RE Agents Hate Brownstoner
So I been doing lots of open houses the past few months looking for a place. Every time I encounter a real estate agent and mention Brownstoner, their demeanor changes. Some have flat out said they hate this site. What’s with all the animosity towards Brownstoner? This is a great site! Most probably feel we…
So I been doing lots of open houses the past few months looking for a place. Every time I encounter a real estate agent and mention Brownstoner, their demeanor changes. Some have flat out said they hate this site. What’s with all the animosity towards Brownstoner? This is a great site! Most probably feel we (users) force RE agents, developers, etc on being more honest. So they cant cut corners and blatantly lie. What do you all think? Similar experience in the field?
I completely understand there are terrible agents/brokers and I do not have a problem with people expressing their opinions about it, but I don’t think that we should all be lumped together. If you’ve had a bad experience with a particular agent or office than say it, don’t just blame all real estate agents.
Again, like I said, I do not hate brownstoner, I just dont’ like how negative it can be about properties, prices and agents. I think there are a lot of positive things to be said about all those things and I wish that came through more on this blog. It wasn’t always this negative and when it wasn’t so negative Brownstoner used to carry a little more weight with agents/brokers and actually took in the constructive criticism.
Well, knowledge is power, and it compromises what a broker has historically been able to do, especially in the pre-internet days. It makes you work harder, in ANY business, when the client is halfway there in the knowledge department and just need you to bring your expertise and work to earn your commission.
Like the travel brokers, who went the way of the dinosaurs once we had access to the same info they did, any real estate broker who can truly offer a useful service will stay in business. The ones who rely on us being ignorant fools are the ones who feel an arrow in their back at the mention of Brownstoner.
I think this site is pretty fantastic. I mean, I could do without some of the hysteria but generally I think it’s people who really like Brooklyn and really like brownstones talking about what they like.
Real estate brokers are trying to sell and get the best price possible. So, okay. That’s their job. Some of them are really helpful and some of them are really rude and the prices are what buyers will pay.
Broker – FYI, I don’t hate agents. In fact, I’ve worked with great sales and rental agents at Corcoran over the past dozen years, and recently recommended one of my agents to a fellow poster.
Re: broker
Most buyers first see properties online and will only visit those properties that have made a valid attempt to represent reality. If it looks bad online chances are pretty good that it will be bad when you hit the open house.
Information is valuable when the people you have to deal with hold all the cards.
If Brokers were transparent and provided a service then negative comments would be far and few between.
“Another thing I do not particular like is that if a person posts a request about whether or not to use an agent, again, almost automatically, the comments say do not use an agent and then rant about how terrible agents are in real estate.”
Your industry has brought this on yourselves by relentlessly screwing people very chance you get. It’s not just 1% or 2% of realtors who do this. It is more like 65-75%.
I’m sorry if you are part of the 25-35% of realtors who don’t lie, exaggerate, or mislead, but your colleagues have caused more than enough damage to the community to overshadow your good efforts.
Rather than trying to keep people from figuring out the truth, maybe you should try cleaning up your industry.
I Said HALF of the comments are ridiculous. I think that’s pretty fair. Especially when people are critiquing properties. Most comments slant well into the negative/snarky category. Very few level heads or even optimists around here.
I still read it daily, and still find it helpful, but I disagree that MOST comments are useful.
Lets be clear I (we) don’t hate agents…What we hate is the continues lack of professionalism that we’ve experienced when dealing with agents. I have had agents become very nasty and not disclose important information about the property in question. Yes, it there job to sell the property but agents tend to cross the line in order to do so. For example…my significant other and I had an agent making decisions on behave of the seller without ever having a conversation with the seller. We’ve even experienced a completely made up bidding war all because the agents wanted a larger commission…..COME ON!
I am no fan of real estate agents, to put it mildly. But I have found that many (certainly not all) of the comments on open houses are misinformed and clearly from people who have not seen the house and/or are not really knowledgeable about carpentry/restoration/etc. And those comments are almost always negative. However, I have no trouble with getting under the real estate professionals’ thin skins.