The real estate industry favors sellers, and buyers are under-represented. Here at the blog I’ve done my best to help educate buyers, and give you a fighting chance. Here’s someone who wants to take it further:
http://blog.launch.co/blog/rfp-request-for-prototype-brutal-real-estate-reviews.html
An excerpt:
No one is fighting for the people buying houses. Everyone in the business is driven by one thing and one thing only: closing sales.
If houses get sold, brokers on both sides get paid and the world keeps spinning. Ads flow to listing sites, inspectors get paid, mortgage brokers get commissions and home improvements continue.
No one is incentivized to STOP you from buying a home.
No one is trying to PROTECT the buyer from making a bad decision (I know, brokers are supposed to … but they don’t get paid unless you buy!).
This becomes super apparent when you look at the descriptions of homes.
Everything is “charming” and a “compound” and “gorgeous” in the descriptions, but when you go see them they are “depressing” and “dark” and “small”!
So here’s a super simple idea: reviews that tell you, in brutally honest fashion, if you should move into this house or not.
If it’s a fair price.
If it’s a horrible block, if it has a bad landlord, or if the methadone clinic is hopping at 3pm when your daughter gets home from school!
Read full article here:
http://blog.launch.co/blog/rfp-request-for-prototype-brutal-real-estate-reviews.html
I know just the person who could do this — and who has been commenting on this exact issue.
Transparency is here to stay, and will face some growing pains as agents fight it.
Buyers should have the right to discuss anything and everything about homes for sale in a public forum.
JtR: I always thought that realtor/brokers should only be allowed 1 exclamation mark (!) and 1 capitalized word per listing.
Or how about a library of their previous listing remarks to show how they say the same thing over and over?
“The nastier and more bitter, the better. I want someone to just crush these shitty homes and bullshit artist realtors trying to sell them.”
I wonder if the author ever stopped to consider the tidal wave of defamation and slander lawsuits that would hit the company? I seriously doubt the RE agents would stand by and let people write these nasty reviews, not to mention the homeowners themselves.
And how about the reviewers? I certainly wouldn’t post anything nasty about someone’s home for sale unless I was guaranteed anonymity and legal protection. (And if reviewers are anonymous, then what’s to prevent fakes?)
This idea has a small amount of merit, but it’s not going to work in reality.
It would need to be something like Yelp, which is surviving in spite of themselves:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco (they only rate 2.5 stars out of 5)
No one has been able to take them down yet:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2601500/appeals-court-clears-yelp-of-claims-that-it-fixed-reviews.html
Wow, that’s one angry guy! So is this really an epidemic? Can you succeed in real estate taking a “screw the buyer I am representing” attitude? I’d expect that only works in good times, and you’ll crash and burn quick during the lean. I guess people refer everyone to the scumbag agent who sold them a dump next to the meth lab, and then reward him with the listing once the kids drop out and join the neighborhood gang?
Jim always says “hire good help,” and it’s pretty much the best possible advice. I’ve met plenty of clueless and unhelpful/shady agents – but it’s obvious. The listings lie? Sky is blue too! Don’t people visit houses before making offers? Check cities and schools on the Internet? California schools might not be great, but GreatSchools is. Who are these people being duped / pressured into making foolish investments?
Put another way: I think the Internet is a game-changer. I think it’s very hard to put lipstick on a pig when Zillow exists. So who are the people who’d read “the truth” on some new web site, but not be able to check Zillow, GreatSchools, hire decent professional help, and make reasonable judgements about whether to buy a house? And finally, where are these fraud listings in 2014 North County Coastal San Diego? The dangerous “be careful when you walk alone at night” sections of Solana Beach?
Everyone reacts differently to the extreme frustration of trying to buy a home in SF. He’s used to buying whatever he wants, and offers 15% over list and doesn’t get it? Look out below!
But there is a problem with how agents represent buyers. In the seller-centric business it is typical for buyer agents to expect their own clients to just pay the price.
Jim,
You may enjoy this 😀
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/houseprices/11073145/Rightmove-7ft-wide-property-on-sale-for-235000.html
This might help.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/what-estate-agents-say-vs-what-they-really-mean#3b4l1w3
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Escondido/535-E-9th-Ave-92025/home/3996161
“Charming” = Super Outdated, unless you adore wood paneling and want that back woods cabin feel.
“Retro” = We are so out of style that it’s in style, right???
“Knotty Pine Accents” = Seriously… just stop
I admire this agents touch, living with these same features would be worse than contracting ebola if they were the buyers agent on this exact deal.