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So....
Is the Real Estate brokerage industry the ABC Food Lion expose of the 21st century?
Primetime Live
"In the 1990s, Food Lion gained a degree of notoriety when it was the subject of an ABC News investigation. ABC had received a tip about unsanitary practices at Food Lion. Two ABC reporters had posed as Food Lion employees, and witnessed the unsanitary practices at Food Lion. Much of what they had seen was videotaped with cameras hidden in wigs that they were wearing. The footage was then featured in a segment on the news magazinePrimetime Live, in which Food Lion employees described unsanitary practices, which included bleaching discolored, expired pork with Clorox and repackaging expired meats with new expiration dates, and the use of nail polish remover to remove the expiration dates from dairy item packages.
The company responded by suing ABC for fraud, claiming that the ABC employees misrepresented themselves; for trespassing, because the ABC employees came on to Food Lion property without permission; and for breach of loyalty, the ABC employees videotaped non-public areas of the store and revealed internal company information. During the court battles between Food Lion and ABC, over 40 hours of unused footage were released that helped Food Lion's case. In the unused footage, two undercover producers are seen trying to encourage violations of company policy; however, employees resisted and correctly followed sanitary practices.[24]
Food Lion was awarded US$5.5 million by a jury in 1997. The award was later reduced by a judge to $316,000. The verdict was then overturned by the U.S. Court of AppealsFourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. According to the court, even though ABC was wrong to do what they had done, Food Lion was not suing for defamation, but rather for tort, as a way to get around the strict First Amendment standards for defamation. Food Lion did this, because at the time of the lawsuit they were unable to prove that ABC acted with malice, which would be required to prove defamation.[25]
An indirect result was that Food Lion ended up exiting the Houston, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex markets, which it had recently entered. The Dallas/Fort Worth market is highly competitive, and the stores were already being criticized for being too small and lacking the amenities desired by the local shoppers—for example, Food Lion did not include pharmacies in its stores."
Yes, and I noticed that one of the common scams is for the listing broker to keep the entire commission by not showing all the registered bids to the sellers. That's just the case I described as our higher bid was allegedly "rejected" and the home sold to someone else for $15,000 less. Gee, I guess I'm not imagining these things after all. And I guess they don't just happen to me.
Yes, and I noticed that one of the common scams is for the listing broker to keep the entire commission by not showing all the registered bids to the sellers. That's just the case I described as our higher bid was allegedly "rejected" and the home sold to someone else for $15,000 less. Gee, I guess I'm not imagining these things after all. And I guess they don't just happen to me.
NYC real estate is a whole other beast compared to the rest of the country. They don't have an MLS for starters so they don't have a set of rules like most other areas have. We don't register bids. It is state law to present them all. The seller is required to sign a copy of your offer indicating it was presented to them. Here you would know if your offer was presented to the seller. Unless the agent is forging the sellers signature.
Disclosure laws vary from state to state as well. Oregon doesn't have nuisance disclosure requirements nor dead people/crime requirements. Despite what Barbara Corcoran says she doesn't speak for all 50 states. She is in NYC.
I feel for the people in the flight path. They were relocation buyers and those buyers really need to have a good thorough buyer agent. That situation pains me.
The Oregon folks that bought the meth lab was discussed a lot here. If you googled the address the DOJ drug bust in 2010 at the address pops up right away. They were first time home buyers so they needed to pick good representation, but for a $30,000 home it is really hard to get good agents to go down that low without additional compensation. It wasn't hard to find out that it was a drug house.
I don't feel particularly bad for the people that bought a house by the transformer. I mean did they think the city wasn't going to add on as the city grew?
I'm not going to discount your experiences since real estate in your area is different, but realize that it is very different than real estate in most other places.
On the contrary, it tells me these other "buyers" are not that interested, if they are real buyers at all. As a result, I'll bid appropriately -- based on comps -- and not be scammed by an agent trying to drive up the price unnecessarily on a home that's been out there for an entire year.
Perhaps agents hate this because it cuts into their control of the transaction, but I encourage all buyers and sellers to get information on the other party, whether it is your buyer, a seller or, in rare circumstances, a competing buyer. The Internet is a wonderful resource for that. If you gain an understanding of the circumstances of the people with whom you're negotiating, including their motivation for making a move, it can be a huge plus. I found information on my buyers that was invaluable in helping me to move the transaction forward and agree on a fair selling price. For example, I was able to learn something about their source of income that allowed me to ignore my own agent when she claimed the buyers did not have a lot of money and were stretching to meet our price. Sure enough, after we signed the contract, they wanted to bring in architects to plan major renovations. They are clearly not as poor as the agent described.
I 100% agree with the part of your post I bolded. However, I don't think a buyer spending 10 minutes in a house vs 30 minutes and the dog perking up when they come in the door means squat. Knowing that a buyer makes $500K a year or that a seller just lost his job is useful information but this whole dog thing is ridiculous.
Why is your agent making judgements about how much the buyer can afford? What the buyer can afford is for the buyer (and their agent, lender, etc) to determine. When I represent the seller my job is to pump the buyer for as much money as possible. My concern is only that they can qualify for the loan or that they have the cash they say they do.
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Originally Posted by Sawdustmaker
WTF?
Appraisers and agents use extremely similar methods to quantify the value of a home.
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Originally Posted by Sawdustmaker
Knock it off. REA's are worried about putting food on their table. Used Car salesmen is what their rep is anymore.
Bad real estate agents worry about their paycheck. Good real estate agents know if you take great care of your clients your paycheck will take care of itself. An agent is not going to get referrals and repeat business from unsatisfied customers. These are the bread & butter of agents not picking up new clients.
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Originally Posted by Sawdustmaker
It's not YOUR 20% down, is it?
EXACTLY! I can think clearly because I'm not emotionally or financially invested in the transaction. When I was buying a house this summer I was soiling my fruit of the looms about the money I had put down, but the agent from my office that I asked to help me out talked me off the ledge and led me through the transaction in a smart manner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sawdustmaker
Who cares?
Clearly you don't. Thanks for being such a wonderful part of this conversation.
The OP and those with negative experiences from contacting listing agents with homes that are inappropriately priced are making an UNBELEIVABLY simple mistake -- the reason these homes are languishing is quite likely becuase the interaction between the seller and the listing agent is the MAJOR problem and trying to deal with either of them is NOT going to be productive.
Exactly! When I was looking 2 years ago, I made an offer on a basic home with no upgrades and a dirt yard which had been in the same condition for 8 years (the owner never lived there). My offer was 9% less than the asking price. The agent refused to consider my offer & refused to present it to the seller. The house is still on & off on the market. My realtor heard through the grapevine that the seller's agent has a reputation for being difficult to work with, and he recommended that I move on. I did. I bought the same exact model just around the corner from this house for asking price, but my house had upgrades & a landscaped yard. And it is on a better lot.
This paranoia about agents lying about multiple offers is so pervasive that buyers will often walk away from a property they want because they don't believe the other offer is real and they aren't going to "play games". I cringe when I have to tell a buyer that the other agent said there is another offer and we are to bring our best and highest. I've seen two buyers walk away from a deal because neither believed the other existed and the property remained on the market afterwards confirming in their paranoid minds that the agents were lying. That's one reason you might see a property still active after having multiple offers.
Interesting perspective. When I made an offer on my house, there were 3 other offers. The seller's agent came back with the request for your highest & best offer. I was not willing to budge on my initial offer and I wanted the house. Two years ago, I really didn't want to pay full asking price, but all the houses that were below <275K in my area, needed lots of work. I wanted as close to walk-in-ready, as possible. As it turned out, my offer was accepted. Even 2 years ago, competition was pretty stiff, but I think lots of people had the same idea as I, that they didn't want to pay full asking price. I'm so glad I stayed the course.
Yes, and I noticed that one of the common scams is for the listing broker to keep the entire commission by not showing all the registered bids to the sellers. That's just the case I described as our higher bid was allegedly "rejected" and the home sold to someone else for $15,000 less. Gee, I guess I'm not imagining these things after all. And I guess they don't just happen to me.
Glad you realized that you weren't "imaging" these things after all. For some, it is easier to attack somone's mental status than to take a look in the mirror and work towards self-improvement.
If commissions were removed from the entire real estate process buying/selling your largest life investment wouldn't require legal assistance just to protect yourself. I hope that 20/20 and others will continue to shine a bright light on the industry until change is achieved.
All the hopeful buyer can do is to study market values and offer what they think they would like to pay. Either you get the place or someone else does. Make your offer and beyond that, it is out of your control.
It is surprisingly common to have many offers come in at exactly the same time. Real estate works the same way as my cell phone. I can sit for 8 hours without a call and as soon as I get on the phone, i will get 2 "call waitings".
I had six (That's right. Count them. Six!) people contact me in a 5 day period and ask about buying a property I don't even have listed for sale. I don't know what the heck that was about, except that buyers come in clumps. No one has called me since about it.
Ha ha! Want a phone call? Just step into the shower or a bathtub. A phone that is silent for 8 hours is guaranteed to ring.
Glad you realized that you weren't "imaging" these things after all. For some, it is easier to attack somone's mental status than to take a look in the mirror and work towards self-improvement.
If commissions were removed from the entire real estate process buying/selling your largest life investment wouldn't require legal assistance just to protect yourself. I hope that 20/20 and others will continue to shine a bright light on the industry until change is achieved.
Did you even watch the 20/20 segment?
If so, why are you not thoroughly embarrassed to be pimping it publicly?
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