re: Thoughts on real estate as a profession

True story

I had this bitch call me one time and want to show my house on fsbo as a one time showing.
She told me her "client" drove by liked it and took a pic and sent to her.
I said that's ok fine.
Set an appt.

Well she wanted to come by take a look inside and get a one time showing contract signed.
I told her id give 3%.
She said I can't do it for that... I charge 6%.
I LoL in her face and asked her if she lost her mind.
She wasn't going to show the house that supposedly her client called her about bc she couldn't make money she wanted to make.

I'm in sales too and it pissed me off so bad I called her next day left a VM and told her she wasn't welcome at my house again, don't call back and that she should re read the business ethics part of here realtor 101 book.

That's just one story among prob 5-6 I have concerning these greedy scum people.

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ALSO....the incentives to accept lower offers are not aligned between the agents and the sellers.

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Everything is negotiable. I have had buyers and sellers get really close but no deal so I cut my commission more than the $300 in your hypothetical to get the deal done. Making something and having happy clients is better than being greedy and burning bridges.

I've got mixed feelings on realtors. Bought my first house FSBO. Easy process, but heard about the house through word of mouth and the seller worked with someone we knew. When I moved to Texas, it was worth having a realtor. I was working and could only spare a few hours in them morning a couple days a week. They helped with a lot and even had someone helping me set up utilities, etc.

The woman who sold my house in Louisiana should have her license revoked. There was a special deal where once I had a buyer under contract, my company would buy the house and then sell to the buyer so that I could get the money without having to wait for them to close. They required certain repairs to be done and got the realtor to find a repairman. This woman tacked on a bunch of extras like trimming my bushes, pressure washing the house, and a bunch of other stuff on the order of a few thousand dollars worth of work to make the house easier to sell. All the while, it took nearly two weeks for her to put a sign in the yard. Asked me to come down on the price several times, again before the house was even online or had a sign up. Got a buyer after about a week and she was a dual agent, so couldn't help us with negotiating. After a lot of back and forth, she let it slip that the buyer was her son's friend. Bish tried to get me to do repairs and lower the price all while showing it to family friends. House sold in a little over a week!!! I wish I wouldn't have listened to a damned thing she said and put the price about 7k higher.

It is not a profession. Those of us here that are true professionals take offense.

Unneeded, worthless job. Parasites who couldn't / wouldn't invest time in real jobs.

(This is directed more at residential)

Stout knows what he's talking about...though phone time and walk-ins are nonexistent now.

All my leads are web-based or bought through Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com.

Though Trulia and Zillow will be gone in a few years.

As far as being an appraiser or surveyor, I've been both. I'd rather cash a $10,000 check than a $300 one. I also like the ability to market myself rather than wait on a bank to call me because I'm on a list. I was an appraiser. I wouldn't go back to that industry with all the crazy upcoming regulations -- like SSR -- for twice the money.

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Only the top 1% make money.

Source: Wife was a Realtor.

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Once you make a name for yourself, it gets much easier. My aunt is the breadwinner and lives in a $1MM+ house in Mandeville. She busted her arse and made her name selling cheaper houses, and now sells more expensive ones


There are very few elite, well known agents, but they do exceptionally well

I bought my first house in 2003 and found it on the internet.

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I bought my first house in 2003 and found it on the internet.

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Realtor.com has been around for a while but I am talking about agents using the net to find leads. I started in '02 when I was 22 and I was the only one in my area getting leads from the internet. There were whole offices that didn't even have an online presence and this was near Ft Polk where people are constantly moving from out of state. It just made little sense to me that other agents were waiting by the phone instead of getting leads before they ever came here but those agents were set in their ways and didn't know any different.

I thought realtors were worthless until we used a friend of ours for our recent purchase. It helps that we knew her already, but as a buyer's agent she made the process much easier.

She is extremely knowledgeable about the city and took us to anything we wanted to see on short notice. She lined up estimates for repairs on every house we got serious about and met them out there so we didn't have to worry about it. She did a lot of research about concerns we had (potential redistricting of a top elementary school, planned development nearby, etc.).

Now as we approach closing she's gotten us a ton of estimates for workers and companies she uses regularly and has helped us save a lot of money in finding good deals on appliances and other renovation items. It helps that her and her husband (my buddy) have good taste and turn over nice homes on the side, as whenever we went to see a property they immediately went to work telling us what we could do with it.

If you're in Louisiana and have any common sense you can do well. Just brokered sale and purchase for my parents there and the agents were awful. Pretty much showed one agent how her "the way I've always done it" was collusion and illegal.

Another agent team who knew I was a licensed agent tried every trick in the real estate book on my parents. Ballsy, but pretty funny.

If you're ethical you'll have a slower start but eventually be a top producer. Have 6-9 months saved unless you can get on with big builder/developer right out gate. If your inner circle doesn't want to use you for listing/purchase, ask if you can recommend an agent, do co representation, and split commission.

Made 14k my first year (2009) already have 65k closed or under construction in 2015. I'm in a very aggressive market.