Things must be slow for real estate agents

Buying & Selling Real Estate
2yFollow

Things must be slow for real estate agents

Matthew Paul
Severna Park, MD · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes

I put my personal house up for sale on Zillow as a FSBO . The responses have been overwhelming . In 3 days I have had 65 calls . Two from regular people and 63 from real estate agents . They all seemed to be reading off the same script , telling me how great they were , how they could make things easy how selling a house is difficult without the assistance of a professional . Honestly the majority sounded like used car salesmen . This wasnt just local agents but they were from all corners of the state of Maryland . Funny how all of them has interested buyers looking for a house in my area .

After a while I just answered the phone by saying , " Oh wow another real estate agent how can I help you ? " 

I have been in business over 40 years as a contractor ,  never cold called , never knocked on a door . Always had more work than I could handle due to our reputation .  After the conversations I has with these agents ( I am not painting all agents )  they sounded like used car salesmen talking down to someone .  I wasnt impressed with 95% of them .

9Reply
106 views

Most Popular Reply

Jack Seiden
Real Estate Agent · Washington DC · Member since 2016 · 847 posts · 654 votes
2y
Quote from @Matthew Paul:

I put my personal house up for sale on Zillow as a FSBO . The responses have been overwhelming . In 3 days I have had 65 calls . Two from regular people and 63 from real estate agents . They all seemed to be reading off the same script , telling me how great they were , how they could make things easy how selling a house is difficult without the assistance of a professional . Honestly the majority sounded like used car salesmen . This wasnt just local agents but they were from all corners of the state of Maryland . Funny how all of them has interested buyers looking for a house in my area .

After a while I just answered the phone by saying , " Oh wow another real estate agent how can I help you ? " 

I have been in business over 40 years as a contractor ,  never cold called , never knocked on a door . Always had more work than I could handle due to our reputation .  After the conversations I has with these agents ( I am not painting all agents )  they sounded like used car salesmen talking down to someone .  I wasnt impressed with 95% of them .


 A lot of people don’t realize this, but in addition to real estate agents selling stuff, they are also being sold, every brokerage, every title company, even lenders, have courses on literally scripts, how to build out your social media, how to find fsbo listings etc, truth is none of these are effective, pretty much the only way to be a successful agent is either ton of ad spend or the hard work of meeting people in person through events meetups etc, but brokerages make money by head count, even title and lenders are happy if you close a few deals a year with them, so they sell this stuff to agents who than use those scripts on you, it’s a whole prymond scheme lol

7Reply
See this reply in the discussion

28 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Minna Reid
    Real Estate Broker · Jacksonville FL & Middletown, CT · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 632 votes
    2y

    It's not just the agents, it's the investors too. As a Realtor I get multiple calls/texts weekly with the same investor scripts and have been for at least a year now. They're not even creative, as I feel there are maybe 3 versions of the same script they are all using. The inventory is just not there for anyone. 

    Lot of agents and investors will be flushed out...which IMO is a good thing. 

    1Reply
  • Danae PitcherBusiness Member
    Realtor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2023 · 61 posts · 61 votes
    2y

    @Matthew Paul As a Realtor, I have never cold called a FSBO for the very reason you mentioned here in your post. I don't like the thought of having to solicit listings and have never done so. I'm not experiencing much of a slow down in my market, even with the interest rates being higher. I think even if we do have a bit of a correction in our market, it will still stay relatively strong and you should have some takers on your house soon. If the agents have buyers, let them bring them to you. I'm sure you would be willing to pay a commission if they brought you a qualified buyer, so it shouldn't matter to them whether or not you are selling By Owner. Good luck with your sale. :-)

    [email protected]863-255-2300
    Florida Resort Realty511 Reviews
    WebsiteView Page
    1Reply
  • Charlie MacPherson
    China, ME · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Minna Reid:

    It's not just the agents, it's the investors too. As a Realtor I get multiple calls/texts weekly with the same investor scripts and have been for at least a year now. They're not even creative, as I feel there are maybe 3 versions of the same script they are all using. The inventory is just not there for anyone. 

    Lot of agents and investors will be flushed out...which IMO is a good thing.

    I see the same garbage in business brokering.  Private equity firms contact me daily about a company I have listed, and most of them are just time wasters.  They read a script, express an interest, ask me to jump through hoops, sending NDAs, financials and answering dozens of questions.

    And then...crickets.  I have several blacklisted in my CRM for exactly that reason.

    I had one especially egregious case recently.  I have a business on the market at $5.3M.  It's super strong, with $1.3M in net cash flow to the owner.  This is cream of the crop stuff.

    A PE "investor" called and says "I want to send you a letter of intent".  (REALLY?  For a business you have not even seen?  Reviewed the financials?? Or talked with the owner??)  The best part was he wanted a 90 day due diligence.  My BS detector went off the scale.

    He's a "search fund".  That means that he knows people with money.  He wants me to take this top-performing business off the market for 3 months (!!!) while he goes to find money.

    Just like in real estate, one of the most frustrating parts of my work is shooing away tire-kickers and time wasters.
    1Reply
Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.
Log InJoin for Free