, it is time to get out.
Greed for lack of a better word, is NOT good. Greed separates, Greed steals from others, Greed leaves people poor and destitute. Remember for every Gecko there is a WILDMAN, who can buy you over 10x and smoke a stock just to burn our behinds. We are in the hands of Wildman now, excuse me, SIR Wildman.
I also believe this is our LAST Thanksgiving and Christmas.
anon 4:34
buddy of mine with several "rental" properties (that don't cash flow by the way), just walked away from a 25K deposit on a condo in downtown DC. and that is just the beginning.
it is NOT different here.
I know one ethical real estate agent. He is not a member of the NAR (he knows they're unethical and refuses to pay their racketeering money ... umm oops I mean dues) and he's negotiable on commission, not a six-percenter.
anon,
'
Georgetown and DC are OK..
Its the MSA as a whole...
Montgomery, PG county, Fairfax Va, Charles county...
look at the data on MRIS for the DC MSA charles county..quiet used to have 200-300 on the market sell 45-90 now we are at 1800 selling 100....
moved here in 2004...NO HOUSES UNDER 417K, none...
yet very few WORTH 417K
RE: I'd like to see one realtor ... with a conscience, just one realtor with a soul.
You've got to be kidding!
Nothing ever changes at the National Ass. of Realtwhores.
As a matter of fact, The National Ass. of Realtwhores (NAR) is working overtime to convince potential buyers to step up and buy into the tanking housing market. In addition to penning a number of misleading press releases, the association has spent a ton of money on a public awareness campaign that relies on skewed data and bogus claims.
Read all about the latest NAR propaganda HERE.
V.L.
Anon 4:34 -
Read http://money.cnn.com/magazines/ fortune/price_rent_ratios/. Click on the "The P/R ratios" tab, and sort by % correction. You'll see that Miami is #1, LA is #2, Baltimore is #3, and the DC area is #4 as far as how far the price/rent ratio has to drop before reverting to the mean.
Also, I live in the suburbs of DC, in MD, and although I wouldn't say that real estate is in a condition where there are fire sales all over the place, prices for specific houses that I've tracked over time have indeed fallen over the last 18 months, and they continue to fall. Most houses that are listed, unless they are realistically priced, sit for many months on the market nowadays here.
Furthermore, regarding DC being impervious to recessions, where were you during the 1989-1996 era? I was in the area during that time, where the recession did indeed have an effect on the housing market here.
I also believe this is our LAST Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- anonymous, November 19, 2007 4:49 PM
Oh sh!t, the end-timers have arrived. All reasoned debate stops.
Hey all you DOW cheerleaders with your "The dow is up 8 to 13% YOY...please STFU!..we here at HP know the true DOW is..WORTHLESS!!!
http://www.howestreet.com/articles/index.php?article_id=5111
RE: I was in DC over the weekend. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere I was expecting every 2nd house/th to have a for sale sign in front of it. Quit the opposite in reality.
*********************************
There is a very GOOD reason not to list a home for sale right now.
And that is: You'll loose your ass - if you can even find a buyer. So anotherwords: Dont sell your home unless youe HAVE to. So there you go. Just because the homes are not "listed for sale" does not mean that the house is worth what the owner thinks it is.
If you can afford to live in your over-valued house, than good! Dont sell now! Just hang-out for the next 10 years and all should be well.
* * If you must sell, however, I suggest baking some cookies in your kitchen oven before your open-house begins each day - according to the NAR's selling tips. This will help you sell your house that's over-valued by 45%.
Best regards,
The happy renter.
.
Anon 4:34: DC is tanking. My in laws have a large house coming on soon so I am getting bad news in real time. SFH's and condos are getting blasted.
You all focus on condos too much. Condos always have been and always will be more volatile.
I'd mock you more but I have to go look for 2 more curtains/panels for the guest room since BBB only had 2...bastards.
Anonymous said...
anon 1:14
I was in DC over the weekend. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere I was expecting every 2nd house/th to have a for sale sign in front of it. Quit the opposite in reality. There were few if any for sale signs in Georgetown and the area immediately around it.
I'm not saying rush out and buy something. I'm just saying I didn't get the sense that DC was in Las Veags or Phoenix kind of a situation.
And the "it's different here" does have some merritt in DC. Recessions don't matter. Government employment always increases.
November 19, 2007 4:34 PM
----------
I live in DC every day & I am not just a tourist who would make casual observations about housing in the richest parts of an area. I lived through the last RE bubble here and this is worse than that one already and the floodgates have yet to open!!
The posts all seem to equate realtwhores with salespeople for various goods (electronics etc.) HELLO MCFLY - ALL States have laws on the books that indicate that realtwhores have a fiduciary duty to their clients. This means your suppose to put special trust in them. They are NOT suppose to lie to you or manipulate you just to get the sale. Now we all know in reality that we need to protect ourselves, but the states need to start punishing the worst of the lot of these realtwhores and then the rest will straighten up.
I've bought and sold RE twice in my life. I treated my sales agents like an employee and interviewed several before making a decison. Both times I was wrong and I had to fire them. From that I was able to then find much better agents that got the job done. Why did I fire them? Because the tried to treat me like I was just some sheeple who would believe what they said. I say, Trust but verify, and my verification came back, and then I FIRED THEM!!
And the "it's different here" does have some merritt in DC. Recessions don't matter. Government employment always increases.
Uh, not hardley-
drive 10-20 miles OUTSIDE of D.C. (where 95% of the DC workers live!!)
These areas are getting the smack-down big-time.
The RE market in DC itself is basically minute compared to the surrounding areas.
Sorry, it isn't different in DC!!!
And no, they ain't paying more than anywhere else!!!
Check the Foreclosure websites if you don't believe me -
FIGURES DON'T LIE :)
see the opinion piece on Bloomberg today?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=as_1Syu9JPcA&refer=home
Realtors are mostly to blame for the delusional sellers' asking price.
Time for a reality check everyone???
SEATTLE AINT SPECIAL ANYMORE
Oil Officials See Limit
Looming on Production
By RUSSELL GOLD and ANN DAVIS
November 19, 2007; Page A1
A growing number of oil-industry chieftains are endorsing an idea long deemed fringe: The world is approaching a practical limit to the number of barrels of crude oil that can be pumped every day.
Some predict that, despite the world's fast-growing thirst for oil, producers could hit that ceiling as soon as 2012. This rough limit -- which two senior industry officials recently pegged at about 100 million barrels a day -- is well short of global demand projections over the next few decades. Current production is about 85 million barrels a day.
pwnd
Keith, can we take a poll of how many people think happy homedebtor is a complete tool?
pwnd
Relators earn massive fees by corruptly blocking competition. This unfortunately helped lead to massive pain for America.
Competition is usually what's best for America.
The NAR is the hand of the devil.
China voices alarm at dollar weakness
Published: November 19 2007
China on Monday expressed concern at the decline in the dollar, joining a growing chorus of global policymakers alarmed by the weakness in the world’s main reserve currency.
Premier Wen Jiabao told a business audience in Singapore it was becoming difficult to manage China’s $1,430bn foreign exchange reserves, saying that their value was under unprecedented pressure.
We have never been experiencing such big pressure,” Mr Wen said, according to Reuters. “We are worried about how to preserve the value of our reserves.”
pwnd
.
.
.
Anonymous 8:23 PM said...
"SEATTLE AINT SPECIAL ANYMORE"
------------
Listed my Lynnwood house on Oct. 9 and closed on Oct. 31.
Does that mean Seattle is, in fact, still special?
No, it means the house was priced correctly.
Re Realtors are just sales people:
No, that's not exactly true. There
are ethical guidelines (and questions
on the state exam for license re those guidelines.). You have a fiduciary responsibility towards your listee which is codified by law.
Now that's from my short career
<1yr in 1977-8 in real estate. I
wasn't good at sales, but we were
told we had to be ethical in various respects; unfortunately
don't recall details anymore. We
also had TO QUALIFY PEOPLE BY
STRINGENT STANDARDS, BEFORE WE
COULD SHOW A HOUSE, AND ALL THEIR
STATEMENTS HAD TO BE BACK UP BY
DOCUMENTATION.
pkk
http://tinyurl.com/2ambok
pwnd
Nordstrom posts amazing numbers today. Yep the great depression is here again. Morons.
DC is not crashing. What is crashing are the ghetto areas of PW County where English is now the 3rd or 4th language. Those homes could cost $1 and I wouldn't want one. I know it's hard for you apartment dwellers to see the difference but trust me nobody in Georgetown or Arlington is sweating real estate right now.
keith said...
Shouting "real estate never goes down" and "it's always a great time to buy", while not discussing the fundamentals, the price to rent ratio, or what's truly going on in the market with the client, so that they can earn a commission, is not wrong?
It's wrong. It's immoral. And it needs to be called by its name.
November 19, 2007 12:57 PM
===============================
No it is not immoral. What is immoral is people like you who want the govt to legislate every aspect of my life. If you think realtors are liars, don't listen to them. Geez it's not that hard.
Winning through Common Sense:
I have never-ever met any honest or ethical person who claims to be a Real Estate professional. I never expect to either.
Case in point; Last week traveled to close an inherited house in Las Vegas. Correct pricing, correct area key to sale, I was lucky. The real estate contract I had prepared was very specific in that I would pay NO CLOSING COSTS or FEES whatsoever as a condition of sale. Went to close, (you know the dril), reviewed incorrectly prepared documents. Took out RED SHARPIE marker and drew through $3100 worth of Costs and Fees. Gave back corrected to title "officer" (ie: Crook and conspirator to RealWhore -a 3% variety in this case)and announced, per contract they had 24hours to correct or deal OFF. Backup buyers notified and confirmed. Also, since my attorney (always take an attorney-the great levelor)and I live in Los Gatos, I insisted that the additional hotel, airplane costs and expenses also be covered. After much stress (theirs not ours) we went back to the hotel and had a nice dinner on the title company and watched the New Frontier get imploded (like the sale to these crooks and thieves would have). The "principals" arrived smiling early the next morning with corrected documents like nothing ever happened and a notary-in-tow.
Moral of the story: Do NOT trust anyone in real estate, EVER, especially the ancilliary leaches (Realwhores are easy enough to manage) and bring your attorney with you (a'la Robert Ringer) at ALL TIMES.
F-Realtors, F-Title companies and pity unimformed buyers.
Sick, Dying and Crooked USA.
Anonymous said...
DC is not crashing. What is crashing are the ghetto areas of PW County where English is now the 3rd or 4th language. Those homes could cost $1 and I wouldn't want one. I know it's hard for you apartment dwellers to see the difference but trust me nobody in Georgetown or Arlington is sweating real estate right now.
November 19, 2007 11:16 PM
---------------
Then why are develoeprs auctioning off condos, offering huge incentives to kick off new plans (with revised lower pricing) advertising tons of "quick ship" homes. Add to that the increasing # of REO/Short sales in Fairfax county? The pain is rippling in and you know it.
I have seen a lot of comments about DC and I have to say that the surrounding area has definitely tanked. My wife and I just signed a contract on an 1800 sq foot condo out in Frederick, Maryland. The prices there have fallen to the point that you can buy without a down payment for what you can rent the same condo. The condo we bought peaked on Zillow last year at 261, but we just bought it for 220 plus all closing costs paid. We figured up the price-to-rent ratio at about 14, so we felt pretty comfortable buying. It may fall more, but for us it is cheaper than renting after the tax deductions and thanks to the federal government will go back in value eventually. Having said all that, I sure as hell wouldn't buy around DC, MD, or VA unless I was getting a big discount and wasn't planning on selling for at least five or six years.
Gotta DIS-agree with you here AL-QWAFFER. Realtors are salespeople. Nothing more nothing less. Blaming a salesman because you bought something you shouldn't have bought is silly. Talk about not taking responsibility for your actions.
So, according to your flawed argument, is perfectly reasonable for a doctor to be pushing dangerous and unnecessary drugs to his patients just because big pharma is using the doctor as a salesman, which receives commission and other perks for the service.
I couldn't expect any different from selfish Americans who totally lost the meaning of having principles. It's the new trend in America, a bunch of empty and greedy old men with no principals (Baby Boomers), trying to dictate what's good for the world while judging everyone else. That's why we watch the Larry Craigs and Bernard Kerik's almost every week, without any major accountability for their acts. Anything is fair game to make a worthless dollar in the US these days. Americans have become grotesque animals.
I think the consumer is to really blame for not being responsible. No one in this world can make financial decisions for the consumer. It is their duty to make sound choices of suffer the consequences.
The only problem with that view is that the shady groups composed by corporate fascists are in a mission to dumb down America. That's why the crooks at the FCC are making possible to a few shady groups to control the entire media. That's why they are pumping so much poverty from the third world countries into the US. That's why the American school system is deteriorating. It's all part of a big plan to create more sheeple and to keep the current ones dumb.
Consumers are supposed to be dumb for the corporate fascists to take advantage of them, just like the crooks in the government and Wall Street have been doing. That's why there are so many ignorant hicks and Jesus freaks these days...all dumb. It's more difficult to take advantage of an intelligent culture.
Booo, the fake terrorist bogeyman who lives under your bed is gonna get you, dumb. The GOP, neocons, Cheney, and Giuliani love dumb people.
veronica lodge said
RE: I'd like to see one realtor ... with a conscience, just one realtor with a soul.
You've got to be kidding!
Nothing ever changes at the National Ass. of Realtwhores.
As a matter of fact, The National Ass. of Realtwhores (NAR) is working overtime to convince potential buyers to step up and buy into the tanking housing market. In addition to penning a number of misleading press releases, the association has spent a ton of money on a public awareness campaign that relies on skewed data and bogus claims.
Read all about the latest NAR propaganda HERE.
V.L.
November 19, 2007 6:11 PM
---------------------------------
Hey Veronica, I have a conscience and a soul, as well as ethics and knowledge. I love how Americans like to point fingers and blame everyone else for their own stupidity, and also like to stereotype and bash others for their problems.
I have sold houses for 5 years. It seemed to be a good career change since we owned a bunch of rental property. Never once did I say real estate always goes up. I would caution investors to only buy cash flow property, and not for appreciation. I would warn people things were seperating from fundamentals. Even after these warnings the shit sold like hot cakes, and no one wanted to hear it. Who am I to turn away a 12k commision on a 400k house. If I don't write the deal someone else will get the money. I do have a family to think about. Had I truly been a whore I could have made a million bucks from 2002 to 2005. I had to sleep at night so I cautioned people of the option ARM's and buying more than they could afford. Today my clients invite me to their houses or take me out for dinner and drinks. None of them blame me for anything.
Since I am a bad liar I am not selling much RE lately. I am selling cheap used cars. We put them through an 84 point check, inspect them and sell them at 25% above what is into them. Does this make me a scumbag car dealer? Am I not allowed to profit for my efforts?
I wish everyone would wake the fuck up. If you lost money in tech, your an ass who got greedy. If you bought too much house with a bad loan and hung your family out to dry your a real big ass that listened to your idiot neighbors at cocktail parties. It's not the Realtors fault. Most Realtors truly believed what NAR and their brokers told them. Most don't have a clue about RE as an investment. They were moderately trained order takers that knew about the agreement of sale. They didn't mean to screw you over. You asked them to help you screw yourself, and they only followed YOUR orders.
Yes the NAR is a corrupt organization that alter statistics to their own benefit. It's their job to sell homes!DUH! Yes many realtors may not be the sharpest pencils. If you used a clueless corrupt realtor then your not bright either. My clients appreciated my honesty, knowledge, and integrity. I helped many to buy good homes at good prices, and talked them out of being greedy whores like many people whining today. I own almost 4 million dollars in RE. I bought it all without any of my own cash, and have a great monthly cash flow. This correction doesn't worry me one bit(I am actually looking foward to a 2010 buying spree of another few million) because I followed basic investing fundamentals. I didn't listen to some financial planner on commision talking me into buying stock of the latest software company. I did things my own way and it payed off. I also helped a few build some nice rental portfolios with no cash in, and cash flows. I guess I am a greedy cluless scumbag because I have a license to sell RE. I like to think I am much smarter that the bashers here. I'd be happy to put my net worth to yours Veronica, in fact I bet it's 10 times yours.
It seems like the realtor is being bashed regulary here. This wasn't the fault of the realtor. Blame Greenspan for cheap money, Bush for bullshitting everyone to be a homeowner, appraisers for inflating prices, underwriters for giving loans to people who didn't deserve them, and buyers who were fueled by GREED. Yes the order takers were in their somewhere. I guess we should blame the wal mart cashier because our kids get hurt on dangerous Chinese toys we buy there. Or the Mercedes dealer that sold us the car we couldn't really afford that was bought with Re Fi money. After all we can take no accountability for our own actions. Sorry for all the explicatives but some of these statements people post are worthless and piss me off. I take pride in what I do. I am still waiting to find out what Andrew Hoc does for a living. He was the asshole that wanted to execute all Realtors in the cruelest manner possible. I'd love to give you the shot sometime douche bag. Bring it on! I'll be waiting in a dark alley in Philly any time you want.
Hey Keith, I take no blame for things whatsoever. I warned people, and even told them to read your sight. I told the stupid greedy ones to go find another realtor. I never wrote a deal I didn't believe in, just like I won't sell a car I wouldn't let my wife and kids drive, or rent a unit I wouldn't stay in if my wife kicked me out. There still are a few people in this country with morals and ethics.
Bottom Feeder in Philly
keith said...
Shouting "real estate never goes down" and "it's always a great time to buy", while not discussing the fundamentals, the price to rent ratio, or what's truly going on in the market with the client, so that they can earn a commission, is not wrong?
It's wrong. It's immoral. And it needs to be called by its name.
I disagree Keith. The problem isn't what realtors say. The problem is that realtors have masterfully convinced the sheeple that realtors are (A) professionals, (B) knowledgable, (C) work for the home buyer who's being driven around by them. Everyone knows that the used car dealer who says the car is "a great investment" is full of sh*t. Why would you listen to a used car dealer who doesn't have his GED tell you about economics and investment strategy? You wouldn't, right? So, why would you listen to a realtor who doesn't have his GED tell you about economics and investment strategy? Because the NAR has managed to give respectability to an unrespectable job.
Contrary to the way you your comment reads, I don't care what the realtor thinks or discusses about fundamentals or the price to rent ratio. They shouldn't be talking about such matters, but most of all, I shouldn't be listening.
Realtors have codes and laws to go by . Also you have general business and contract laws that realtors violated during the housing boom .
For instance , for realtors to induce overbidding by lying about other bids is a example of good old fashion fraud in business .
Realtors were double escrowing property ,and hiding this from the appraisers and lenders .
Realtors were bringing unqualified borrower to homes knowing that the mortgage broker would commit fraud in order to get the borrower in .
Realtors were inducing panic buying and selling by myths and investment advice which exceeded their authority and is a violation of most realtor codes .
Realtors were giving future investment advice based on false notions and myths and they were taking their talking point from the NAR . It became a mass campaign in which the realtors became cheerleaders for a housing mania that was not stable .
Many realtors helped borrowers prepare fraudulent loan packages and they knew what mortgage brokers to go to to get fraudulent packages approved .
Realtors pressured appraisers to hit the mark on appraisals or they wouldn't give them business and that practice is extortion or blackmail .
Realtors engaged in collusion practice with mortgage lenders and promised borrowers they could "refinance" out of toxic loans and scared borrowers into buying by saying ,"buy now or be priced ot forever" .
Realtors lied to first time-buyers about the market and the nature of cycles in the real estate market .
Realtors bought property themselves and turned them driving up the price of real estate .
Criminal realtors engaged in cash -back fraudulent deals by raising the listing price so the buyer and seller could commit fraud with cash back which drove up prices .
Many of the realtors did not act in the best interest of the buyer or seller clients by suggesting that they shouldn't get a inspection of the property or care about normal protections under the law . Realtors encouraged borrowers to buy a new house before they sold their old house to trap them .
Realtors engaged in listing property lower than fair market to get a bidding war ,which is a frowned upon practice that results in the appraisal exceeding fair market .
Realtors encouraged borrowers to go on low down loans in order to use leverage and to also buy more property so they could have more sales in spite of the low down leverage loans being toxic and not affordable in the long term .
Realtors sold real estate as a short term investment using leverage ,rather than a long term investment ,which is not the standard investment advice for real estate investment(and only something that would work if real estate always went up )
Realtors took low listings and used straw buyers to double escrow the property later to make money rather than get the higest price the market would bear for the seller ,which caused the price to go even higher by this influence by these fake inbetween double escrow sales .(This practice is not talked about on blogs very much ,but it was a practice that went a long way toward raising appraisals without the lender knowing about the realtors uping the price for a quick profit by using a straw buyer or themselves ) .
Realtors gave faulty comp data to borrowers to get them to increase offers .
Realtors and the NAR had a false ad campaign of "Good Time To Buy ",to lure buyers into buying into a falling knife .
Realtors gave investment advice that exceeded their authority and was self-serving to say the least .
Realtors did not write fair contracts during the boom in real estate with no regard for protections to buyer or sellers .
Realtors in collusion with escrow companies failed to show all documents to the sales contract to the lender ,and realtors failed to disclose all material facts they were aware of .
Realtors did not report bad or fraudulent real estate practice from their fellow realtors .
Realtors sold the investment real estate ponzi scheme to many stupid borrowers,or suggested going on toxic loans that were time=bombs ,based on a false myth that real estate always goes up .
Realtors put speculators in property knowing they would not owner occupy ,but guided these people into how to get a fake owner occupied loan so those buyers could leverage more and not pay the higher fee and down payment associated with a speculator loan .
Realtors sold their souls to the devil during the boom based on a profit motive of commissions and real estate investment advantage they engaged in themselves to the harm of community and neighborhoods .
Realtors became brainwashed drones that were chanting myths about real estate investments and loans ,and in effect the bulk of real estate sale people became members of a cult of corruption .
I could go on and on . Had the realtors refused to do all the things they did the real estate inflated price mania would not of happened .Realtors took the position of being cheerleaders for a false run-up in real estate and reltors were closed mouthed as to the corruption they saw every day so as not to stop the party from going on for self-serving motive .
Make no mistake ,realtors are the set up clowns on any real estate transaction ,and corruption cannot take place without a willing realtor in the transaction .Some very dumb borrower were led to their financial demise by trusting a self-serving salesperson in a mania . That being said ,some realtors are good people ,but that still doesn't explain why they didn't speak up when the corruption got out of hand all around them .
anon 4:34 said:
And the "it's different here" does have some merritt in DC. Recessions don't matter. Government employment always increases.
I don't know much about the DC real estate market (I left the area years ago), but I doubt this is true. Never ending constant growth can't be maintained in this situation.
As the government goes, we're quickly getting to the limits of how much people can be taxed to pay for it. The parasites are killing the host.
If realtors are going to play the "housing as an investment" card, then they should be held to the same standards as other investment advisors. This should include roughly the same amount of education, training and certifications as other investment advisors.
If this is not an acceptable alternative to the NAR, then there should be legislation enacted to prohibit realtors from using the word "investment" at any time.
This would include phrases such as "largest investment you'll ever make", talking about any kind of appreciation numbers, etc. Even suggesting what price a particular house could fetch under normal market conditions should be banned by realtors, as that could roughly be compared to an investment analyst suggesting a particular price target for a stock without any training in securities analysis.
In the state I live, the person who cuts my hair is required to have > 1000 hours of supervised training. A Realtor who advises me on the "biggest investment of my life", is only required to have 40 hours of in class training.
Perhaps the future haircut home prices will take will encourage the legislators that maybe it's a good idea to require more training ;)
Since I am a bad liar I am not selling much RE lately. I am selling cheap used cars.
Let it go folks, the realthwore career transition: from one useless and deceptive profession to another as disgusting. BTW, your story is fool of holes and contradictions.
You people check his story for flaws and contradictions because I'm tired of pasting this crap...
The realtor's asked themselves this same question, except it was, "WHO'S TO BLAME - THE BANKS OR THE CONSUMERS"
http://activerain.com/blogsview/258841/WHO-S-TO-BLAME
Let's face the facts for a change. Bush is a crazy immoral cowboy wildcard personally responsible for the place the country is in
AND
EACH AND EVERY SO CALLED REALTOR IS S%IT.
F%^k the used car saleswhore. You ARE scum and have changed lives for the worse scumbag. Don'tt justify your crimes here to me, dirtbag. YOU ARE GUILTY, the crime is you will go UNPUNISHED.
..."If realtors are going to play the "housing as an investment" card, then they should be held to the same standards as other investment advisors. This should include roughly the same amount of education, training and certifications as other investment advisors."...
A newbie real estate agent I know is getting her "higher education" by attending NAR sanctioned classes.
She's paying tuition and working to get certain designations behind her name like "GRI". She claims this will be the equivalent to an associates degree.
I laughed so hard I choked! The NAR apparently has bamboozled their own members worse than they have the public!
The whole lot of them are totally corrupt.
Anonymous said...
Since I am a bad liar I am not selling much RE lately. I am selling cheap used cars.
Let it go folks, the realthwore career transition: from one useless and deceptive profession to another as disgusting. BTW, your story is fool of holes and contradictions.
You people check his story for flaws and contradictions because I'm tired of pasting this crap
EACH AND EVERY SO CALLED REALTOR IS S%IT.
F%^k the used car saleswhore. You ARE scum and have changed lives for the worse scumbag. Don'tt justify your crimes here to me, dirtbag. YOU ARE GUILTY, the crime is you will go UNPUNISHED.
----------------------------------
You guys are so angry, and also cowards writing bullshit behind anonymous posts. I'd like to know the holes in my posts. I notice you didn't critique any. I am guilty of nothing, and have many people who would be happy to dispute your scumbag comment. Truth be told I have things to post that may educate people, but since you assholes love to insult people this will be my last housing panic post. Good luck with your next RE or car purchase. I hope you get treated with the same respect you give others. You guys are just a bunch of bitter assholes. I'm out.
Bottom feeder in Philly
Do lying used car salesman get to lobby Congress and write legislation too, or is it just realtor and lender whores who have that priveledge?
Hey Congress: It's FUN to blow an RE bubble and KILL working Americans with back breaking debt for a ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS just so the realtors and lenders can pour the cash all over you, right?
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