Real Estate Agent Recommendations (Cincinnati: for sale, mortgages, lawyer)

[ohtofl]

Hello! We are looking for recommendations for a good real estate agent. We want someone who is honest, aggressive, knowledgeable (specifically someone who is web-savvy and will use different sites & search engines for marketing/selling), and hands-on. What we don't want: someone who tells us what they think we want to hear, someone who isn't proactive, someone who isn't willing to take the time with us, someone who won't/can't use the internet as a primary means of marketing our home. We want a go-getter, a salesperson, someone who sells real estate for a living...not just on the side.

We are approaching our 6 month contract end with our current realtor. We've done everything we've been told to do, including dropping the price twice, and we can't seem to get people in our home. I understand that alot of it is the current market, but we also want a top notch agent who wants to make a sell. We are ready to sell; we are motivated. We need to make a change.

So, any suggestions? Feel free to send a private message. If you've had a good real estate agent, let me know!

[Wilson513]

It seems to me that there are listing agents and selling agents. There are only so many hours in the day and an agent with 50 listings will spend all of his time hand holding his sellers. So, even though you see a lot of signs with someone's name on them does not mean they will get your property sold.

Rather, a person who has concentrated in one neighborhood both as a listing and a selling agent is what I'd look for. Drive around your own neighborhood see who is listing in your neighborhood. Call the agent. Ask how many homes he has sold in that neighborhood where is was NOT the listing agent. Get the address of the sale and look it up on the Auditors web site to see if it was really sold. Call the buyer and ask if the agent did a good job.

All you will find here are the names of peoples' friends, agents recommending themselves, or, at the very best, a successful listing agent.

[ohtofl]

Thanks for the response. There are so many agents out there, which makes it hard to even figure out where to begin (again). We are currently using an agent who has another home listed in our neighborhood. Right now, we are the only two homes in the neighborhood for sale.

If anyone has any other suggestions or recommendations, please send them my way! Thanks!

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by ohtofl

Thanks for the response. There are so many agents out there, which makes it hard to even figure out where to begin (again). We are currently using an agent who has another home listed in our neighborhood. Right now, we are the only two homes in the neighborhood for sale.

If anyone has any other suggestions or recommendations, please send them my way! Thanks!

What neighborhood?

[kjbrill]

If you have any luck in getting a real estate agent to work for you, feel priviledged. You sign a contract with them and agree to pay a substantial commission. But they have only one objective in mind - make a sale. At the slighest provication they will divulge anything you have told them to a prospective buyer - incentive to sell, financial hardship, etc. I put them in the same class as used car salesmen. Sorry, but that is how I feel. Does anyone have something different to say - a seller who feels the agent actually worked in their best interest?

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

If you have any luck in getting a real estate agent to work for you, feel priviledged. You sign a contract with them and agree to pay a substantial commission. But they have only one objective in mind - make a sale. At the slighest provication they will divulge anything you have told them to a prospective buyer - incentive to sell, financial hardship, etc. I put them in the same class as used car salesmen. Sorry, but that is how I feel. Does anyone have something different to say - a seller who feels the agent actually worked in their best interest?

The Realtors' Oath:

"It is our job to make sure that a commissionable sale occurs whether it is in the best interests of the seller, the buyer or neither."

[joyeaux]

So much ugly about agents-- don't they only get paid when they deliver?

[Wilson513]

Us older folks remember a time when a good house could be bought for $15,000 and the real estate agent was a local guy with his office down the street who worked really hard to make that sale. He was a career person who was as concerned about his reputation as he was about getting his commission. His firm got maybe $500 for the effort. And, a lawyer prepared your contract and maybe charged you $75 plus $25 for the deed.

Today, the "realtor" is a corporation that employs every manner of unemployed characters, car sales persons, housemoms, bimbos, and self dealing investors as sales agents known as "real estate sales agents" who can sit in a classrom for a few days, pass a simple test and jump right in. The listing commission (no effort involved) for a good house will typically be around $12,000 and some entirely different person will sell the house and get another $12,000 for the effort (actual effort made).

The realtor will require a bevy of form contracts prepared by the local board of realtors that do a great job in protecting the realtor and not much else. And, your newest good friend, the real estate sales agent who has had a couple hours of classroom lecture on "contracts," sits right by your side to explain the complexities of 8 pages of boilerplate designed for the benefit of her boss and not for you. For example, the standard form requires that the commission be paid even if the closing does not occur. Most realtors will not enforce that provision, but, if the buyer refuses to close the seller is liable for the commission. And, if the sales agent gets herself sued because she fails to point out the sewerage plant at the rear of your property, guess who pays her attorneys fees and damages? Right, you do, right out of your pocket.

The lawyer still prepares the deed, for now $75, and, if you asked him to prepare the contract or review it he would charge a few hundred dollars. But, now the seller of a good house pays $20,000 or $30,000 for the services of a gal (or guy) who often until a short time ago was not employed in any capacity and whose effort may consist of nothing more than getting you to sign the listing contract and entering info about your house into the MLS.

Are there hard working well qualified real estate persons? Sure, but mostly they are not accessible to you because they manage offices of corporate realtors.

Ergo, the cynicism.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by joyeaux

So much ugly about agents-- don't they only get paid when they deliver?

Yes that is true, so why do you think they won't deliver under any circumstances. Working on behalf of the seller who hires them, what a joke. Just make the sale, so you get paid.

[rrtechno]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

...

Today, the "realtor" is a corporation that employs every manner of unemployed characters, car sales persons, housemoms, bimbos, and self dealing investors as sales agents known as "real estate sales agents" who can sit in a classrom for a few days, pass a simple test and jump right in. The listing commission (no effort involved) for a good house will typically be around $12,000 and some entirely different person will sell the house and get another $12,000 for the effort (actual effort made).

The realtor will require a bevy of form contracts prepared by the local board of realtors that do a great job in protecting the realtor and not much else. And, your newest good friend, the real estate sales agent who has had a couple hours of classroom lecture on "contracts," sits right by your side to explain the complexities of 8 pages of boilerplate designed for the benefit of her boss and not for you. For example, the standard form requires that the commission be paid even if the closing does not occur. Most realtors will not enforce that provision, but, if the buyer refuses to close the seller is liable for the commission. And, if the sales agent gets herself sued because she fails to point out the sewerage plant at the rear of your property, guess who pays her attorneys fees and damages? Right, you do, right out of your pocket...

Are there hard working well qualified real estate persons? Sure, but mostly they are not accessible to you because they manage offices of corporate realtors.

Ergo, the cynicism.

I've never been anywhere that deserves a wholesale criticism of the population. - wilson1010, 12-15-2009, 09:58 AM - Cincinnatians: Rude, friendly, or average?

I'm sorry you have apparently had poor experiences with real estate agents. I am also sorry that you are choosing to lump the majority of agents into the "undesirable" category. There are many hard-working agents out there who will go out of their way for their clients.

As for all those forms that you are saying the realtor is requiring, many of those are standard forms that are required by the state or federal commerce departments. And many of the items in there are negotiable. Read your contract before you sign it.

Those $12,000 plus another $12,000 commissions you are talking about is the normal commission for a house in the $400,000 range. I hope that if I ever get in a position where I can afford a house like that, I will not begrudge that compensation to someone who handles its sale. As for the other prices you quoted as remembering, those were probably from about the time when I was making $7500 a year or before.

Are you aware of the new regulations that have gone into effect for lending agencies in home mortgages? I'm not. Are you familiar with the various zoning regulations that vary from township to township and city to city? I'm not. Are you able and willing to adjust your schedule to meet with the client who needs to discuss their situation before they go to work at 7:30 as well as the ones who are only able to view properties after 7:00 in the evening? I don't know how long I could do that.

I am not a real estate agent, but I have had dealings with a number of them over the years. A few were not very good, but most of them have been excellent. To make broad generalizations that nearly every agent in the field does nothing to aid the seller (or the buyer) is, IMO, a very questionable practice.

The OP asked for recommendations on good realtors. I hope he was able to find some.