An Honest Realtor

synthetik

Just wanted to give you another honest view from the street. I am a Southern California RE Broker. I have been in the business for 10 years and have watched the financing get very, very crazy. Recently, things have changed. Sales in my area according to the California Association of Realtors(not biased of course) are down over 30% from 2005. My office is down closer to 50%. Some offices are closing down completely. In the meantime all of the other agents, lenders, title reps, etc. seem to be taking a see no evil hear no evil approach. Some agents have even started telling sellers not to reduce price because it will hurt comparables in the area, as if listing prices dictate the value of homes. Meanwhile, I have seen inventories rise from 800 available homes in 2005 to 4500 currently, and thats not including tract homes. Prices have gone from $85,000 median in 1999 to $309,000 currently. The agents that will talk about the "instability", praise higher income levels, job growth, and low interest rates as the fuel pushing prices up. Nevermind that almost all that growth can be directly attributed to our industry. Needless to say I work with very few buyers right now both because there are few around and because it feels wrong to sell something to someone when you know its value is dropping like a stone. Sometimes I wish I could take the blind, soft landing approach, it sure would help my pocket book.

I suspect most Realtors have these thoughts from time to time but know they must block them out if they're going to sell anything!

The above was posted by a paid reader of Bill Fleckenstein's daily rap on "ask fleck". You can check out his free articles here.

blueskitten

Interesting. My realtor (we're selling our place in Seattle) is representing more sellers than buyers at the moment, which is a reversal from this agent's norm.

JD@Preview

It's a tough market to be a realtor in. I really don't want to waste my time trying to list a property at the prices many sellers want (sometimes need) to get. I do better with buyers because I'm not under the delusion that the listing price is what the seller will actually accept and I'm fairly successful at positioning my buyers to make strong yet low offers. Unlike most agents I present my buyer's offer to the seller personally rather than rely on the listing agent to "sell" it on its merits. A good buyer's agent can go a long way toward mitigating any perceived loss of equity after the purchase by aggressively negotiating.

Alan

While selling my first house, the buyers agent stopped by one day to ask me some questions. My agent became very upset at this since if I were to agree to anything it would become binding. She instructed me not to talk to the buyer's agent and to let her do all communication and negotiation.

How do you by-pass the seller's agent? Have you run into the same issue I had?

JD@Preview

I don't bypass the the listing agent. He/she has the right and responsibility to be there when the offer is presented. I *prefer* that their agent be there when I do the presentation so he can give his analysis of our offer. Traditionally the offer to purchase was always given by the buyer's agent, it's just that with the evolution of technology and a glut of incompetent lazy agents we've taken to doing it by fax. Your listing agent is right; never, ever speak to a buyers agent without him present and if you're the type who can't keep his mouth shut don't talk at all, just listen. I can parse a lot of a seller's position from the things they'll voluntarily blab to an agent.