Realtors are abandoning a listing ship - Los Angeles Times: "Experiences like these are leading some to wonder whether Realtors may soon go the way of travel agents. Already weakened by the sour housing market, the profession faces increasing challenges from Internet-based services that help people save thousands on a home purchase."
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Some would say that this proves every cloud has a silver lining.
3 comments:
Some Realtors decided that the reason the phone isn't ringing is because Hollywood is out to get them... So they sued:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-csi-realtors23-2009may23,0,964767.story
IF they wouldn't so grossly overcharge for their services, perhaps people wouldn't go so far out of the way to avoid them. US realtors typically take triple the commission of their British counterparts. And that was true even ten years ago before the British housing market went nuts.
Although there are surely some decent professionals out there, the profession seems to be filled with a lot of bad ones.
The information provided by listing agents is often rife with errors and material omissions and they expect to hide behind ubiquitous disclaimers. Perhaps particularly pertinent to this website, Realtors often can't provide information about the most significant defect in the property - whether the property is burdened by an HOA. Try asking a Realtor to search for "non-HOA" property and see what you get. In many places, Realtors try to hawk HOA property and downplay and/or conceal the risks of purchasing in an HOA. Their comment is always, "if you don't like it, then move" which of course results in significant transaction fees for the buyer/seller for the benefit of the Realtors as a group.
For years, NAR and all the local realtor boards have thrived by controlling and withholding the information available to consumers using systems such as MLS. Now that the information is being made available, traditional Realtors are losing what appeal they may have had.
Another problem with using Realtors is all the agreements that you become bound by that are not part of your contract with your Realtor. For example, you cannot limit showings to a Realtor that you trust with your property because the local boards require Realtors to allow any Realtor to have access to property listed by any other Realtor. The problem for the seller is that it means that you have to open your house up to Realtors that you simply don't trust and there are plenty of unscrupulous or conveniently ignorant Realtors out there to be wary of. If you don't want to open your home up to their guests, what are your options? - avoid the Realtor.
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