Are Real Estate Agents liars?

[Scooter]

Has any one had dealing with Real Estate Agents of recent times? We are looking at buying a house and we are getting different feedback from different agents. Some are saying the market is booming, other are saying it is slowing down.

I do think it is slowing as several houses are now sitting on the market for long periods of time. However I do also beleive that R/A's have a lot to answer for when it comes to listing houses, they will say it will get top dollar if you list through them as they have so many clients in that price range.

I am interested in any feedback on this one.

[8)]

[ari]

You are learning.....do your own homework. Try QV for much of what the agents can tell you https://www.quotable.co.nz/default.aspx

[willy_wonker]

Do you listen to your dog's advice on the housing market? If not, then why do you listen to realty agents?

I know for a fact that a number of realty agents buy and sell properties on their own behalf, benefiting themslves. Most realty agents are getting too arrogant these days. A sign that the property market has topped. I sold most of my property portfolio mid last year and got top dollar.

my 2 cents worth.

[coge]

The agents I know, some are scrupulously honest & others furnish you with both barefaced & documented lies.

Just varify what they tell you & choose your agents well.

There are innummerable mugs out there, don't let yourself become one.

[Awryly]

One thing I've noticed is that agents are employing a new tactic. I've had several flyers offering valuations on my property just to satisfy my curiosity about its value. I don't have to be in the market.

Where's the profit in that? Or is the strategy to give me a valuation so inflated I might be tempted to sell?

[zac]

After thirty years of involvement in the property market I have learnt that Real Estate agents may be useful in closing a deal but absolutely no use as a source of useful information. The nature of the typical agent is to tell you what you want to hear; repeat some self appointed pundit's view of the property market, or just make up stories to progress the deal. They live in the present, they work for the deal; they generally have no interest in trying to understand the dynamics of the market.

[OutToLunch]

Another sign that the market is topping out: the mass outbreak of those horrible auction/renovation/real estate programmes on tv, showing that everyone is piling in, whether they know anything or not. Reminiscent of the tea-party share clubs of the 80s... tread carefully! [:0]

[KJ]

Just sold 2 investment properties and bought a house to live in.

Real estate agents are supposed to be agents for the seller.However,first and foremost they look after themselves.It makes little difference to them if they sell your property for an extra $10,000-their commission on this extra is very little,in fact about $200.

I have found www.quotable.co.nz very useful.For a small fee there is information on recent sales in the area you are interested in,the market value of the property you are interested in,last sale price etc.

In the current market you need to be particularly careful about establishing what is a fair price as there is a lot of speculation going on.

[blockhead]

Scoot, if you are buying a house for yourself to live in you will have to make the purchase one day, you can wait until the market drops, and miss the boat maybe if it doesn't drop or you can buy something now which you can afford and then after that just don't look back.
If you are buying as an investmaent or punt on capital gain then I think that is rocky ground at the moment.

Whatever, only buy what you can afford, not what the Real estate agent says you can borrow.

Blockhead

[Scooter]

thanks for all the comments, I dont trust them, and there does seem to be cowboys around still hyping the market.

Will wait to see with eyes wide open

[Blinkey]

Well Scooter - they cant actually knowingly tell lies these days because they will be liable for the result. There are some things that they must disclose - Im not sure what, but there are some details like if there is any claim on the property.

Ive found that the most succesful agent is one that is working for themselves only - they make sales and generally the easiest sale to make is one at the lowest price !!

Some agenst are just great, others are lying rats.

You are buying which makes it a bit difficult to really find out whats going on and real values.

What I do when selling is to get several agents to give me an idea - but if you sell regularly you get lower commisiion rates so you do have to go with the same old agent, but you need a wider input.
When you finally agree on a figure, you must remember that the agents game is to slowly get it down so that it will sell easier. Dont worry !!.

When they come back with an offer that is close you say to the agent that you will agree to sell, but their commission has to drop by half the difference, and you proceed to start to sign the sell form.
Thats when youll find out if the agent is for real.

[Billy Boy]

Scooter
I dont trust most agents.
I have a friend who invests in property and he, when buying, advertises in the paper. Area , Sort, price, etc....He gives agents a short shift.
When selling, he puts a sign up with price and contact number, legal decription,etc etc and advertises. A foot note reads " any agents fees will be purchasers responsibility,"
When he makes a deal he says "get your lawer to contact my lawer." and if they dont have one then he gets them one.
cheers
BB

[Gryffyn]

Grain of salt. I don't believe they will tell bare-faced lies but so much is subject to spin and hype that you shouldn't rely on them for value judgements.

Buy what you will be happy in and can afford and in the long term it will be a godd decision. You have sold and are buying in the same market so no real worries.

[craic]

Land agents, in the residential market, around here come and go like flies. Housewives, retired policemen, disgruntled schoolteachers and others all have a go. Most get out after a few months or a year or two if they are persistent. Most don't know anything worth knowing. I have been taken through houses that had been sold and occupied by their new owners while the new owners were at work.
The best experience of all was selling the home of a deceased family member. The young woman land agent had left her card so we phoned her first. She came back, examined the place, did the computer thing on similar properties in the district and gave us a price that was 60% of the minimum I expected. Called another agent and got 100% of the price expected - yes I undervalued the place - within a week. Friend down the road was able to tell me that the young lady land agent was often in the area visiting a solo mum friend who rented just down the road and was looking for a place to buy. The discrepancy was too great to ignore so I complained to the manager of the well known company. He just passed my letter on to the agent concerned.

[$imon]

They are all shiesters! Use them for what you need them for, but don't believe a word. Most of them would sell their grandmother for a dollar.

Like most people selling something, look what's in it for them!

By the way, Willy your top dollar 6 months ago would probably pale in comparison to today's price.

I'm coming round to the concept of never selling as you only incur a whole bunch of exit costs that could be better used at a deposit on the next property!

The market is beginning to heat up again after a dead December. Mainly investors though so far as home buyers still can't come to grips with how much they are having to pay for a place to live.

Cheers
$imon

[trendy]

Real Estate Agents=Insurance Agent=Car Shark=Bottom feeding scum.

They tell big lies if they can get away with it, especially when they think you are overseas. Caught one out like this when we actually were in country on vacation.

Cavier Emptor :)

[willy_wonker]

The worst realty agent are the ones that trades properties on their own accounts. They would buy a good price property and then turn around in a few weeks and try to sell it for a profit. These are the sharks you have to watch out for. They will spill all sorts of stories to dump the property onto you at a ridiculous price.

Sad but true.

[ari]

quote:The worst realty agent are the ones that trades properties on their own accounts
Just like shares, once the news is out, it's usually too late and as you say with houses.....if it was any good the agent would have taken it or flicked it to an investor mate.

[srotherh]

This happened today
Had an agent call to offer listing a house for us.
Offered him general agency as told him we may also advertise it.
He said no sole agency he would not waste his time.
Did not want him to waste his time OR MINE so said that fine and showed him out. [^]

[Ted2]

Real Estate agents rate at the lowest of the scale by far.

1st saying they learn:
"I'm working for you"

1st thing they learn
"You're only working for yourself"

Too many examples of typical agent behaviour to note here but never - never ever feel sorry for one of them and never ever feel bad about trying to screw them down in commission.

Cheers

[Paddie]

A scummy bunch in my recent dealings with them.
They market a professional sales program, what a load of crap. The majority are low life, who even fight like hell with their colleagues to get a commission over the top of them.
They would make good sole cleaners for your shoes at the front of your house, then again, they would devalue your property.

Paddie

[David Renwick]

www.reinz.co.nz may be helpful & offer some objectivity. I found the stats useful when considering trends.

Take a minature tape recorder with you and tape every conversation. They will probally say they have nothing that willinterest you after first house they show you and find every word being recorded.

[The Doctor]

Theres that classic 'saying'--"if you can't get a real job,why not try real-estate!"

[pimpit]

Personally I have lowest amount of respect for Real Estate Agents.

look no further, there are fair bit of them taken to court after the housing boom we had....

[Scooter]

Nah, not yet as most list on there anyway.

Just tried selling my house through Ray White, and I will bever list with them again. Usless bunch of ......

[ari]

Yep not much U can do except rant & rave on here.
My recent experience (majority of houses in area up 30%) although mine was not one of them..cause agents talked it down to get people at auction. Auction gets to $632k and stalls and they say I would give some thought to reducing reserve.
House sold next day for $148k more.

[Winston001]

Hadn't seen this thread before but it makes interesting reading. Selling real estate is a cut-throat business with agents gazumping each other in the same office to get a sale. It is about the most self-interested job around because of the huge rewards - for some. However many agents only just survive so they are desperate to put a sale together.

If you find a good trustworthy agent - and they certainly exist - stick with that person.

What astonishes me is the commission rates which sellers agree to pay. In 1979 commission was 2.5%. By 1989 it was 3.5% and by 1999 4.5%. On top of that inflation meant the house values agents were dealing with quadrupled so effectively the real rate of commission rose by 700% over 20 years. And people pay it. [V] They are more likely to grumble about a $1000 legal fee that the $10,000 commission. Go figure.

There is no justification for these rates of commission. The reality is that more and more money is used for advertising to promote the agency. Auctions are the biggest agency promotion con of all because usually the seller has to pay for extra advertising.

[Scooter]

to true, how ever if you have a house of truely outstanding features, I would auction, but for th eaverage house, not worth it.

Agent fee is now 4% + GST which is 1%, so 5% all up plus listing fee.

[corwen]

I understand that the real estate cycle is 7 to 8 years long. Must
be pretty close to a top now. How far will it fall?

[warthog]

quote:Originally posted by corwen

I understand that the real estate cycle is 7 to 8 years long. Must
be pretty close to a top now. How far will it fall?


As far as it goes, of course.

Seriously, this is such a location-dependent question that unless an answer accompanies an area, it will be hard to conclude anything useful from it (if anything).

For example, houses/land in some areas of Auckland and Wellington will simply retain their value for the next 5-8 years, before starting to rise again thereafter.

[moe]

Some Property Management Companies (sometimes run by real estate agents) also charge a high commision for the work that they do, think it is normally around 7-8% of rent.

I rented a flat through one when i was studying. The flat was absolute filth, rotten food in cupboards etc when we went in, and they refused to come around saying the cleaners had already been through.
They failed to inspect the flat with us to point out previous tenants damage and didnt inspect at all throughout the year. Then had the cheek to blame us for the damage at the end of the year and witheld processing my bond refund.

I loss the plot with thim and suggested that they process the bond payment before i wrote a letter to the local paper or took them to the tenancy tribunal. Received the bond refund within a week.

Property owners probably have no idea about how little work some of these places actually do for almost a passive weekly income.

[limegreen]

Property Management companies can be extremely variable. I've heard of some who are *****to the extreme (like counting drawing pin holes -- they have an approximate figure for what they think a reasonable annual increase is), and do monthly inspections. Some are, as you say, extremely slack. I helped a friend sort out a case for the disputes tribunal. Oddly, the manager initiated the tribunal case, but then didn't turn up, and the evidence we collated suggested they were well in the wrong anyway. However, I wonder whether such a tactic would prompt most people to pay rather than defend themselves?

I used to rent from a fabulous lot, however. They rewarded good tenants (by not implementing an annual increase), weren't overbearing, maintained stuff, and renovated their flats to a good standard.

[Winston001]

quote:Originally posted by corwen

I understand that the real estate cycle is 7 to 8 years long. Must
be pretty close to a top now. How far will it fall?


10 - 15% perhaps but as Warthog says, it won't be across the board. Some places will hold up better than others.

In my opinion the cheapest houses won't fall a lot in value because there are always people willing to mortgage themselves to the hilt to buy a home. The largest pool of buyers is for lower priced homes - either for themselves or as an investment.

Today the banks began dropping fixed term interest rates. This will bolster the housing market to an extent. It is also a sign that borrowing is declining which means the banks need to entice new borrowers.

There will be a housing "crash" but it might be in slowmotion rather than overnight. Wait a year.

[small fish]

I have never dealt with agents myself but my friend has recently become one. He has been taken under the wing of a guy who makes a lot of money buying and selling properties through people who work for him. He told me of a situation where he was tendering an offer for a client well also tendering one on behalf of a mate and while there an ex-husband of possibly the largest seller in the city also tendered an offer. A little dodgy I would have thought.