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First of all, since there are so many Realtors, you GET to choose one you like. Why would you hire someone you don't even like?
Because they are ALL like that. I have NEVER had a realtor who took my wishes seriously. I am ALWAYS VERY VERY clear about what I do and do not want and what I will and will not accept. It doesn't make a dent. I've been VERY clear here and I'm getting the same old obnoxious attitude and lip. I wasn't actually asking REALTORS opinions - I was looking for responses from buyers who've been through this as well. I haven't read all the responses here yet, so maybe there are some realtor-responses that are NOT obnoxious. Yours is not among them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nobodysbusiness
Once you find a Realtor you like, hopefully they will sit down with you and find out what you want AND what your budget is. I am guessing they might have shown you the home with 13 cars because maybe it was only one of the ones available in your price range.
Guess again.
I like your backhanded swipe at my economic bracket, too. Yup, I am not looking for a McMansion and your commission is going to be less because I have no liking at all for expensive homes. Get over it. If you don't want to sell moderately priced houses, don't list them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nobodysbusiness
As for gray paint - how can a Realtor prevent that? That's kind of crazy that you can't grasp that you might have to paint walls if you don't like the paint color. Same with flooring. Again, if you only want to look at new homes or turn-key homes, then tell them that - if there are none of those in your price range, tell them you don't want to look at anything that doesn't have your specific requirements, and you might not be looking at anything!
Good luck!
I did not ASK for a realtor to "prevent" that. It isn't ONLY grey paint I find objectionable, but also things like BLACK KITCHEN CABINETS and granite countertops. I do not want those things. I EXPECT a realtor NOT TO SHOW ME a house with a major feature I have already TOLD them I WILL NOT accept. When you go into your sales spiel about how wonderful grey paint is and it is freshly painted (usually at the behest of a realtor) - this has NOT enhanced the value of that house for me. I WILL have to PAY someone to paint over all that hideous brand new paint. Or when you start gushing about the wonderful granite countertops that I just want to take a sledgehammer to, you're not getting into my good graces.
When you encourage the seller to do something like that, don't be surprised when it backfires on you. IT IS A DETRIMENT to the house. A negative. Something that will cost me more to correct. And the higher the price of the house, the less willing I am to put any extra money into it. What I will accept in a house listed at 70k is totally unacceptable in a house priced at 120k. Sadly, the 120k house is EVEN MORE LIKELY to have had unacceptable "updates" done to it that I will just have to pay to have undone.
It is kind of crazy that you can't grasp that. Neither can most other realtors, sadly. And you have demonstrated yet again why realtors are obnoxious.
Why aren't you taking a more active role in selecting the homes you want to look at?
The days when a Realtor takes you out looking at homes that are a complete surprise to you are LONG over.
No, they most definitively are not. I DO give them a list, with the admonition that other properties they may choose to show me should be along the same lines. I still get dragged to half-duplexes with crappy falling apart cabinets and ridiculous closet doors that are nailed shut.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook
Since you made this post, I can assume you have a computer and access to the internet. Ask your Realtor to send you listings in your email and YOU look through the pictures and talk them over together and YOU decide which you want to see.
That's how we usually do it.
We are not mind readers... the good news is, it's never been easier for you to take an active role in your own home search, too. We learn more and more about our clients the more homes we look through, but sometimes you all surprise us, and you like something we never could have predicted.
Apparently the ones I've been dealing with are not only not mind readers, they don't understand plain English. Which part, I wonder, of "I don't want to see a duplex" translates in their minds to "I'll just drag her over to this crappy duplex where you can't even find parking on a normal day and maybe she won't notice that it has absolutely none of the features she wants".
I am VERY clear about what I want and don't want. I am nothing if not BLUNT. I don't sugar coat. I don't beat around the bush.
And I don't trust pictures. When a realtor springs something ridiculous on me I guarantee you it is because they cherry picked the pictures they chose to show me. YOU KNOW the pictures online are almost always cherry picked as well. Pictures are not to be trusted. Personal inspection is required.
I understand what you mean. However I have never used an agent to find me properties. I see something either in person or in an internet search that I like and ask to see that. I would never allow an agent to select properties for me to view.
It is kind of like buying a wedding dress, I would not allow the consultant to select dresses for you to try, I would be out there selecting what I liked to try on. Same idea.
For real estate I may or may not hire a buyers agent, never used to exist when I started looking, but now I probably would, though now that I think of it I did not use one for the retirement house I am in now, found it online when I was living in CA and house is in WV. Sent husband to WV to inspect house there and made offer to the seller's agent the same day.
I do the same thing. I give them a list of addresses. I give them a list of things I absolutely will not accept, and another list of things I absolutely must have, and the last list (the only one that is longer than maybe 4 or 5 items) is a list of things I like. I don't know how I could be any clearer.
And yet I still get dragged to properties that are overpriced, full of "features" on my hate list, lacking any of the features on my "love" list, and with very few of the "like" features either. Then they try to give me the hard sell, about how wonderful this house that I don't care for at all is, and how much it will appreciate in value, and how much money the current owner spent "fixing" it. Then I get a lecture on home design, the implication being (on those rare occasions where they don't just come right out and say it) that I have no taste and therefore MUST defer to THEIR taste and advice. Because they are the professionals. You couldn't prove it by me.
My son insists I use a buyer's agent. That's fine - as long as they understand they are working for ME, picking out a house to MY taste, and drop all the nonsense about trusting their judgment when it comes to the features *I* want in *MY* house. The ONLY job I want a realtor to do is keep me apprised of the legal issues around buying a house and making sure the contract is properly drawn up. Dealing with the other realtor. I do NOT want a critique of my "taste" in houses and interior design.
I wonder what the responses would be if she'd said "neighborhoods that are too Black"?
Past that, we haven't bought a house for over 30 years but have looked periodically. We never had an agent show us a house that was much outside our parameters except for small things like 2.5 baths instead of 2.
I'm white. That doesn't mean I want to live in a neighborhood full of bigots. Any neighborhood that is mostly white is full of bigots. I'm not living there.
And people DO say neighborhoods are "too black". They usually come up with better weasel words than that, but they still do it. And I won't deal with a bigoted realtor, either. I once met my realtor at a house my husband and I (when I was still married) were interested in and we came from work. There I was. There my realtor was. There was the seller's realtor. My ex was a few minutes late. The seller's realtor started in about how "exclusive" the neighborhood was and how they worked "so hard to keep the wrong elements out". Because you don't want any of "them" moving in to the neighborhood and lowering the property values!
(BTW, our realtor was visibly cringing while this was going on).
So I should rest assured, this was a clean neighborhood full of people like me (I guarantee you it was not) where my children would be safe and everyone shared my values (I guarantee you they did not) and on in that vein. She got as far as "there is only one black family in the ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD" - and then my ex, a dark South Indian who had a Sai Baba afro, beard, and mustache at the time and is generally just a very very hairy guy, walks in. She goes over to him making shooing motions, I kid you not.
I introduced my husband, told him we weren't interested not only in the house but the entire NEIGHBORHOOD, and walked him out to the car.
So yes, there are lots of neighborhoods that are definitely too white and I have no intention of living in one. I don't want my son getting stopped and harassed every time he drives over to see me. Not to mention wanting my grandkids NOT to be exposed to the kind of bigotry my son had to put up with.
You are welcome to live there me-free.
Last edited by Pyewackette; 01-30-2019 at 11:45 PM..
My economic bracket has been assumed to be "low" in a pejorative way.
My desire for diversity in the neighborhood is put down as a ridiculous obsession.
I am called a liar when I state that I have experienced discriminatory actions on the part of some realtors (not mine, I weed those out immediately, but seller's realtors over whom I have no control).
My off-handed mention of one criteria for something I HATE in a house is belittled.
I am blamed for not being able to control the impulses of the realtors I HAVE had to work with.
And I am told I can like it or lump it, either put up with a realtor who won't hew to MY wishes or do without any realtor assistance at all.
Not a single person had anything actually constructive to say and only ONE person was even sympathetic (for which I am grateful).
This is exactly why I don't like dealing with realtors.
Last edited by Pyewackette; 01-30-2019 at 11:42 PM..
I caught that too, but only thought "LOL, how can a neighborhood be "too white"?" But maybe the buyer is a person of color who would feel more comfortable with a shared culture, who knows. On the other hand, they could be someone who places an inordinate value on having "diversity". Personally, I never understood that point of view, I'm way more concerned with things like crime, appreciation, taxes, services, etc.. Discrimination is not always a bad thing, it's what keeps you from eating green bologna and trying to kiss strange Dobermans on the nose.
There is no such thing as an "inordinate value on diversity".
Period paragraph.
Eating "green" bologna, trying to get friendly with an attack dog, and knowingly moving in to a neighborhood rife with bigots are ALL things I know better than to do. Clearly our values are very different. When it comes to where *I* am going to live, my values trump yours.
You don't appreciate my values? Fine. I could not care less. But my realtor had better take them seriously.
Last edited by Pyewackette; 01-30-2019 at 11:40 PM..
I do the same thing. I give them a list of addresses. I give them a list of things I absolutely will not accept, and another list of things I absolutely must have, and the last list (the only one that is longer than maybe 4 or 5 items) is a list of things I like. I don't know how I could be any clearer.
And yet I still get dragged to properties that are overpriced, full of "features" on my hate list, lacking any of the features on my "love" list, and with very few of the "like" features either. Then they try to give me the hard sell, about how wonderful this house that I don't care for at all is, and how much it will appreciate in value, and how much money the current owner spent "fixing" it. Then I get a lecture on home design, the implication being (on those rare occasions where they don't just come right out and say it) that I have no taste and therefore MUST defer to THEIR taste and advice. Because they are the professionals. You couldn't prove it by me.
My son insists I use a buyer's agent. That's fine - as long as they understand they are working for ME, picking out a house to MY taste, and drop all the nonsense about trusting their judgment when it comes to the features *I* want in *MY* house. The ONLY job I want a realtor to do is keep me apprised of the legal issues around buying a house and making sure the contract is properly drawn up. Dealing with the other realtor. I do NOT want a critique of my "taste" in houses and interior design.
You’re missing the point.
You can’t say your son insists and then say he has no part of it.
You can’t say you search your own properties out, then talk about the list you provide.
If you want legal advice, you use an attorney, not a realtor.
Seriously. The internet has made it easy for people. Search away, find some homes, schedule your viewings ON YOUR OWN with the listing agent. You’re building mountains out of molehills here.
There is no such thing as an "inordinate value on diversity".
Period paragraph.
Eating "green" bologna, trying to get friendly with an attack dog, and knowingly moving in to a neighborhood rife with bigots are ALL things I know better than to do. Clearly our values are very different. When it comes to where *I* am going to live, my values trump yours.
You don't appreciate my values? Fine. I could not care less. But my realtor had better take them seriously.
Legally. They can’t. It’s actually the real, legitimate, law.
You can’t say your son insists and then say he has no part of it.
You can’t say you search your own properties out, then talk about the list you provide.
If you want legal advice, you use an attorney, not a realtor.
Seriously. The internet has made it easy for people. Search away, find some homes, schedule your viewings ON YOUR OWN with the listing agent. You’re building mountains out of molehills here.
Yes I can. Though that is not actually what I said. It's close enough.
What I said was I expect the buyer's agent to deal with me and not with my son. Whether or not I take his advice on OTHER ISSUES is beside the point.
I can say anything I want. Your inability to UNDERSTAND what has been said is not my responsibility.
Giving the realtor a list is only half the process of house hunting. Realtors are always going on about how buyers must use them because they can show us more than just the houses that make it to a posting on the internet (and not all houses get listed online, either). Using a realtor is supposedly advantageous because they can guide us to new listings, houses that haven't been listed yet, etc.
And I DO expect the realtor to guide me through the legal process of getting the contract written up properly. THAT IS THEIR JOB.
Realtors lecture over and over again about how home buyers who don't go through a realtor are idiots because of all the protections and wonderful help a realtor gives. Either that is true, or it is not.
In any case NONE of that has anything to do with what I asked - which is HOW the HECK do you get a realtor to pay more attention to the wishes and desires of the BUYER instead of trying to sell me on junk I don't like and don't want.
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