Leeches?
Wow. I just read this on Acid Rain. Looks like another used house salesman is about to change careers.
Here is another…if you don’t come to this one with a prequalified loan and are ready to buy a house, don’t “waste” her time. LOL
Jeez…what do these ungrateful buyers expect for $8,000.00 plus of the sale price going to the salesman, anyway?
Both agents are right on. They work off commission and don’t have the time to waste on people that don’t wanta play the game by the rules.
I’ve seen some very loosy-goosy agents, go show buyers bunches of houses on a whim cause the buyer MIGHT be interested, ONLY to find out after looking at 3-5 houses they’re NOT qualified.
And then, of course, every real estate salesman should “fire” a seller who does not cooperate. LOL
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[FONT=Verdana]So there you have it. Once you hire an agent…you work for them. Got it?[/FONT]
Agreed, if a client will not get prequalified for a loan, they are just wasting the Realtor’s time.
I had a lady a couple days ago ask if I can get paid at closing. To me, unless the loan required it which it did not (USDA Direct Loan), she was a waste of my time. I am not going around later trying to collect monies owed if her deal goes south. I do not care what her Realtor said about inspectors can wait until closing to get paid. I got to know the Realtor as honest and trust worthy before I will let that happen, so I seldom accept payments at closing.
I have fired several of my clients just these last months.
Had on an apartment management company not listen to what I said and screwed up a mold remediation job. He then had his secretary call me and said I will only get half of what was owed. He called me later and I had a few choice words for him. He agreed to pay the money owed, but vowed never to do business with me again. So I thought I solved this headache but he called me a few days later and asked what he should do. I told him the same thing I told him before. He said I do not want to do that. I than gave him the name of my competition and said you need to talk to this guy, he will give you what you want.
Had a big developer who had a mold problem in one of his office buildings. I told him what needed to be done but he wanted to make short cuts. He tried to dedicate what was going to be done. I told him you need to think long and hard about doing it your way; maybe think about for a good year or so before giving me a call and asking for anymore help. I think he got the picture when I walked out the door.
There are a lot of people out there that think they can always get something for little or nothing. I hate it when inspectors bend over and do inspections for $200; all they are doing is hurting themselves and our industry. When we act and do as professionals, we should get paid like professionals.
Those who accept low, cheap, whining clients who want inspections under $200 are not professional, IMO. Inspectors should walk away from these buyers. If they do not have enough money to pay your fee, they should not be in the market to purchase a home.
I don’t think that a person exploring the possibility of investing in a new home is necessarily obligated to go through the “prescreening” process for financing just for the privilege of having a commissioned salesperson spare him some of their “valuable” time.
When I drive past a car lot and decide to stop and check out a vehicle of interest … I would laugh and walk away from the commissioned salesperson who insisted that I “prequalify” for a loan before allowing me to sit in and/or test drive the vehicle.
The salesman is not selling his “valuable” time. He is selling a house and the seller is paying for that “valuable” time to the tune of 7% to 8% of the value of his home.
If I knew, as a seller, that I had hired an agent that was turning away potential buyers in the interest of saving his “valuable” time…I would provide him with even more “valuable time” by firing him. I would then find one who sold houses instead of time. That “valuable” time has already been contracted for by the seller and the salesman’s decision to dole it out to only “worthy” buyers is cheating his client, IMO.
But that’s just me, I guess. If I were a part of the real estate sales establishment I might feel differently…but I’m not, so I don’t.
So do you accept payment at closing?
Nope. I have no financial interest, at all, in the outcome of the sale.
So you want to help insure you get paid for your time?
The same reason why Realtors want buyers to be prequalified. That and their client’s offer taken seriously by the seller.
I have never had a problem with any of my clients being able or willing to pay at the time of the inspection and prior to their report. Nor have I ever had the need to “prequalify” them.
Sellers are paying for the real estate salesman’s time. The seller is entitled to whatever time that salesman must spend to sell his house, IMO. It is no longer the “salesman’s time” once he has put his hooks into 8% of what the seller will get for his house. His time belongs to the seller and if he is unwilling to provide it…he should find another profession, IMO.
Putting a sign in the yard…and sitting back and waiting for a prequalified, “motivated buyer” to make his way into their office is NOT worth 8% of the sale price of a house.
The number 1 thing that Agents say about or to buyers that I’ve heard and overheard
Is that the inspection process is taking too long. I hear about this once a week.
Is 3+ hours for a 3000 sf house really that long? I don’t think so.
Anyway, just recently I was at an inspection that the agent had referred me to the buyer at.
The agent made a comment to the buyer that the inspection was taking a bit too long, and to “Let Tim do his job”. Well low and behold, there were NUMEROUS defects… I found out the buyer threw in the towel on the house and the AGENT. If a buyer is endlessly nit picking and spending 10 minutes talking to me about a hole in the wall where a towel rack was ripped out… that’s too much and I applaud an agent who is willing to “Do some heavy lifting”… I really do!!
Awkwardly enough, I am doing another inspection for the buyer (who later expressed that she felt “rail-roaded”) next week. She told me that she felt like they didn’t even want to request for any repairs… the Furnace and AC were junk, the plumbing had a slab leak @ foundation from Hot Water and a list of Lil stuff.
Anyway, she found a new agent and a new house… I retained her as a client, my referral source lost her, needlessly so IMO. The house Killed the Deal all on it’s own, which sucks for the Agent… sure. At the same time, make some requests and go from there without wasting a whole bunch of time on a dying sale. But… to make the client feel like the inspection was an inconvenience? That is NOT a self serving approach. And… I hear that as a common complaint from buyers.
You get an email like "Thanks for the GREAT JOB Tim, I was so pleased with your inspection and we’re still excited about the house. I’m SORRY about the way my agent STOOD OVER YOU EVERY SECOND… we didn’t know him/her and won’t be doing business again.
And according to the buyer… it was all because the agent felt the buyer was taking too much time and making the inspection last a bit longer.
I mean… if the inspector is willing to calmly and patiently go over several major components and their defects so that the buyer understands what’s going on… that’s bad? Naaah… it’s not. That’s what I get paid for 
Do I agree with some long-winded overly-informative wind bag that wants to talk AT LENGTH about “Tips and BS”… no, you didn’t get hired to play a TV Host doing a home inspection, do your job and move on. But, you need to do your job as well.
I hit the Treadmill for 2 miles a few times a week and can tackle a couple 2 story homes a day without breaking a sweat :).
Majority of the time the house is not sold by the listing agent. Think about it before responding!
The next time an agent shadows over you, you slow down really slow. Usually the agent will get mad and stump away. Then there is no more agent to deal with. If that does not work, when the buyer asks how things are going just tell him if you can get your agent to stop trying to hurry me up, I can go a better inspection. That works really well. The first one is funnier though.
Thanks James. Great tip. In God we trust and no waiting till closing. I am getting a first hand look at agents now.before worked for friends and clients that I worked for.
Its wild wild west I see.
I have considered…and stand by my post.
Realtors are not going to show the house they have listed because somebody is not qualified. They will not show a bunch of houses that are not their listings to somebody who is not qualified. It is well known among Realtors that you do not bring a contract and tie up somebody else’s listing unless the buyer is prequalified. Most seller’s will refuse a contact now days if the buyer is not prequalified. It happens all the time. Even during the years of easy financing I did not except a contract on any of my own houses, unless I talked to the lender directly. After you have some lying buyers claim to be prequalified for a loan, you will understand.
Exactly, and even when they are they’re not going to waste valuable time writing offers that will tie-up a listing before making sure the potential buyer(s) can afford it.
Here is what I understand.
Most real estate salesmen are part timers. Real estate sales is something they do “on the side”. I read complaints from brokers all the time on Active Rain lamenting about how their part time agent is a full time nurse or other such profession, working twelve hour shifts, and are rarely available to assist their clients. When these part time agents are excluding potential buyers because of their valuable “time” … they are committing fraud against the people who contracted with them, IMO.
A bunch of people who are crying about working in a depressed industry where housing sales are at an all time low - and where one must now sell two houses to make the same commissions that they made selling one house five years ago - are conserving their “valuable time”. If not for selling houses, then what are they saving it for (other than to rest up before going back to work at their full time job at the hospital or the plant)?
Anyone with a Facebook account with real estate salesmen connected to it could get rich if they got a nickel for every Mafia Wars or Farmville or other silly game invitiation, update or request that the agents are spending hours in playing on line during their working hours…while saving “valuable time” avoiding certain buyers who might waste it. Between on line games and blogs where they whine about how terrible lenders are, how much “valuable time” can be left?
If the market was buzzing with buyers and they had more than they could handle…their “valuable time” would, indeed, be valuable. Right now, instead of bad mouthing potential buyers for not meeting their ideal profile…they should stop using their blogs to whine and start selling some houses. That is what the seller is paying them to do.