Realtors are getting desperate

[Pasadena Broker]

Oooh, we think we’re so clever making little quips about door knocking realtors and how there akin to black teenagers (why black? Is it a racial thing now?) selling $20 candy bars.

We see the differences in them versus ‘us’, and how they must be desperate or beneath us one or two notches because of their methods of marketing. But I would go out on a limb to say you’re the same people that would peek out their door and bashfully say ‘ uh, no, not now’…then run to your computer and quickly log onto Piggington to tell the virtual world how you bested a realtor.

Get over yourselves. You have more in common with that realtor than you could imagine. Do you teach your kids that they’re better than all the other kids in the class or, that we’re all connected as people? That’s right, this is a blog, we can type whatever we want and no one would be the wiser, like I said, makes us feel clever don’t it, because in the real world no one would give two shits about what we say, right?

[michigoose]

Realtors who knock on your door are clearly out to get to know both neighborhoods and people. It’s called prospecting. Do you really want someone representing you who just waits around for the phone to ring, or someone who actively makes an effort to meet new people and prospects every day?

I’d rather have a Realtor who knocks on doors and looks under rocks for someone to buy my house, than have someone who spends all day at the salon having her nails done. Wouldn’t you?

[JWM in SD]

Well PB, it really depends now doesn’t it? If they are polite about it, then no reason to be rude obviously. However, if they start spouting NAR propaganda then all bets are off. I would be just as abrasive as I am here.

[Bugs]

At its core, sales is a contact sport. Some people can make all the contacts they need to close their fair share of sales by hanging out in bars or by being the golf junky, or by being the little league parent or by going to church. As personally distressing to me as it is, I’m now seeing agents prospecting out in the lineup when I surf.

Working a farm area by knocking on doors is just another angle of approach – there are some individuals who cannot be contacted any other way.

[lendingbubblecontinues]

I’ve had mortgage brokers come-a-knockin too! Sorry, PB…we seem to have touched a nerve…get over it!

[Pasadena Broker]

JWM, of course, and you should be with anyone that parrots NAR. Believe it or not, there are those of us that don’t agree with NAR’s methods. And anyone that comes a knocking with that shite deserves a verbal blast.

No nerve, just setting the record straight as to why they’re doing what they do.

[NotCranky]

“At its core, sales is a contact sport”. For asecond their bugs and especially in the context of this thread, I took your meaning of RE sales as a “contact sport” literally! Seriously though, I can tell you JWM, anyone who has the nerve to go door to door will not get their feelings hurt by you. If you get agressive they will blow you off as a lunatic.

I absolutely agree with Raybyrnes that sales people should not bother their friends. Business will come from contacts but not through annoying insistence that it does. Besides my friends are just as crazy as anyone else when it comes to RE deals and are not the kind of clients I would automatically want.Some separation is often a good thing.

I hate it when agents pretend to be “True” friends with people. I once was doing a transaction and the realtor on the other side snickered and said . “This is easy these old geezers are lonely and think I am like their son or something.”

What I don’t care for with regards to the candy bar sales kids is that they say…”would you buy this candy bar to help me stay off drugs or so that I won’t come back and rob you” Whoever runs those groups of kids should be ashamed of the aggressive pan handling that is actually transpiring.

[want a good deal]

I think people who are willing to work hard are to be respected. There is no reason if one has enough business to stay busy to work the streets to add more that he cant handle. Now that business is slower they have the time to work the streets and get new business. There are probably those that are just working the streets because they are desperate because they dont know where their next mortgage payment is coming from. They can be aggressive and annoying but it is just because they are scared and disgusted that the gravy train is gone. They never wanted to work hard in the first place and dont deserve any respect. Either way why be mean to either type of person. Doesnt it just bring you down to a lowly level.

[desmond]

I listed the house I am living in now with the Realtor who knocked on my door. He seemed to be a great guy with not much experience but somebody had to give him a chance. I forgot to tell him I rent.

[NotCranky]

That’s funny Desmond did you get him to take you out to a couple of nice meals? A ball game?

I got my license in 1998. I never have been the pushy type. I can imagine all the people saying.. “if that damn Rustico knew what the hell he was doing we would have bought a lot of Real Estate! We would be Rich now! Stupid Realtors!I bet he bought it all for himself!

At that time my more experienced Broker was sending out letters targeted at working class people that said… “If you buy now you will be relatively wealthy in a few years.” For your information JWM he stopped doing that several years ago. I don’t think he goes door to door but I think he would be pretty honest if he did.He would definitely tell you you were a lunatic if you got wierd. The way I see it sellers are on a level playing field with buyers and deserve the best help they can get.(not that I want a bunch of unrealistic sellers). Perhaps those door to door types are offering that? You just don’t know.

[Navydoc]

Don’t knock the usefulness of them running into JWM, it could lead to a major life adjustment. It’s reminds me of how I got out of the RE game myself.

Back in 1990 I was an agent for Century 21 in Allentown PA. I was working a Saturday morning (August 2nd to be exact). I was cold-calling people in a neighborhood I knew pretty well. The homeowner answered the phone, I gave my best friendly greeting, then had to pull the phone away from my ear to blunt the resultant tirade that I had to endure for calling this guy on a Saturday morning. I hung up the phone and thought: gee, there’s got to be more to life than this. Maybe I should go to college.

Someone like JWM put me on the path to become a physician, so go ahead JWM, let ’em have it!

[lendingbubblecontinues]

desmond….that is too funny!!

It would be funny to take it to another level…use zabasearch to find the addresses of the prominent local realtors, create a flyer that shows distressed properties and foreclosures within a half-mile to 1-mile radius of where they live, and then go knocking on their doors, introducing yourself as someone who can help them if they or anyone they know are in financial trouble…imagine the shock and horror on their faces!

[NotCranky]

I guess being a DR. and a Realtor have one similiarty…you have to have the stomach for people shitting and puking all over you. I am glad you found your calling.

When I got my license I went to a Century 21 office. I think then and there I understood what a “talking head” was. The managing brokers eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen. He could have just had neon “sold” signs for
occular implants and he would have looked no more deficient of a soul.

[Raybyrnes]

The way I see it, 75 and sunny every day. I can sit in an office and get fat doing nothing and pretending I am going to make a sale or I can get out of the office and go for a leisurely walk with a stack of business cards and a smile on my face.

Here is what is funny to me. If everyone thinks that the market is going to implode would that mean that all of those people who had never even thought of selling their house should at least have a conversation with someone about their home value.

[meadandale]

@Raybyrnes wrote:

“Here is what is funny to me. If everyone thinks that the market is going to implode would that mean that all of those people who had never even thought of selling their house should at least have a conversation with someone about their home value.”

I recently spent several hours talking real estate with the buyers agent I used to buy my current house. He told me that 90% of his work right now is REO’s and short sales.

I also regularly see a realtor that I met when I was house hunting in this area. Turns out he and I frequent the same watering hole. We talk about the market alot.

I just find it strange that for the last 8 years, you never saw anyone pounding the pavement (this is the first realtor who EVER come to my door trying to drum up business)-just sitting back and collecting the 6% commission for doing nothing much more than listing your property on the MLS and handling the paperwork.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there’s alot of hard working realtors out there but the recent boom brought alot of riff raff into the industry because it was essentially ‘easy cash’. For the most part, houses sold themselves as seller’s agents sat back and watched multiple offerers competing against each other.

I guess it’s good to see some people out wearing out shoe leather but it speaks to how the market has turned around significantly.

[Author]

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