We feel the same about Realtors in our area...... South Georgia
I had hoped that the new year would bring a new clean slate and the old habits and evil tricks of bad Realtors would be gone. But no, same bad Realtors, same bad habits and evil tricks with new ones being born every day!
Realtors do not seem to get just what it is they are supposed to do. Realtors are not supposed to call the listing agent and ask how much their buyer should offer on their listing or offer a bonus on one of their over priced listings with the hopes of enticing buyer agents to sell it to one of their buyers just to get the bonus or tell other Realtors how much their clients will accept for their house.
The things I have had to put up with over the years just trying to do my job is simply pathetic. I ask myself why would a Realtor behave this way and the only answer I can come up with is "money" and that is extremely sad and so unfair to that Realtor's client who has no idea what their Realtor is doing behind their back. In general, money makes people do some evil things but it seems that the real estate industry seems to breed this type of behavior.
I recently had to put up with a Realtor trying to do everything within their power to ruin a sale for their client. They tried to make it impossible for me to get into the property so I could show it to my buyers and when that didn't work they then tried to sabotage the buyer's offer and when that didn't work they tried to hide the buyer's deposit and when that didn't work they tried to start trouble with me and when that didn't work they tried to create issues with settlement. This is a true story folks. I can't make this stuff up. The reason for all the sabotage? Because the Realtor wanted to "double pop" the listing (have both sides, buyer and seller) so they could keep all of the commission and not have to split it with me. The entire transaction was like a nightmare for me and I kept asking myself, is this worth it? But it's not just this Realtor, it's a lot of Realtors. I had another Realtor miss something in an Agreement of Sale and then lie to their client and say that the page was missing when they presented it to the client even though I had proof that every page was received.
It's hard enough now to get a buyer or seller to the settlement table with all of the new mortgage rules and guidelines not to mention finding new buyers who have the credit worthiness and funds needed to purchase a home yet alone, when a Realtor is doing things to deliberately ruin the sale yet more and more Realtors are doing exactly this and it needs to stop!
I had heard from a real estate attorney recently that 40% of Realtors got out of the business last year and so I was hopeful that that was the "bad" 40% and the only ones who would be left were the "good", "experienced", "ethical" Realtors but I was wrong.
I am so entirely disgusted over what goes on in the real estate industry that it just makes me sick which is why I write these blogs. Consumers should know what goes on behind the scenes. I owe it to the general public to bring awareness to the deceit and unethical behavior that plagues the real estate industry. It really does make all of us look bad.
My hope is that the level of experience and professionalism now needed to get just one deal done these days, will weed out all the trash one by one and if so, I say good riddance.
Renee Porsia is an expert real estate Broker with RE/MAX Action located in Maple Glen, PA. Visit Renee's popular real estate website at www.reneeporsia.com
