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Terrible real estate agent photographs

terriblerealestateagentphotos.com

161–170 of 346 posts

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#161
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reply was a bit harsh, but let's not act like the real estate industry isn't riddled with skeezy practices. 1) Home inspections that aren't really "inspections" and are just there to grease the skids 2) Buyer's agents don't have a fiduciary duty to protect the buyers. 3) Pricing "knowledge" that is typically public info, just locked behind access restrictions 4) predatory lending practices It's a very incestuous…

>Home inspections that aren't really "inspections" and are just there to grease the skids I hear this a lot on here and I wonder what state people are in or if the laws are somehow different elsewhere. In the states where I do business, there are state mandated checklists of systems and inspectors could be held liable if they don’t show reasonable care and professionalism in gathering the data for their report. The i…

Colorado here and that wasn't the case for me.

There were many, and varied things missed in my inspection. The biggest was the entire HVAC system being messed up. The furnace was incorrectly installed, improperly sized for the house, and didn't even have any return ductwork installed.

The air flow seemed really bad in the bedroom and so one day I decided to climb up into the attic and take a look. The problem with the return air missing was immediately obvious. When I called the inspector to ask why they'd miss something so obvious I was given an excuse and pointed toward the part of the contract that states they're not liable. I eventually got them to refund the cost of the inspection, but it was hundreds of dollars back for over ten thousand dollars in missed issues. I was only able to get anything because I worked for a real estate company at the time and knew the right people who could apply pressure.

IMO Home inspections are a total scam.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#162

About 10 years ago, me and my wife took LSD on a vacation, and the sheer uselessness of a real estate agent appeared to us. What does a real estate agent do? They unlock doors. Who are real estate agents? We can all think of a few real estate agents, none of them are top performers. They are usually on their ~4th career before the age of 30. They are the type of person to wear a suit in public to pretend that it make…

[flagged]

> I'm a people person. I have people skills.

I don't agree.

In my experience, there are people with a talent for talking, and have a natural attraction. People just want to talk to them. But that's not most people in sales (even if they are often top).

The key skills to be successful in sales are similar. Dedication, problems solving, and an interest in what you're doing. Many here could pick it up.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#164

About 10 years ago, me and my wife took LSD on a vacation, and the sheer uselessness of a real estate agent appeared to us. What does a real estate agent do? They unlock doors. Who are real estate agents? We can all think of a few real estate agents, none of them are top performers. They are usually on their ~4th career before the age of 30. They are the type of person to wear a suit in public to pretend that it make…

I wouldn't go quite that far. They also handle the paperwork and coordination with the other agent, which is not a trivial job. It's highly questionable if the value they add is worth 5% of the gross sale price of the house, especially in our amazingly inflated markets, but few if any agents seem interested in working at hourly rates.

>few if any agents seem interested in working at hourly rates

It’s because most agents work as self-employed contractors under the auspices of a brokerage, and the brokerage is not going to allow that. And/ or, in a state using standardized legal documents, we don’t even have a form for that, which means we’d need to come up with an hourly contract from scratch - and the brokerages will put their foot down on that too.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't go quite that far. They also handle the paperwork and coordination with the other agent, which is not a trivial job. It's highly questionable if the value they add is worth 5% of the gross sale price of the house, especially in our amazingly inflated markets, but few if any agents seem interested in working at hourly rates.

In the UK paperwork is mostly done - surprisingly slowly - by lawyers.

This is the practice in many countries and even several US states. The listing services we have in the US are not universal either, which I think performs a really important role in providing information to the public and creating a more level informational playing field.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#166

About 10 years ago, me and my wife took LSD on a vacation, and the sheer uselessness of a real estate agent appeared to us. What does a real estate agent do? They unlock doors. Who are real estate agents? We can all think of a few real estate agents, none of them are top performers. They are usually on their ~4th career before the age of 30. They are the type of person to wear a suit in public to pretend that it make…

I think you are being a little unfair to them, but at the same time...

They get 5% of most single family residential transactions. And recently it was 6% that was standard. And the industry works really hard to protect those profits.

It is a lot of money that comes right out of consumers pockets.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#167
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredible given some of the listings. The fact one of the pictures is the house on literal fire, coupled with this context, goes to show that some people really don't belong anywhere in marketing or sales.

A youtube video from the buyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbbwv-ZbXDk

Man, that's actually pretty fascinating - to watch that then the 10th video in the series (from a month ago) where the roof is getting shingled. I'm usually turned off by the "broadcast yourself" lifestyle but I'll admit this one is pretty cool.

HGTV, eat your heart out.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#168
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reply was a bit harsh, but let's not act like the real estate industry isn't riddled with skeezy practices. 1) Home inspections that aren't really "inspections" and are just there to grease the skids 2) Buyer's agents don't have a fiduciary duty to protect the buyers. 3) Pricing "knowledge" that is typically public info, just locked behind access restrictions 4) predatory lending practices It's a very incestuous…

>Home inspections that aren't really "inspections" and are just there to grease the skids I hear this a lot on here and I wonder what state people are in or if the laws are somehow different elsewhere. In the states where I do business, there are state mandated checklists of systems and inspectors could be held liable if they don’t show reasonable care and professionalism in gathering the data for their report. The i…

Good inspectors exist. They’re not usually recommended by agents because they could cause a deal to fall through.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#170
This site is impossible to visit on my setup. Firefox 114, default tracking protection, uBlock origin with default settings.

I am not interested in spending time debugging it, and I can live without seeing those photos.

Better spend that time whining here, where I suppose the ratio of web developers is high: what happened to web development? How come is it so complicated to write a site that displays some photos without falling apart at the first not-totally-mainstream user agent?

Just wow.

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