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Over the past 16 years I've owned 2 homes, and each time I had the joy of working with a skilled realtor (FL / TX). Now that I'm relocating here, I have to wonder if they've all become lazy or if there is just no skill anymore.
The reason I question is this:
In the past, I'd sit down with the realtor and have a nice talk about "what I want in a house / neighborhood". They'd seem to listen to me, maybe ask more questions and dive into trying to determine what would be a great fit. From there, they'd send me listings to review and tour and more often than not, really come close and hit the mark completely in finding my dream home.
Now it seems like every realtor I've tried (4 so far in 3 weeks) are just lazy idiots. I have to wonder why I'd want to even work with one and not just do all the work myself as that's what it seems like I'm doing. I tell them what I want in my neighborhoods / schools / community / house with the assumption (since it worked in the past) that they're listening to me and have an idea of what's in the area. Sadly each of them simpley put up the automated listing finder (no clue what it's called) and just have that service send me random homes. Right off, it's safe to say that 70% don't come close to interesting me, and aren't anything like what I talked about. The rest, well that seems to be completely up to me to say let me see 1, 2, 3. At that point, it seems that the realtor is just there to open the door and let me in. When I ask about any details, they have no clue of the community or anything else.
It just get's so frustrating. What happened to a realtor working to a) find your dream home b) EARNING a commission.
I miss the calls "hi, I think I found just what you're looking for. Lets meet and let me show you" rather than "have you seen anything that you'd like me to show you?" (sadly the 2nd isn't even a call to me...I always make the call)
Anyway, just want to rant a bit as week 4 and probably going to contact another realtor and play the endless game of realtor-russian-roulette.
I am relocating to Phx myself and have had one hell of a time. A good website to try though is www.homegain.com. Realtors will send you proposals and then you can ask them specific questions. I found an awesome guy, but no matter what, you're going to have to look yourself or you'll miss alot of great deals.
The past 10 years or so, realtors working in the Phoenix market had a pretty easy go of things. From about 2003 to 2006 they were printing money. You coud not swing a dead cat and not hit a would-be realtor. In this time period, everything sold and very fast. The realtor base was flooded with people that thought that all you do is stick a sign in the yard, and then go pick up your check in a month. Some were right, for a while. Now that they really have to work at it, it is showing who was in it for the right reasons in the first place. As they say, "the cream always rises to the top". At least the bad ones have had to move on to something else (in their brightly painted Hummer with their photo on the side). I never got that. If I view a listing, I don't need to see a photo of the agent talking on a cell phone. I'm looking at the property, not at the agents Glamour-shot.
what happened is that you really don't need any specific set skills to be one. Just need to pass the test therefore, every tom dick and harry thinks they can be one.
I also think that too many not too brilliant women cougars saturated the market kinda like the internet thing!
I was actually laughing earlier with a co-worker saying that maybe my next one, I should at least find someone attractive to look at since beyond that, they don't seem to anything but stand there. Sadly, I'm stubborn and will keep looking for someone that actually does know the areas and has a clue of what I'm looking for.
I don't mind going out and picking a bunch of houses that "look" good from a site, but the least a realtor could do is say "based upon what you told me, I don't think you'll like that neighborhood".
Over the past 16 years I've owned 2 homes, and each time I had the joy of working with a skilled realtor (FL / TX). Now that I'm relocating here, I have to wonder if they've all become lazy or if there is just no skill anymore.
The reason I question is this:
In the past, I'd sit down with the realtor and have a nice talk about "what I want in a house / neighborhood". They'd seem to listen to me, maybe ask more questions and dive into trying to determine what would be a great fit. From there, they'd send me listings to review and tour and more often than not, really come close and hit the mark completely in finding my dream home.
Now it seems like every realtor I've tried (4 so far in 3 weeks) are just lazy idiots. I have to wonder why I'd want to even work with one and not just do all the work myself as that's what it seems like I'm doing. I tell them what I want in my neighborhoods / schools / community / house with the assumption (since it worked in the past) that they're listening to me and have an idea of what's in the area. Sadly each of them simpley put up the automated listing finder (no clue what it's called) and just have that service send me random homes. Right off, it's safe to say that 70% don't come close to interesting me, and aren't anything like what I talked about. The rest, well that seems to be completely up to me to say let me see 1, 2, 3. At that point, it seems that the realtor is just there to open the door and let me in. When I ask about any details, they have no clue of the community or anything else.
It just get's so frustrating. What happened to a realtor working to a) find your dream home b) EARNING a commission.
I miss the calls "hi, I think I found just what you're looking for. Lets meet and let me show you" rather than "have you seen anything that you'd like me to show you?" (sadly the 2nd isn't even a call to me...I always make the call)
Anyway, just want to rant a bit as week 4 and probably going to contact another realtor and play the endless game of realtor-russian-roulette.
Tell me about it. My introduction to real estate agents in the valley was less than enjoyable as well. We couldn't get people to tell us the time of day, although we were looking at a few (big $$$!) specific developments which at the time, were overrun with investors. Nobody wanted to show anything. Our agent was told that we could drive halfway across the valley to get a key but not until next week. The best "service" we received, was a gum-snapping, hair-twirling teenaged daughter of an agent, who didn't know and couldn't say anything about the property. That, was my introduction into Arizona real estate, and unfortunately it tainted my opinion of agents in general... not that it isn't warranted, you can read some real gems on this forum as well. And we had an agent working for us, also a friend. She was pretty good, IMO.
We elected not to buy anything, which was better for us given that we would probably not be here long enough to see any return on our investment. That was my opinion anyway, we'll see if it's right in ten years or so.
One final point: Be careful about who you deal with. I could point you to another thread, the tone of which is, "If something goes wrong with a real estate transaction, the buyer didn't do their homework". This is the prevailing industry attitude, apparently. YOU do the homework, the agent will fill in the papers. Everything else is your problem. If something is wrong, it's your problem because YOU didn't notice. To me, that's not service, but just like every other industry, they've removed the service part (but not the cost). Furthermore, the more I read on this forum, the more it seems as if real estate agents and former agents, look at buyers as idiots, yet they expect them to know everything. I think it's a case of convenience. They expect you to know things that indemnify them, and also things that make you responsible.
You know something is wrong with the industry, when someone tells you that you'll get great service... and that's what their big selling point is. Like that's something special. Isn't that an expectation?
The past 10 years or so, realtors working in the Phoenix market had a pretty easy go of things. From about 2003 to 2006 they were printing money. You coud not swing a dead cat and not hit a would-be realtor. In this time period, everything sold and very fast. The realtor base was flooded with people that thought that all you do is stick a sign in the yard, and then go pick up your check in a month. Some were right, for a while. Now that they really have to work at it, it is showing who was in it for the right reasons in the first place. As they say, "the cream always rises to the top". At least the bad ones have had to move on to something else (in their brightly painted Hummer with their photo on the side). I never got that. If I view a listing, I don't need to see a photo of the agent talking on a cell phone. I'm looking at the property, not at the agents Glamour-shot.
IMO, the Phoenix real estate market was a home run for anyone with enough encephalographic activity to get a license. This is changing rapidly, if it isn't already a done deal.
It's frustrating to have to deal with some twit who fancies themself more important than a world class surgeon, not to mention blatantly parading your money around in the form of some ostentatious $60k four-wheeled piece of sh*t, that they have so that "clients will be comfortable". Sure they do.
The cell phone thing kills me. "I'm a busy guy". We're all busy. In fact, I'm too busy to deal with someone who is too busy to deal with me. I have a lot of things I'd rather be doing...
I love ALL your posts and I couldn't agree more!!! My home is for sale (in another state ) and on Sunday evening a gal called me without an agent. I don't know why she decided not to use one (and she didn't tell me), but I let her know that I have to pay the same (commission-wise) whether she is represented by an agent or not .
Unfortunately for me, she found another home and bought it just before she was to come view my home. Again, just another case of the buyers doing the work and agents getting paid like THEY worked hard for that sale (imho) .
It is necessary for everyone to do their homework if buying in the Phoenix area. My experience has been that many Realtors either don't know about some of these things or don't care as long as they can sell a house.
First, this area has some real issues with poor soil which can be either the expanding, shrinking type or the collapsible type. Get the maps online so that you know which areas of the Metro area to avoid or at least to ask for a soil check if you decide to buy in these areas. If you buy a house built on poor soil, you may end up with a cracking, unlivable, unsaleable home as thousands of people have.
Queen Creek has fissure areas, so a person may end up watching their home be eaten up by one some day.
Arizona has a very lax builder warranty program and unless a new law making builders responsible for longer home warranties is passed in November, we are still at their mercy if the homes we buy need fixing after the current puny 1 year warranty period is over.
Check deep to find the builders who have lawsuits filed against them and who are building using shoddy construction materials and cheap, unskilled labor. Watch out for the "arbitration clause" in new home contracts. By signing one of these you will be giving up your right to sue the builder for crummy workmanship and be subjected to expensive, builder biased arbitration.
Once you have enough information to purchase a home in this area, start looking for a Realtor and grill them to find out how much they know about this area. One place to look is at Open Houses because you can get a feel for how people friendly they are and if you like their knowledge of property here.
Like the original poster, I am also unimpressed with the quality of people selling homes in the area and am very grateful that I have spent hours researching as I am less able to be snookered when buying something.
altus2006
good info brotherman!
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I understand
) and on Sunday evening a gal called me without an agent. I don't know why she decided not to use one (and she didn't tell me), but I let her know that I have to pay the same (commission-wise) whether she is represented by an agent or not 
. 
and agents getting paid like THEY worked hard for that sale (imho) 
.
