16th July 2007

Why Some Realtors Suck

posted in Real Estate Investing |

After reading this post over at RSS Pieces.com, it reminded me of why I really don’t like dealing with Realtors. Now, don’t get me wrong. Why some Realtors suck.I know that Realtors are not all bad and I understand that they do add value to a real estate transaction when they know what they’re doing.

Personally I believe that the bar for entry into the profession is set way too low by the state. In Florida, as long as you can pass the test, you can get a license. The state department of professional business regulation makes a lame attempt to weed out the clearly mentally ill-equipped applicants by copiously littering the test with trick questions. This, however, does not limit the morally corrupt applicants.


Case in point: A while back, we were looking at purchasing an apartment building locally here in Brevard County. From our own research, we found that the property had been severely damaged by a hurricane less than 7 years prior resulting in the building having to be gutted and new plumbing and electrical installed as well as a new roof.

When asked about this, the selling agent flat-out lied about the damage by saying that it was minimal and there was no insurance claim. In fact, the damage was obviously major and so was the insurance claim, so much so that Lloyd’s of London provided the only obtainable insurance after the fact.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Lloyd’s of London will practically insure anything but you’ll pay dearly for it. Want to insure your cat against being struck by lightning? Call Lloyd’s. You’re Mariah scary Carey and you want to insure your legs (of all things) against damage? Call Lloyd’s.

This agent also lied about the city’s denial of a request to expand the property. Most of this we found out after we were already in contract to buy the property. When we called this agent to withdraw from the contract and proceeded to tell him why, he very quickly got off the phone before we could tell him. The reason being that if we told him what was wrong, he would then have knowledge of this and would not be able to legally lie about these things in the future. Bastard!

Anyway, I’ve got a list of stories like this with the take-away being; Establish a relationship with a trusted career real estate agent, preferably with ties to the community. This way, if they screw up intentionally, they will have other people to answer to besides you.

There are currently 5 responses to “Why Some Realtors Suck”

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  1. 1 On July 16th, 2007, REBlogGirl said:

    I am in complete agreement with you when you say the bar for Realtors to enter the profession is way too low as on our last home purchase, we dealt with was possibly the most incompetent Realtor ever. However, that being said, the Realtor I wrote the story about that you referenced on RSS Pieces was a true gem. And that is what you need to look for in a Realtor- those precious stones among the lumps of coal. They are out there.

  2. 2 On July 16th, 2007, Bruce said:

    Hi REBlogGirl,

    I agree that the goal is to find a true gem of a Realtor but it seems that unless you have a relationship with one there’s too much incentive for them to take advantage. I’ve just seen it happen too many times.

    Maybe in addition to raising the bar, penalties for abusing their position should be stiffened as well.

    Just a thought. Thanks for the comment though.

  3. 3 On July 19th, 2007, Clifford said:

    I experienced a similar situation when 4-plex shopping in Texas. The seller’s agent was either lying or deliberating hiding facts. After being caught in two of these, I walked away.

  4. 4 On July 19th, 2007, Bruce said:

    Cliff,
    It’s amazing to me that the good (and honest) Realtors don’t make it a point to run these people out of the business.

    I guess it’s like attorneys. They know they’ll have to work with all the other local attorneys at some point, good or bad. So they don’t want to step on each others toes.

  5. 5 On December 29th, 2008, m2244 said:

    Realtors do suck. I was an agent for a while. The agency I worked for (3 letters begins with a “B”, ends with a “K”, in Vermont) withheld a large sum of money from me and justified it by saying that a person from the office did some of my work. This person did help me but I was told by the broker to ask him in the first place and the amount withheld was extremely excessive for the amount of help. He also told me that he would give me 50% of the commission that came in to the office for a separate project (which was a lame project, hence him asking me to handle it), he did not honor this part of the deal either. I am not the only agent who has been screwed by this broker. So, if any of you ever do business in VT, avoid this greedy agency.

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