Uneducated or Unethical Realtors?

[powayseller]

I was perusing the Realty Times section, and came across an article by agent Rima Hakooz who not only neglected to have someone proofread her very bad English, but also babbled on about the shortage of housing/land, and the increasing population, factors which she claims bode well for the RE market.

For your entertainment only. (Now you wouldn’t believe any of this, would you??)

“Increase in sales and inventory throughout Feb 2006 compare with a projected numbers and according to last year, San Diego market will again be fueled by the continuing shortage of housing across much of the state, according to C.A.R. economists. California Median home price increased compare with Dec 2005, new sky rise construactions play major rule to sustain healthy market, current trend improved continue, median home price is $776000.00, market time 55-60 days. shortage of land and housing has been shown.

The mix and New mortgages has also sustained market activity and will continue. Among all buyers in the survey, the share of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) As might be expected. to learn contact us today!!”

[privatebanker]

What the?!! I’m spellbound! How can this be approved for public dissemination? Regulators really need to crack down on these realtors and so called economists.

http://www.theprivatebanker.blogspot.com/

[Farls]

Wow….I actually know Rima as she used to work at an office in Carmel Mountain Ranch. She is in no position to be writing real estate articles. First of all, she’s new (maybe 2 years)in the business and I’m not sure if she’s even sold 10 homes in her career. She is certainly not an expert. She’s not from the U.S…and English is not her first language…so I’m not surprised of the grammatical errors…This further illustrates a major problem faced by the real estate industry…It’s way too easy for people to get a license and become “experts” overnight….thus ruining the credibility of the good, smart agents. (Yes….even though people like to rip all Realtors here in these forums…there are some good ones…But they’re outnumbered 20-1 by the slugs). The bubble will take care of most of the really crappy agents and part-timers….and the exodus of them from the business actually started a year ago..But until then the public still gets too much info telling them that the market is still great and real estate in San Diego will never decrease in value….

By the way, Powayseller…I like your posts…always informative…keep them coming…

[powayseller]

Thanks for the compliment.

I’m guessing that Rima is persian. I don’t fault her for her bad English, but she is irresponsible in publishing a document that was not proofread. If I were to publish a document in farsi or italian, I would definitely ask my boss to proofread it first.

As far as her misleading facts: most realtors make those same incorrect statements.

[Anonymous]

woow Mr and Mrs.. Rednecks English is my second language let me tell you about my experience with Rima, last year I met Rima in San Francisco she was attending the national association of realtors and you know guys its hard to believe that unsuccessful agent spends what Rima Does and continue on her education !! at that time I was looking to buy san Diego condo for my 1031 exchange , people bottom line because of Rima’s advise my friends and I bought Three sky rise Condos walk-in equity LOL , and you knew Mrs Farls Equa Vista and Grande sales reps were happy to see Rima over and over… so my advise to Mrs.. Farls is to stop being lazy, and go to learn some tip from a foreigner new agent in this business selling tips logon http://www.movebymove.com

Donna

[Farls]

Donna,

1. I never said Rima wasn’t a nice person. She’s very nice and tries hard to be a good real estate agent. Just because she goes to a real estate convention it doesn’t mean she’s successful. Many agents go to these things as a way to convince themselves that they’re actually busy….

2. She is not experienced enough to be writing forecasting type articles for any real estate publications in my opinion.

3. The fact that English is her 2nd language is no reason to get upset at me. If she is writing an article in English then it should be grammatically correct. It’s not even close and should never have been printed.

4. I have no idea what she’s trying to say in this article.

5. How can you describe me as being lazy when you don’t know me?

6. For the record….I was an agent to in San Diego and sold circles around Rima. But who’s counting…You brought it up….

7. While you were being advised to buy downtown…I was advising my clients to get the hell out of that market!!!! OF COURSE the people at the sales offices were happy to see Rima. No one else wanted to buy what they were selling. Here’s a tip: In a declining market when you buy a property for less than the last comp you don’t have instant equity. You just are the new owner of the sinking ship…

I hope you and your friends enjoy your “investment” properties downtown. They decrease in value everyday..

Farls

[lendingbubblecontinues]

Bravo!

Way to stand up for yourself.

[hs]

What a joke! Now you understand why I call most of them”used car sale people.”
I wonder if they get paid by writing for that”Realty Time”?

[Bugs]

The first thing I would recommend everyone keep in mind is that the way our system works now, the role of a realty agent is to act as an advocate for the real estate industry as a whole, brokerage as an occupation, the merits of the deal at hand, and finally the interests of the buyers and sellers; basically in that order. It is not reasonable to expect an objective and unbiased analysis of a deal from someone whose compensation is commensurate with the closing of that deal and the amount at which it closes. It’s not their role to be dispassionate or to act as an outside observer to what they’re doing, and it’s not reasonable to expect them do act outside of their role.

With respect to this article, you gotta give the author credit for being enthusiastic if not accurate. She’s repeating the party line and trying to get the message out, and that’s what NAR wants their foot soldiers to do. This is like a political campaign and the soundbites are what sell.

While we’re on the subject, I don’t think that it’s fair to give kudos to one agent with minimal experience just because they write what we want to hear, and then hassle another agent with minimal experience just because they write something we don’t want to hear.

To go even farther off point, I think the primary reason some of our exchanges get overheated is because we’re having a hard time addressing the message rather than the author. We can disagree on the issues and still be friends, but it’s almost impossible to call each other names and maintain a reasonable level of decorum. Stick to the point and skip the personality – that’ll keep it from getting too personal.

The more intolerance there is for diverse points of view the more narrow the focus of discussion and the less information actually gets exchanged. That’s how forums fade away.

[Anonymous]

Bug well said, Guys I have a question do you buy invest and when was the last time you sold in downtown bc I did give me numbers $$$, when I met Rima we talked about five yrs plan she was honest, very knowledgeable, her analysis was right she has tons of software, I was stunned when she told me that she’s new in the business Farls regardless she was not from US ” so are you saying successful chiness, Indian, Middle Eastern, French Italians us or non us citizens don’t know how to invest in our country LOL, go check us Stock market, and who we borrow money to keep going to Iraq( lenders) ohhh and in Real estate all master plan communities funds are mixed with foreigners money they are the one who don’t speak or type your perfect English then you continue sticking your guns (the bubble), if I Mrs. foreigner did record when the market was declining last year and still in today’s market with the increase of inventory, market trend and after paying Rima’s Fees, and I’m talking 75 k from refinancing alone so what are you talking about???? feel the real market

Donna the foreigner us citizen Lolo.

[SDbear]

I agree with you Bugs. We all have a hidden (or open Agenda) in expressing a particular opinion. If Realtors are doing it for their gains people can also claim that we are trying to propose the possibility of a burst so that we can get cheaper homes sooner. Any idea when accepted by a critical mass will be difficult to roll back from the masses and thats what all of us try to do. Blogs like this provide platform for more people to express their IDEAS and the stress should be on the content alone.

Why don’t we look at all this objectively? We can actually view this as another leading indicator. According to my understanding volumes lead prices. After some extended time of low volumes prices start going down. When the prices are falling volumes will be pretty high. Then there will be an extended period of low volumes and low inventory before prices start going up and during the runup to peak price there will be high volumes again. Realtors make money on the volumes. We have already seen the high volume, high price stage. It is actually in their best interest that prices start coming down to increase the volume and their income. I’m sure at some point of time NAR will start drumming the need for sellers to reduce prices so as to increase the turnover and business for their members (to stay true to their motto). This can actually help hasten the fall. At the end of the day we all do things for our personal gains. This is the idea behind the great capitalist society of ours and our founding fathers knew well to harness this tendency of the human mind to build this great nation. We just have to tune ourselves to harness the same tendency of others for our good. We won’t achieve anything by being or getting personal about it.

[powayseller]

I stand by my post. A professional needs to proofread their marketing materials, and not make material misrepresentation. I didn’t notice other realtors writing about land shortage or overpopulation. I was making fun of her lack of knowledge in a field where she is a salesperson, and also her indifference to good writing. If I were writing marketing material in farsi, I would ask a native to proofread it. Her claims about land shortage indicate her complete lack of understanding of real estate market forces. We’ve seen even in Japan, which is landlocked, prices can tumble, and even in Phoenix, which is desert as far as the eye can see, has seen huge price runups. We’ve had a population decline in San Diego. If i were writing marketing materials, I would verify the information first. But hey, you don’t need much education to be a realtor, so you get people like Rima…

As far as healthy exchange of ideas, I’m on the same page with that.

[Farls]

Donna,
I stand by my post. Maybe you should read it again. I don’t say anything about foreigners not being successful in the U.S….or their knowledge of investing in the country.

You telling me to “feel the real market” is laughable. I did feel the real market when I handled a listing for my client at The Grande late last year. The sellers were lucky to get out of it with any profit at all after buying it in pre-construction 2 years earlier.

As I said..Have fun with your “investment” downtown…and I seriously doubt you have $75K in instant equity on a property bought last year. But…have fun with that cash you’re taking out…Also, enjoy the negative cashflow.

Soon you will “feel the real market”…

Farls

[Farls]

Bugs,
Where was “credit given to an agent with minimal experience for writing what we want to hear”? If you were referring to me…I would not call my experience minimal (as I was involved in nearly 100 real estate transactions).

I do think it’s “reasonable to expect an objective and unbiased analysis of a deal from someone whose compensation is commensurate with the closing of that deal and the amount at which it closes”. You’re making it sound as if every Real estate agent is desperately chasing a paycheck….without regards to the goal of his/her clients. Maybe I was one of the few Realtors with a conscience…

I think you’re overestimating NAR’s control, direction and messages that they are trying to get out via their agents. Most agents have no contact with NAR except for getting a crappy magazine periodically that soon ends up in the recycling bin.

Farls

[lendingbubblecontinues]

I believe they were talking about Bob Casagrand.

[Author]

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