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Sorry if I came off obnoxious. Its just disconcerting to read the continual bashing of realtors. If you can't trust your realtor to recommend someone who can help you, why use that realtor? Unfortunately, some realtors have given the industry a bad name.
Your realtor wants the transaction to close, so they should be recommending a good lawyer who they have worked with before and know they can do a good job.
Key phrase bolded. My response - Or your realtor wants the transaction to close so they offer up a McLawyer who does multiple closings and doesn't give each one personal service that may see a potential problem in the closing, trying to push stuff through as fast as possible.
In the most important transaction of your life, you should get independent opinions, from a multitude of sources. I don't know my real estate agent any better than I do a messageboard poster on the internet. I don't know where she lives, what she does, if her interests are like mine. So it's within someone's right to get independent advice.
And for what it's worth, the only reason I stuck with my real estate agent even though she was worthless is that I didn't want any potential litigation of her wanting a cut of the commission screwing up the deal.
Unfortunately, i went with the realtor recommended lawyer who had the 100 dollar coupon... That mistake cost me 300 bucks when we didn't close in time and had to pay more to keep the low mortgage rate. I would take both the consideration of a TRUSTED lawyer and the opinions of forums and friends before making my decision next time. beware the coupon lawyers!
I don't know my real estate agent any better than I do a messageboard poster on the internet.
Well you should know your agent before using them. Their credentials, experience, areas of expertise, etc should all be considerations when choosing an agent. I can't argue about other realtor's ethics when recommending lawyers, home inspectors, etc, I can only speak for myself. I recommend who I think will represent them best. Often I give multiple references to my client because sometimes personalities or ways of doing business don't match up.
Well you should know your agent before using them. Their credentials, experience, areas of expertise, etc should all be considerations when choosing an agent. I can't argue about other realtor's ethics when recommending lawyers, home inspectors, etc, I can only speak for myself. I recommend who I think will represent them best. Often I give multiple references to my client because sometimes personalities or ways of doing business don't match up.
Yeah, well, the problem was, we met her at an open house, she showed us three houses, and we bought the third.
Essentially, it was like getting a one-night stand knocked up. You're screwed and you have to see the thing through.
I'd have to agree with Kevin. We took the time to establish a rapport with our realtor. She drove us around 5 different towns to get us familiar with the area. And she sells million dollar houses, she doesn't have to spend that much time with us when we're buying for 400-450K. She really made an impression and we'd refer her to anyone. If she suggest anyone to us we'll do our part but we would think highly of the recommendation. A good realtor wants to close the deal and wants your referrals so they'll take the time to do what it takes, including good recommendations.
So I am just curious, in what way was she a bad agent? Sounds like she didn't have to do much work since you only saw 3 homes.
The main thing that sticks out is requesting a copy of the HOA rules before we got out of attorney review because I wanted to make sure the HOA didn't have any crazy rules like no DirecTV dishes or no parking on the street at night or anything like that. I've heard enough horror stories about HOAs.
She refused outright and said, "Oh, you'll get the rules at closing." And I explained to her that I wanted to see them NOW. She refused, so I finally went over her head to the HOA. When she found out, she got pissed, because she said I was "insulting the owners".
She pushed back constantly on every request I had, got annoyed when I used my own inspector and lawyer, and then didn't even show up to the closing "because she had another closing to go to."
She put in about 2-4 manhours of work into my transaction. That was it.
And before you say "I don't know what it's like to be an agent", I was licensed in three states several years ago for a job. She, from a customer service angle for first time buyers, was f'n laughable.
I'd have to agree with Kevin. We took the time to establish a rapport with our realtor. She drove us around 5 different towns to get us familiar with the area. And she sells million dollar houses, she doesn't have to spend that much time with us when we're buying for 400-450K. She really made an impression and we'd refer her to anyone. If she suggest anyone to us we'll do our part but we would think highly of the recommendation. A good realtor wants to close the deal and wants your referrals so they'll take the time to do what it takes, including good recommendations.
Uh, did you even read the reason why we stuck with her?
I was the one who found the house, but because she opened the door to the place and showed it to us, she was entitled to the commission.
This wasn't a high-end agent. She was running an open house on a 2BR condo when we met her.
Sorry you had such a bad experience. You didn't have to stick with that realtor. She perceived you as an easy sell. You can report her to the licensing board. I would encourage you to do so.
You also made the mistake of using the seller's realtor, if she was the one running the open house. NEVER do that. Always find your own realtor to represent your interests, not the seller's. Dual agency is always a terrible idea. Would you use the seller's lawyer?
Rhys
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