Realtor - working for us? or ...

[Gardenarian]

Hi - we're looking for a house in Ashland, and we initially really liked our realtor. But as time goes on and we learn more about the town and the market, it seems that she is trying to steer us toward the most expensive houses.
When we are thinking of making an offer, we look at the prices of of similar houses that were sold nearby (comps, in realtor lingo), and we come up with numbers that are WAY less than with the comps she shows us. It seems she is cherry-picking data to make things appear more expensive.

Of course, it is to her advantage to get us to spend more money, but don't realtors have a responsibility to try to get a good deal for their buyers?

I chose the realtor because she had a lot of 5 star reviews on Yelp...not sure how else to go about it.

[razz]

It is tough to use a realtor that is not a referral from a friend or similar. Get tough and say this is out budget and we are basing our price on these recent sales or listings maybe?

[Mary B.]

Gardenarian, this sounds frustrating. Have you talked to her about it? Sometimes realtors know more about particular houses than you can tell from reviewing listings, so more expensive comps would seem to me not to be necessarily out of line. I would absolutely want to know why this was happening, though -- it's a commission-driven field, after all. And I'd let her know that you are firm on your budget. I haven't had a lot of encounters with realtors, but wow do I hate it when people assume I'm willing to spend more than I am willing to spend.

[bae]

It depends on if they are acting as a buyer's agent or not.

[Teacher Terry]

I would find a new realtor. It sounds like she is more interested in how much $ she can make then helping you find the right home.

[SteveinMN]

Unless you have specified your relationship with your real estate agent as a "buyer's agent" (as bae said), she is acting on behalf of the house sellers.

Gardenarian, you need to have a chat with your agent regarding your expectations of her. It also would help to ask her right out why she believes the properties she selects are better comps than the ones you're selecting. She may be aware of issues like taxation-based-on-footage that may indeed make her chosen comps better ones. Or she could be cherry-picking. But you won't know until you ask. And you can insist on a "tell it to me like I'm 5" version, too.

BTW, there is a difference between "real estate agent" and "Realtor". Kind of like the difference between a financial planner and a CFP. Your RE agent may very well be a Realtor®, but not every RE agent is.

[Teacher Terry]

We had a agent once that was doing the same thing & after awhile we found someone else. She called us up & yelled at us for not buying a house she had shown us. That was the final straw. We have moved a lot so have dealt with alot of agents and have only fired 2. A Realtor is much better then an real estate agent.

[iris lilies]

If you have set a price range, is she showing you properties that are still within that range? If so, and you feel that you don't need the upper end properties, lower your price range. But I will ask: have you expressed satisfaction to her that you about properties in the lower to mid section of your range?

I don't know the criteria for YELP ratings, but if your agent isn't full time and doesn't sell and list a fair number of properties each year, get a new one. You want someone who is in the biz full time, not a part-timer. I know that for Zillow ratings the rater has to actually have been a client of the agent. Not sure that's true for YELP so maybe her relatives all write positive reviews for her.

As far as comps go: depends, the agent may have good insider knowledge. I know that in my neighborhood of Victorian houses, interior finishes range from completely up-to-date- and top of the line to rehabbed 30 years ago and not updated since then. You can't see this on Zillow. So, that's why an agent who knows the housing stock is important here, and I would think the same thing for older housing stock elsewhere. But if you are buying in a subdivision built 10 years ago where every house is by the same builder, there is little difference other than square footage and no. of BRs & baths. At least, that's my jaundiced view of pricing new subdivision houses ;), that any fool can do it. :D

So it's completely fair for you to sit down with her with YOUR comps and ask her to explain why HER comps are better.

[awakenedsoul]

Gardenarian, I would trust yourself. It's good that you can find homes on line. You'll know it when you see it. When I had my house on the market, I had problems with the realtors, too. I decided not to work with them. They weren't being honest, and I didn't want to do business with people I didn't trust. Homes are so expensive! It just didn't feel right.

[rodeosweetheart]

She is acting as a seller's agent unless you signed something that explicitly hired her as your buyer's agent. She sounds like she is acting as a seller's agent. I like the idea of sitting down and running through the comps and asking for an explanation. I think you have to work a while with someone to see if it is a good fit-- I just found a new agent down in SC that I really like; I called on his listing and was impressed and asked him to show me other people's listings, too. He's so much better than anyone else I had worked with lately. But it was kind of dumb luck and knowing what I wanted in a realtor, and the thing was, I know that market really, really well, and I don't know if I would have been so lucky if I did not know what I was looking at, like IL says.

Come to think of it, the realtor who listed our house up here--we called him and dealt with him directly--was similarly wonderful, and I'd trust him implicitly in this market.

I seem to have much better luck calling on a listing and talking to the listing agent, rather than having the realtor pre selecting things for me.

I don't know, sounds like a conversation is in order, and you can go to someone else if you are not getting good answers and a good redirection of activity.

[bae]

I have a wonderful realtor here. He has helped me purchase 8-9 properties over the last dozen years.

He has always acted as my buyer's agent. I give him a laundry list of what I am looking for, and he keeps his eyes and ears open. Not a single property that I have purchased with his help has already been listed - he knows who is *thinking* about selling, and makes appropriate introductions. I have rarely had to pay a full real estate commission to anyone, nor has the seller.

The "really nice" properties in my community usually don't ever make it to the MLS.

[Gardenarian]

Steve, I didn't know there was a difference between 'real estate agent' and 'realtor.' Thanks for pointing that out.

She is acting as a buyer's agent.

A lot of this kerfuffle is that my husband is a little paranoid - he always thinks people are taking advantage of him. (Though I do feel that all the real estate agents in Ashland look at Californians and see $$$.)

It's also that we don't know the real estate market in Ashland the way we do our own neighborhood, so we need to be really cautious, and the pricing seems fairly random. A lot of weight is put on price per square foot, which is like buying rocks by the pound - obviously a pound of diamonds should go for more than a pound of gravel - but square foot seems to be the standard.

There are a lot of houses that have been on the market for a very long time (10 months - 5 years.) It's unusual for anything in my current town to stay on the market for more than a few weeks. And it's hard to tell why the houses aren't selling. We plan on staying, but don't want to get into a situation where we are stuck with a house that is impossible to sell.

I think as a rule, in any market, when a house isn't getting any interest it's because it's overpriced. We are seeing a lot of houses that were initially priced in the 500,000 range that have dropped, step by step, into the high 300s.

I don't have much patience for playing games - when it's clear that a house of X condition, size, and age, sells for X much - that's how much I'm willing to pay. We did make an offer on a house yesterday (lower than recommended by our agent) and I had a whole list of points as to why we were offering less.

I feel like I'm doing a lot of the agent's work here. For example, she claims that learning anything about the price history of the house, or anything about the seller, is irrelevant. I think that's nuts! Someone who bought an uber-fancy house at the top of the market and still has a huge mortgage is much less likely to come down in price than (as in our case) one who is selling their parents' estate; the house was purchased in the 70s. But I had to dig up that information myself.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I've got a lot on my plate right now and really wish we had an agent who seemed a bit less flaky.

[razz]

When 'wrinkles' start showing up, you may need to find a better fit for your purposes. I was all set to have a unit built and 'wrinkles' convinced me to look elsewhere. I am glad that I did.

[SteveinMN]

I don't have much patience for playing games - when it's clear that a house of X condition, size, and age, sells for X much - that's how much I'm willing to pay. We did make an offer on a house yesterday (lower than recommended by our agent) and I had a whole list of points as to why we were offering less.

I feel like I'm doing a lot of the agent's work here. For example, she claims that learning anything about the price history of the house, or anything about the seller, is irrelevant. I think that's nuts! Someone who bought an uber-fancy house at the top of the market and still has a huge mortgage is much less likely to come down in price than (as in our case) one who is selling their parents' estate; the house was purchased in the 70s. But I had to dig up that information myself.
I think some of the -- well, for lack of a better word -- friction you are encountering with your agent is a difference in perspective. Not to defend her unduly; I really don't know her.

But, for instance, I don't think it's often so clear that houses can be priced correctly solely by factoring size, age, and the highly variable "condition". As iris lilies pointed out, sometimes it's less quantitative things like the quality of the finish that can price a house higher or lower. Or being the sole Colonial in a neighborhood of 40's & 50's ramblers. Or the agent may be familiar with (proposed) zoning rules in the area which could affect the prices in a neighborhood relative to other locations. There are a lot of moving parts to property sales.

I don't agree with the agent that learning the price history of a house has no value. But, in a sense, she's correct in maintaining that, really, the only price that matters for a house is the one at which it sells. What it cost ten years ago or even two years ago is immaterial. Whether the sellers bought at the top of the market in '06 and are now underwater or are free and clear after years of mortgage-paying -- not your issue. The house is worth what it's worth. It's not worth any less because there's no mortgage and you certainly would not want to pay more to compensate sellers for their money woes.

The sellers whose home is underwater may want to hold out for the highest price they can get. But trying to hold on for months or years for the right offer is counterproductive. Sellers might be lucky if market conditions advance that rapidly. More usually, though, hold-out sellers are offerng buyers a listing that is several months old, leaving the buyers to wonder what's wrong with the house because it hasn’t sold.

Your agent also may be a little skittish about the personal information they can offer about the seller. There are rules (even for agents) about what they can disclose about a seller's or buyer's demographics -- even, sometimes, when the parties agree to disclose such information.

Again, not to defend your agent necessarily. This simply may be a bad match. I'm just applying a perspective from the other side of the table.

[Teacher Terry]

Once when we were buying in a pretty tight market it was a big home & you could tell some of the bedrooms were decorated for kids but the guy was living there alone. He told us a story about his family already being in another home in the same town yet it was evident he was sleeping there & no one else. My agent looked in the closet & refrigerator & said she would bet he was getting a divorce & they would need to move the house. Even in a seller's market we got it for quite a bit less so I guess the agent was right.