Real estate agents: Why use them?

[fvkasm2x]

Agents are held to the ethical rule that they must act in both the seller and the buyer parties' best interests

An interesting quote I found in an article on the right panel about "first time home buyers."

If you find an agent like this, keep them. Like most people, I think the majority of them act in their own best interest first (read: get the sale for commission).

[Wally]

I have bought and sold properties both with and without the use of R.E. Agents, it really depends on the agent, I can think of 3 I will never call or recommend and I can think of three who I would recommend to my own mother. The key to the trasaction details is in the paperwork, The biggest problems I had were easily fixed by a good r.e. Lawyer.

[crazyoleme]

Was wondering if there is really any reason to use them? I had problems after closing the deal on a house and was told by my real estate agent that they cannot help me solve the problem. They are under no legal obligation to deal with any dispute over what was in contract. It seems all they do is list a house or send you emails with listing which one can get easily off the mls. Then they write up the offer or counter offer and collect their hefty fees and that's it. It is now up to me to hire a lawyer, find the other party where they have moved to, and go to court over it. I was shocked at how little they do and zero protection I had in their contract they write up.The other party does not have to honour the contract. It is up to me to go to court in hopes that I can recoup some of my losses that I had to put out. Are there any good real estate agents in Kelowna??

If you do not understand your legal obligations under a contract you should not be entering into it.

Closing the deal? What do you mean by that?
You can access mls true, but to list on mls one must be a realtor so hence all homes on mls have a realtor involved.
It is not their contract, it is yours and you were also given information on exactly what it was that the realtor was responsible for when you took them on as your agent.
Wrong, the other part must honour the contract and if they do not then you do have the right to take them to court, YOU not the realtor. If this is all about a purchase with subjects which you could not remove and the other party was the seller and sold to someone else then you would get your deposit back and that would be it.
If you were selling and set your heart on the sale with subjects and figured it was a done deal then you have learned a valuable lesson.... it has not sold until the money is in your hands!

[dcipher]

The amount of math in the latest course is overkill big time .In my opinion most high level math, unless you are going to be a physicist or rocket scientist or math prof is a huge waste of time.

You've now admitted to exaggerating the math requirements. Once again, the math requirements are approximately a grade 11 level; you can call that "high level" if you like. If you think that is "overkill", again, you are entitled to your opinion.

The math on the real estate exam essentially requires grade 11 skills, and as you know, involves simple business calculations involving, for example: mortgages, payments, and interest. Perhaps this is indeed a "huge waste of time" for a realtor. I'm not interested in speaking to that.

I chose not to answer most of the math questions as was much stronger in the other non math areas. The test has 100 questions and 3 hours to do it. Each question is worth one mark only.
Math questions can be done quickly if you remember the formula or they can take a long time and of course there is only one right answer especially when they are talking high degree of accuracy where you are doing things out to a lot of decimal places.

The fact that you specify "lot of decimal places" as a source of difficulty is an indicator of just how "high level" this math is. (an extremely trivial concern at any university level math...even intro courses). Of course this becomes nonsensical when using a business calculator! :-O

Some people have a very hard time with math. Some have a very hard time with things like law. People tend to be right or left brain people.

Actually if you reread my posts, you'll see I already mentioned this, though the right/left brain paradigm is simplistic, and very likely not very accurate. Neuroscience has changed quite a bit. In any case, it's irrelevant to your claim of "high level" math, except to say that indeed, some people may find grade 11 math (exactly what I said in a previous post). Again, people can judge for themselves whether your claim of having to do "high level" math is correct. They now know that it is high school level math (again, a google search can easily verify this); in addition, they now know that one can actually skip the math entirely, and still be successful on the exam. All this they can measure against your claim.

Keep wondering why you keep harping on the math subject? You consider yourself more intelligent than me because you are really good at math?

Incorrect. First, it was YOU who made the claim of having been required to do "high level" MATH. Second, it was YOU who chose, and continue to choose to maintain this claim, even though you have now admitted to "exaggerating". Third, it was YOU who challenged me to compare my exam results to your own. It is you who continue to belabor this topic with misdirection and intellectual dishonesty.

Pure I.Q. type inteliigence is hardly a requirement for being a successful salesman fact many people who tested low in school and went on to do very very well were very successful. Fact pretty sure read that Albert Einstein flunked out of math in school.

Actually "intelligence" is a fluid, and difficult to define term, so it would be difficult to discuss it in any meaningful way without extensive operating definitions. I don't think it's relevant to your claim, but you keep bringing it up. Despite your accusations, it seems that it is you who have an issue with it.

You can say what you want the current test has 70 plus per cent failure rate , the failure rate on repeated tests is still pretty high, the passing mark is 65% and at least half the people writing the test when I was there writing walked out mad at the 1 hour or 2 hour point. And you need every minute on that test mostly because of the math questions.

Yes, the failure/drop out rate in math 11/12 in adult basic education is very high as well. Of course, this isn't an indication of exam difficulty at all (I should think that obvious...again the drop out rate of that same math 12 course is likely considerably higher than most med schools), so I don't know why you keep bringing that up. It merely states that most candidates were not adequately prepared for the exam, it speaks nothing to the exam itself. particularly when the background, and preparation of the writers varies so wildly. Note however, that your last statement is incorrect, one need not spend any time on the math questions, since you passed without being able to do them.

[phasyluck]

Yep realtors cost a fair chunk of change no doubt.....like every profession and trade. Good realtors sell quick because they have connections and know the market they work in, on the flip side selling by owner saves money if you're not in a hurry to dump your shack. To each his own!

[mxrcer2000]

yaktak, I like that idea of the hold back. Wish I thought of it as might have saved a lot of hassel. My original post was about how the realitors do not provide any protection in the breaking of a contract nor do the offer any help in the settling of any dispute. Once they have their money it is last you hear from them except for their junk mail. Our realitor did show us homes but ended up we found the one we bought ourself. Had him set up the showing and do the paperwork with the negotation. But other then that not much else he did. He also wouldn't show us any fsbo houses. Sent us an automated email with listing off the MLS, which as stated by others here can be looked at by anyone. The buyer has no protection at all using a realitor. Had one other realitor before who refused to put an offer on a house because it was too low in his opion. Was not his money he was trying to spend. ( found out later the house sold for $7,000 more then our offer). Maybe using a realitor to sell I might consider but to buy... never again.

Usually a good realtor will go to bat for you and try and settle the differences between buyer and seller after the deal completes if there are issues. It usually starts with hearing your concerns then working with the other realtor involved to try and get the two parties differences settled so that no legal action needs to be taken. If one or both the buyer and seller simply refuse to comply, that's when the contract needs to be leaned on. Sadly, it takes a lawyer to do the enforcing. The realtor can't go put a gun to the guilty parties head and demand that the missing items are returned and the home be cleaned up to the state in which the contract says it should be. Regarding "for sale by owner" homes, at times realtors will stay clear of them due to the potential legal ramifications that could arise in dealing on a property that is not on the "MLS" system...but if asked, most likely to keep their client happy they would oblige and go through the process of protecting themselves. Regarding your point about never hearing from your realtor again after the check has been cashed...that is a realtor who won't be in business long. A good realtor will provide a nice client appreciation gift at the completion of the sale and follow up with you on a fairly regular basis. I know in a lot of situations that end poorly, it's easy to point the finger at the nearest target and in this case it seems as though it's your realtor that's taking the brunt of it. I'm sure that if that person has been successful in the business for a decent period of time with a solid reputation that there was just simply not a lot he could do other than suggest you seek legal advice. Our realtor has done very well for us in the past, he's negotiated some huge savings off the asking prices on our purchases and looks out for our best interest. Sorry to hear about your bad luck on this one!

[Babbitman]

A lawyer cant enforce squat, thats the court's job.