Housing market in Asheville - my own opinion (sale, real estate market)

[PaintedLady]

Originally Posted by bburl100

When you do not have your own agent, it is very rare you'll get a call back from another agent. Why? Maybe because they really don't get paid for answering your questions (and may not be paid anyway).

For the most part, it is my belief that real estate agents need or want to paint a better picture than things really are. In order to do that (to stay alive in this farcey market), they will exaggerate or not respond or lie.

WOW! You must had some rough experiences with other Real Estate Agents and for that I am sorry. Please don't lump us all in one category.
** I am more than happy to help a buyer that does not have his or her own agent. I want to sell my listing. And......... if that does not work out I want to find the right property for the buyer and we keep looking until we do. I answer LOTS of questions, show homes, lots of behind the scenes stuff for FREE. And sometimes this process takes MONTHS.....so I work for FREE for Months. Of course I love when we do go to closing......... I have sold the home for the Seller and they are onto new beginnings......... the Buyer is very excited and happy with their new home ....I LOVE this equally to getting the $$ at closing. I love what I do. I LOVE being a REALTOR!
**As for exaggerating, not responding or lying........... again.......... not all of us REALTORS are like that, you must have had a bad experience. I do remain in Faith and Positive in this Market. You have to. Today is about surviving............ but lying, etc. is not a part of my survival.
**and............. I almost ALWAYS answer my phone right away, unless......... on my motorcycle, showering or sleeping. Phone rings = $$$

Donna LaConte (Realtor & Artist)

[The Mule]

Real Estate is one of those fields that drew a lot of people when the bubble was inflating. It is not the first field to do that. In 2006 you could shake the trees and real estate agents, developers and builders would fall out. Whenever that happens, be it in real estate, banking, financial planning, technology, or anywhere else that a bubble builds and a quick profit can be made, the snake oil salesmen pull up their wagons.

As a result, there are tons of folks with bad experiences and bad tastes in their mouths about the whole business. Unfortunately, even those who were professionals before the whole mess started, went about their business in the same responsible manner while the money was rolling in and were shaking their heads at the snake oil wagons pulling up in the good times get painted with the same brush.

[QuilterChick]

You're 100% correct Painted Lady. #1, an agent doesn't know when he/she gets a call whether or not the person calling already has an agent. That's a pretty lame reason to denigrate Realtors. #2, Even IF the person has a Realtor, he/she may be not be happy with that Realtor and could be looking for another. Also, #3, If they are calling on one of his/her listings, their buyer's agent may be sick or on vacation and they tell you they have a buyer's agent, we tell about our listing, get their agent's number and set up a showing. No harm done, no one who is ethical in this business steals clients. I had a guy once call me to list his house and I was out showing property, and came back in a little over an hour. My asst. took the msg. and when I called him back to set up the appt., he had already called back and got another agent -- in my office.

So you see, some people simply have no patience or common sense and want us to be sitting on the phone. Agents don't earn a living sitting by the phone in an office.

I figure the cost of each phone call at least around $25 when you figure in advertising, desk fees, and all. You'd have to be pretty dumb not to answer that phone, and even dumber not to return each and every call. l Or independently wealthy, in which case you should not be in the business.

[bburl100]

Originally Posted by PaintedLady

WOW! You must had some rough experiences with other Real Estate Agents and for that I am sorry. Please don't lump us all in one category.
** I am more than happy to help a buyer that does not have his or her own agent. I want to sell my listing. And......... if that does not work out I want to find the right property for the buyer and we keep looking until we do. I answer LOTS of questions, show homes, lots of behind the scenes stuff for FREE. And sometimes this process takes MONTHS.....so I work for FREE for Months. Of course I love when we do go to closing......... I have sold the home for the Seller and they are onto new beginnings......... the Buyer is very excited and happy with their new home ....I LOVE this equally to getting the $$ at closing. I love what I do. I LOVE being a REALTOR!
**As for exaggerating, not responding or lying........... again.......... not all of us REALTORS are like that, you must have had a bad experience. I do remain in Faith and Positive in this Market. You have to. Today is about surviving............ but lying, etc. is not a part of my survival.
**and............. I almost ALWAYS answer my phone right away, unless......... on my motorcycle, showering or sleeping. Phone rings = $$$

Donna LaConte (Realtor & Artist)

Hi, Donna:
I am sorry - I'm guilty of doing what I loathe others do. Yes, when trying to sell or buy, I've had a lot of bad experience. It continues here in Asheville. We've attempted to contact a few agents to get some simple questions answered about different homes. We met one nice agent who showed us a house. The others ... Well, our own agent that we finally got said even he doesn't trust some specific agents out there. We walked into a house that had a major mold/mildew problem. Our agent called the listing agent and was told many other people had walked through the house and did not mention any problem - she attempted to belittle us and our agent. The problem was obvious. Later, we were told the house was stripped down to the floor joists and there's nothing we can do about it except not buy the house. We feel bad for whomever gets the house - the current owners or future buyers.

I've done so many drivebys and found so many misrepresentations of the outside of homes. One was a chalet-like home by the Barkley farm and the deck on the bottom of the house had large planks of plywood covering the rotted lower deck. There was nothing in the ad that said TLC required. Flashing was also missing in the deck above, so the sides were rotting and bulging. The photo appeared to have been very touched up.

In my house up North (my parent died), I relied on the largest agents in the area to set a fair price on the house. Months passed, no hits. When we got there a few months later we saw how dilapidated the house had become. I fired the agent, fixed all of the problems and spent more money on having quality work done (my contractor was tired of hearing me repeat what I wanted done ) and put it back on the market. They didn't want to tell me about the problems because they were afraid they'd lose a customer. That's pretty insane.

I'm in my 50s and I have the stories to match it. I've had a couple of good agents in my life and granted, you seem like one of the better ones out there. Your job is tough, I know that. So, to you, I apologize.

To the rest of you folks, be careful out there. Based on what we're hearing out of Washington and the Fed. Res. it will get worse before it evens out. We're still looking but we're being very thorough.

[Shooting Stars]

Originally Posted by QuilterChick

I figure the cost of each phone call at least around $25 when you figure in advertising, desk fees, and all. You'd have to be pretty dumb not to answer that phone, and even dumber not to return each and every call. l Or independently wealthy, in which case you should not be in the business.

My frustration with people who don't answer their own business phones or return messages or don't even show up for appointments they have made, has never been an issue I have with realtors, except for the one I'm dealing with right now.

It's very prevalent in lots of businesses here in the mountains. And it's not limited to locals who were born here either. We've had some of the more crazy experiences with business owners who are newcomers.

Example: We were having a Christmas party at our house one year and wanted to hire someone to clean it beforehand. Called a local cleaning service and the woman who owned it (a newcomer) said she needed to see the house before she could give a price. She made an appointment with us and never showed up. I called and left messages. No answer. Finally I got her husband on the phone two days later and he said she fell down a few steps and was at the doctor's office waiting to see him. He had just gotten off the phone with her. So he said he'd relay our message to her and have her call us back to set up a new time. Never heard from her again.

Set up an appointment with a guy to give an estimate on a project. He never showed up.

Finding a trash pickup service was super frustrating. No one would answer their phone or return messages, even though they were advertising.

The two guys who moved us into this house disappeared half-way into the job and we had to finish it ourselves. I kid you not. Then they wouldn't answer their phone.

Sure, there are plenty of decent professional business people here. But that sort of thing happens so often that it's an undeniable pattern.

I am going to coin a term for this strange phenomenon. I'm calling it "Mountain Amnesia".

[QuilterChick]

Shooting Stars: were these service people referred by friends or neighbors that experience with them, or names chosen from the phone book. I did live out in a pretty isolated rural area at one time, and still never had a problem with service people ... because even though the neighbors couldn't be seen through the woods, they were very happy to refer reputable people. One thing is for sure here, service people sometimes have to travel a distance in between appointments, so the more notice you can give them, the better.

[Shooting Stars]

The guy we called to do a project was recommended by a neighbor who grew up here. He is a relative of hers. We never told her what happened because we didn't want to embarrass her as she is a lovely person.

The others were found via the Yellow Pages or newspaper ad.

None of the appointments was short notice and they were the ones who determined the day and time that was best for them.

As far as the ones who never return phone messages, maybe they are independently wealthy and just putting out advertising for giggles.

After 10 years here, eventually you hook up with good people, but sometimes you have to wade through a lot of BS to get there.

For instance, our trash pickup service is fine and we've had them for years now. But that's because they were the only ones who would return a freaking phone call.

I know one lady whose husband has been building quality houses here for 20 years. He is one of the few builders who is still busy. He entirely gave up on hiring help and does most of the work himself. He got tired of guys who would work for a few days and then literally disappear once they got paid. He has never been able to find workers he could depend on here. He could tell you stories.

Maybe it's worse over here in North Georgia. Maybe we just have a greater percentage of flakes who are attracted to living here.

[bburl100]

Originally Posted by Shooting Stars

...

I am going to coin a term for this strange phenomenon. I'm calling it "Mountain Amnesia".

Mountain Amnesia is cute and fortunately, we haven't had to use the term. When we first moved into our rental house, the dishwasher and garbage disposal were not working. The owner was overseas and told us to use a local dude for certain repair work. He also let us know the dude wasn't the most reliable and that was true.

But, the construction workers who had to fix the roof (we moved in after a major snowstorm struck that toppled trees in the driveway, the backyard, and the roof) were fabulous. The garage guy showed up on time and did a great job (the springs broke).

Gad ... on our first night actually in here, we closed the bathroom door with our dog in it and it locked from the inside. We were pretty panicky. We called a locksmith at night to get him over here and he told us how to get in and gave us the name of a guy closer to where we lived if we still had problems.

We use Metco near Mars Hill and they're so good. I brought my car in for a tune-up expecting a large bill. They said the spark plugs and everything else were fine and all they did was an oil change. It was astounding and this is one of the reasons I love it here.

While we were waiting to move in here, we stayed at a friend's house way out in Weaverville over on the Madison line. Their water pump froze (they were away) and we used Bolton because the number they left for us - a plumber in Weaverville - never returned our calls. I know they were busy but Bolton consistently came through. We will use them again if we ever find a house here .

When we lived in NY, we never had a problem with scheduling (except with Verizon for DSL ... when we switched to Optimum Cable, all our problems ended). If we needed a plumber, Luke was there (or told us when he would be). When we needed to get a water heater, Andy arrived promptly. The electrician showed up on time, too. So far, Asheville has been fine and I have even more great stories than that.

[Shooting Stars]

I have certain people I deal with that I know I can trust to do a good job. I have great people for car insurance, tires, lawn, car mechanic, dentist, etc ...

But It seems that every time I forget about mountain amnesia, I am treated to another dose of it. I'll never get used to the people who disappear off the face of the earth.



Hey, maybe this place is like the Bermuda Triangle!

[Asheville Native]

There are a very few services that need to happen now, otherwise chill out, after all you're special, just like everyone else on the planet.

The services that should be speedy?
Fire department
EMS
Law Enforcement,

and perhaps a heating contractor if it's zero outside