6 Reasons Real Estate Agents Drive Us Nuts!
Working with a real estate agent can be a smooth and easy experience – if you’re lucky and find the right agent. But, a lot of the time, working with a real estate agent can be like pulling teeth – except you’re paying a huge percentage of your home’s sale value, just for the privilege of having your teeth pulled!
We’ll get to the point. We can’t stand real estate agents! I have had a few good experiences with real estate agents over the years – but overall, we’ve found that many real estate agents are unprofessional, not invested in helping me sell my home, and provide poor service. This is likely due to the fact that just about anyone can become a real estate agent by taking a few days of classes and passing a simple state exam.
Oh, you want some examples? I’ve got examples! I’ve got more examples than I know what to do with – so I’ll just pick 6 of them.
Read on, and learn about the top 6 reasons that real estate agents drive me NUTS – if you’ve ever tried to sell your house, I’m sure you can relate to at least one of them. Let’s get into it!
1. They Give Slow Responses (Or Ignore You Completely)
Look, I get it. Real estate agents are busy. When you work with a real estate agent, you’re probably not going to be their only client. That’s just the business. But a good real estate agent should still be able to make it feel like you’re their only client, by responding to you quickly when you’ve got a question or a concern that you need to talk to them about!
It’s not too much to ask for your real estate agent to respond to each message you send them – and in a couple of hours, rather than a couple of days. But I can’t count how many times I’ve had a real estate agent promise they would get back to me in a day – and then waited until the next week to get in touch.
For example, I was selling my home once, and I posted about it on Facebook. A friend of a friend was interested, but I couldn’t show them the home – I was going on a business trip. So, that day, I asked my real estate agent if they could take care of the visit.
I didn’t get a response until three days later, when I had already left town – and that lead went cold! So much for “helping me sell my house!”
2. They’ll Want to Close Quickly to Get Paid!
No real estate agent will ever, ever admit it. Think about it, they get paid when they sell your house regardless of the price. Yes, of course they want to sell for the maximum value but time is money and who knows what personal debts they have. This can influence their decision and you can bet it has.
It’s a shame but money can drive real estate agents to not always make the best decision for their client.
Don’t believe us? Call some real estate agents in your local area and tell them you’re interested in selling your house and wanted to know if right now is a good time to sell. What answer do you think you’ll get? Exactly.
3. They Don’t Take Care Of Homes During Open Houses Or Visits
Okay, this may be a bit of a nitpick – but it’s still something that I think about a lot when working with real estate agents! Open houses are a great way to market your home to interested parties – but they also require you to keep a close eye on visitors, to make sure they’re treating your home with respect.
So, when you come back to your home after an open house or several visits, you find things like:
- Your personal items moved out of position
- Couches and furniture moved around
- Broken or damaged items and furniture
- Dirty footprints and steps all around your carpet
- Damaged insulation in attics or basements
- Missing, misplaced, or even stolen items
It’s not exactly a vote of confidence in the agent’s skills! It means they were inattentive, and just let potential “buyers” roam around your house without supervision. That’s frustrating – and the last thing you want from a real estate agent.
4. They Don’t Use Professional Photos In Listings
Too many real estate agents out there are just interested in making a quick buck. I’ve sold a few houses, and one of the best things I ever did before selling was hire a professional photographer to stage my home and take photos. Most real estate agents just don’t have what it takes to sell a house for the maximum value.
Photos are the first thing a buyer will look at when they see your home listed on the MLS, or on websites like Zillow, right? So it makes sense that you should invest in high-quality photos.
On the other hand, we’ve often seen real estate agents simply walk around homes, snap a few photos with an iPhone or an iPad, and toss them up on their websites and on the MLS – without even asking if you want professional photos!
They’d rather not spend the money, and want to keep it for themselves. So what if your house takes months to sell because the photos don’t make it look appealing and results in low offers, right?
5. They Often Undervalue (Or Overvalue) Homes And Don’t Do Their Research
Economic times are pretty good today, and that means that you should be looking to get as much value out of your home as possible.
And that means you want your real estate agent to do a Comparative Market Analysis, ensure that the price of your home is right, and sell it for the most you can get for it. It’s your equity, and you deserve as much as you can get, right?
But if a real estate agent is feeling lazy – or has too many clients – they may not do a comprehensive market analysis. They’ll just tour your home and look at the last price it sold for, add the market appreciation rate, and be done with it.
This means that your house might be significantly undervalued – or even overvalued – if you work with a bad real estate agent. If it’s undervalued, you could lose a lot of equity, even if you sell fast – and if it’s overvalued, it will sit on the market for weeks or months before you even get a tentative offer.
6. They Charge Sky-High Fees For Selling Houses
Let’s save the best for last. Real estate agent fees are insanely expensive. Look, I get that real estate agents work hard to sell your home – but does that really mean you should pay a 3%, 6%, or even a 10% commission on the value of your home?
The cost of the commission, plus closing costs, can wipe out a lot of your equity. If you’ve got $60,000 of equity in a $200,000 home and sell it with a real estate agent, you can expect to pay $6,000-$12,000 in real estate agent fees alone, excluding other documentation and inspection fees – that’s 10-20% of your investment!
Think Twice Before Hiring That Real Estate Agent!
Okay, it may seem like I’m being a little harsh about the value of real estate agents. I’ll say this – if you find a good one, they’re worth it. But there are more bad real estate agents out there than you might think. Just about anyone with a pulse can become one with a few days of classes and passing a short exam. The same goes for realtors, which some people use the term interchangeably to call real estate agents. Basically, real estate agents pay a small fee for basically being able to say they’re a realtor.
So make sure to think twice – and perform a comprehensive interview – before hiring a real estate agent. You may even want to consider an FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sale, or even a cash sale, as an alternative to working with a real estate agent. Yeah, it can be that bad!
Max Cash Home Offers offers instant cash offers on houses nationwide. We do not provide legal or financial advice. For information on foreclosure, eviction or any other legal situation make sure you contact a local attorney.
Author: Henry Camacho
Henry Camacho has led and managed online marketing efforts for Charles Schwab, eBay Enterprise, BCBG MAX AZRIA, World Market, Sports Authority, Bill Me Later, Razorgator and CarsDirect.
Going through the frustrating process of selling a house inspired him to launch Max Cash Home Offers; a website that makes the home selling process easy and enables consumers to sell properties that are not in the best shape and without having to engage a realtor.
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