"Archie Harders, a veteran real estate agent with McEnearney Associates, is resorting to sales tactics that would have been unnecessary a year ago. A key, he said, is to get homes viewed by as many buyers' agents as possible; to that end, he frequently updates listings in the database of homes that agent use."
"If you change a comma, or a period, your listing pops up as having been edited," he said. "It's another way of keeping it in front of their face." (Washington Post 4/2/04)
What happened to all those ethical Realtors we keep on hearing about from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)?
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Seriously. He could post an updated picture of curb appeal. Show recent improvements. Make meaningful changes and actually work to market the house. But no, instead he edits the punctuation to have the appearance of new information when he's really providing no new value...
ReplyDeleteYeah, heaven forbid that a realtor actively market his client's product by keeping it in view of the buying public.
ReplyDeleteWhat next? Is Coca-Cola Corporation going to start running advertisements on television during primetime?!! Gasp!
mytwocents
ReplyDeleteUnder normal circumstances showing better pictures and adding more info would be a good idea. However I bet this guy is trying to sell a alot of property and he has only enough time to add or subtract a comma. He is probably busy trying to find buyers (abeit few and far between.
"He is probably busy trying to find buyers"
ReplyDeleteThat is his job, right?
Bryce
ReplyDelete"That is his job, right?"
That is correct Bryce, you are on the ball! But now he has to work probably 10 times harder to get a buyer. He probably is pursing any person with a pulse who would have any slight interest in living in a condo.
"He probably is pursing any person with a pulse who would have any slight interest in living in a condo."
ReplyDeleteAnd again.... that is his job, right? So when times are good for realtors, you hate them. When times are bad for realtors, you hate them.
Farmers have good and bad spells too. I bet you still eat the food they put on your table. And you probably hate them all the while for owning those farm houses, don't you?
(WVU is bad news, by the way. At least you're proud of going to a weak school. Perhaps if you had made the choice to go to a good school, you'd own your own home by now? Just a thought...)
bryce,
ReplyDelete"(WVU is bad news, by the way. At least you're proud of going to a weak school. Perhaps if you had made the choice to go to a good school, you'd own your own home by now? Just a thought)"
No personal insults to other commentators. This is a warning (deleting is an option for me).
I think it's terrible that all these external forces are conspiring against the "everything is SUPER TERRIFIC in DC!!!!" meme. It's lewd, lascivious, salacious, outrageous!
ReplyDeleteJerkstore
wvu_84
ReplyDeleteSo what's your point? So he's busy and working hard? Have you noticed that as housing prices have doubled over the last 5 years, so have real estate commissions? And during that time it was actually easier to sell? Granted, people flocked in droves to become agents to cash in on this but I have no sympathy for an agent actually having to do his job for a commission that is twice what it was just a few years ago.
Furthermore, if you're being interviewed for an article, and you're a sales agent, wouldn't you rather be quoted about how you go above and beyond to market homes and not how you cut corners to market a home? I can tell you that based upon that interview, if I was looking for an agent, I would quickly pass him by.
I can tell you that based upon that interview, if I was looking for an agent, I would quickly pass him by.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I'd hire him if he used semicolons and exclamation points, instead of tired old periods and commas. Like this!
-- sglover
This is nothing. I've heard of realtors actually changing the format of the address to get the DOM counter to reset. I think this mostly works with condo unit numbers. For example, realtor relists unit 310 as unit #310 and then they are no longer plagued with the 100+ days on the market.
ReplyDeleteI'd be wary of ANY loyalty (buyer-agent, seller-agent) as the commissions dry up. I've rarely trusted any of them.
ReplyDeleteI find my own property and give the agent 1% (I get 2% at closing) to write the contract.
Bryce
ReplyDelete"(WVU is bad news, by the way. At least you're proud of going to a weak school. Perhaps if you had made the choice to go to a good school, you'd own your own home by now? Just a thought)"
Me going to WVU had nothing to do with not owning a home. I owned a townhouse and had to sell it in 2003 because of a job loss. The job loss was of not fault of my own(if you suspect WVU ill prepared me for the real world). I was not able to get a stable job until 2005, which by then the prices went ballistic.
I felt WVU was a good choice as an engineering school and resulted in a productive 22 year engineering career.
If you want to continue believing that WVU caused me to loose a job and not get a stable job until 2005 then I see no point in aurging with you.
polishknight
ReplyDelete"This means that they are now obligated to work for a living rather than just cash easy commission checks. (Which is neither good or bad, just an observation which is what wvu_84 probably was saying.)"
Thank you polishknight that is exactly what I'm was trying to say.
all (but definitely va_investor):
ReplyDeletehave you found the realtor profession to be teetering on the edge of obsolescence?
are lawyers and appraisers the only "must haves" for transactions nowadays?
Anon 2:15
ReplyDeleteRealtors are the last true monopoly. They are superfluous. Look at the raise they have had in the last 5 years. Why is the commission a % of sales price? There is no correlation between the work performed and the compensation.
Lawyers are not necessary unless an issue, a contractual issue, comes up. Title companies can handle the closings.
Appraisers will probably become more important - although not necessary in many cases because of Zillow type businesses. Just like credit scores eliminated a large part of the underwriting process.
realtors should
ReplyDeletea) get a flat rate (say $20/hr with say maximum of 100 hrs per transaction)
b) get more restricted on licensing
c) there should be 75%-90% less of them
all three will happen I guess in couple years.
It must be a terrible feeling to have bought at the top of the market like Bryce. The seething anguish and anger leads you to lash out at anyone in shoutng distance ("You went to a lousy college...you're too poor, no, wait, you're too rich and too entitled...the market is going the way *I* tell it to...my sister...my daughter...my sister...my daughter...").
ReplyDeleteJerkstore
I think that perhaps he should stop focusing on adding or subtracting commas... and perhaps consider subtracting a zero or perhaps even 100k or so... I bet that will get his ad some attention.
ReplyDeleteSpongeworthy,
ReplyDeleteI accurately reported my precise financial position here; including when and where I purchased my home (I am not an 'investor' or flipper) I am not a bubble participant, I'm in my home for the long-term, I have positive cash-flow, and I am not a realtor. All of these things have been stated previously.
I'm clearly under your skin, which is your problem, not mine.
Sure thing, buddy. Your insults to a number of people on this board clearly illustrate a self-hatred borne from your unfortunate position. Your investment is not worth what it once was. It hurts; we get it.
ReplyDeleteJerkstore
Polish Knight;
ReplyDeleteI visited friends last weekend who are living in the town where we went to college together. One house down the block from them was bought by a student's parents, thinking they would not waste money on dorms/rent, build equity, have student's roomates pick up the tab.
Except now, 3-4 years later:
* the market has stalled, half a dozen houses on the same block are for sale, even more in the larger subdivision;
* the same builder can't sell out the next development adjacent to theirs;
* to top it all off, the student, her roomates and their college friends have completely trashed the house - on condition alone, the best they could expect is sub-market sales price, wherever the market happens to be.
Oops.
I'm not an agent, and I am not going to defend them, but in the business world there are others you can point to that are more ethically challenged than the McEearney agent. I'm thinking about the Ken Lays, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Koslowskis etc. Not to mention the people that worked for them and saw those companies (and their employer supported pensions) be run into the ground. Moving a comma or period here and there doesn't look all that bad.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteTo a certain extent though, the Ken Lays and Bernie Ebbers of the world were defrauding a faceless market. Despicable, but the victim is more nameless, possibly even "the man."
When you look someone in the eye, and tell them they can afford something they can't, and then work the numbers to convince them, I find that to be more dispicable. More dishonest.
Granted, with the former, the end result is a lot broader and more damaging, but it's not personal.
Having said that, moving a few commas around is far from damning as I may have implied with earlier comments. I just think it's a dumb thing to point out from a marketing/sales point of view when you're getting free press.
My $0.02.