I've driven drunk twice in my life. I must have lost my license, faced jail time, massive fines and....oh wait, no I didn't. Why not? Because nobody caught me. Why? Because there are lots and lots of crimes committed all the time that aren't caught because they aren't noticed. How exactly would a real estate agent get caught for urging a seller to take my low ball offer? How many cases are you aware of where a realtor was caught, faced criminal penalties and jail time for doing what I describe? I suppose you'll probably argue that there aren't many cases of this, because realtors are too noble or too risk averse. We all know the real reason, though, is that it's incredibly difficult to prove, and most of the time nobody would even notice. Why on earth would I want such advice from a realtor when I could much better versions of that advice from a lawyer, a home inspector and a title company? But the realtor's advice is FREE! Well, if I'm dropping $300k on a home, maybe I should be willing to pay a little extra to get info from real experts in those areas. Knowledge of a local area might be handy, I guess, except I've never bought a house in an area I didn't know. I'd recommend anybody considering such a move to rent for six months first. It's a huge financial commitment, and a realtor can't really know everything about a neighborhood, or how your own personality would gel with that neighborhood.
Man, either you are overestimating the AVERAGE realtor, or the four realtors I've dealt with in my life were decidedly below AVERAGE. The first house I bought I had a realtor. The house had been on the market for 6 months during a really booming time, but hadn't been listed on the MLS (thanks to the incompetence of the seller's agent.) I'd found the house while just driving around the neighborhood and happened to notice a crappy sign that had been knocked over. While the seller's agent was showing us the house, my agent told him, "You really are selling this for too little. I'd bump it up another $15k." While I was fucking standing right next to her. I could have killed her. I have several more stories just like that one, but they are too infuriating for me to dwell on. I bet several other posters on here have similar stories. I'm sure there are great realtors/real estate agents out there. Maybe you and DaRizzle are them. (I notice only real estate agents are here to defend real estate agents. Where are all the satisfied customers on this board who love their experience?) But I've never worked with one.
Thanks for the recap of what a Realtor is. I guess you missed the part where I mentioned I was a licensed broker in the state of Oregon. And those classes are a joke.
