The Escape Home: Advice from a longtime realtor: Owners are moaners, buyers are liars
This article is reprinted by permission from The Escape Home, a newsletter for second homeowners and those who want to be. Subscribe here. 2022. All rights reserved.
The longtime real estate agent snickered when I asked her to look back on her career and her clients. She said she had learned something that all realtors soon come to realize:
Owners are moaners, and buyers are liars.
Would she be willing to expand on that? Oh yes, shell dish provided that I do not print her name here. She is mostly out of the game she has announced her retirement several times but keeps getting just one more last deal that she cant turn down.
She probably wont have any more clients in the future, but just in case, she wouldnt want them to look her up and find an article full of what some might call indiscretion and gossip and what I would call good 411 and background advice.
She has represented both buyers and sellers in an area that features a mix of small towns and rural or semi-rural homes in popular recreation areas dotted with parks, lakes and hilly, wooded hiking trails. There are many exceptions, but full-time residents are typically drawn more to the towns, and weekenders to the countryside.
The owners-moaners and buyers-liars cross both categories, town and country, she said.
Owners who are selling their houses complain about everything, she said.
The owners complain that the realtor (as opposed to an unlicensed and uncapitalized real estate agent) is recommending a listing price that is too low; she points out that its in the interest of a realtor to list a house for as much as seems plausible. The higher the selling price, the more commission.
Continue read on marketwatch.com