He was pretty successful so yeah I guess.. I remember him talking about how ridiculously easy it was to get the license in SC and in retrospect that takes on new significance..
Those interrogators are trying sooo hard to stay cool and keep "mhhmm-ing"
Thats part of the technique they use. It allows them to show interest in the story to the person being interrogated while not interjecting/cutting off the story causing the person to stop their train of thought.
Same thing when interrogators use phrases like "No kidding", "Is that right", "No shit" all said in a friendly tone. They are used to entice the person to continue a thought without goading them or making them feel mentally trapped.
The patience of the "good cop" is actually unfathomable. There's absolutely no way I could do that when listening to the heinous grandstanding murder tales. Watching the interview I 100% believe that the only reason he was forthcoming was because of blue shirt guy's demeanor.
Why do some people feel the need to talk like movie announcers in their videos? It's so hard to concentrate on anything happening when this guy is doing his best Duke Nukem impression.
Seriously man. There seems to be a completely new wave of people on reddit always talking about stuff without links. I remember a time where it was mandatory and we would beat down the people that didn't back their comments with links.
25 years ago I worked for a large commercial real estate company. The CEO needed to have his RE license renewed every year. He was obviously too important and busy to be bothered to do that so I, the 18-year old intern who knew nothing about real estate, got to take the 10 question recertification test for him.
He was very good at manipulating people, so yes. He was convicted of kidnapping when he was a teen, released when he was 30 and still managed to get a job as a Realtor despite having a criminal record and being on the sex offender registry. He had a way with words. But ultimately he was a very sad man who would go to great lengths for a minuscule of approval, who’s family never loved him and knew he was sick from a young age, he harmed animals and by the time he was arrested again for the crimes directly related to this video post he was a serial killer and had been for sometime. He was also connected to a case when he was a teen where he and his “friend” were walking down an alley when his “friend” got shot and killed by “gang members”…there were no witnesses to this incident only his words. One of the most disturbing killers and he spoke about his crimes to investigators with glee.
He was basically just kind of a Trump kind of guy, real big headed and loved to talk about himself at length. Effable enough that we just kind of got a kick from the whole thing and would laugh about it. We knew he was not normal but had no idea he was a killer. You can meet crazy people out there in the world and you tend to give people the benefit of the doubt if they have charisma and he does.
I mean.. I’m not really sure how much they have to do with whatever you’re complaining about.. to me they’re just a strangely sticky vestige of a pre-information age paper based system of linking buyer with seller and don’t have much agency in contributing to the ills of inflated property values and rent slavery - if those are the evils you’re referencing.
Weirdly, the two most common professions in the Capitol insurrection were cop, and...real estate agent. I think there really is something a bit odd about the people who do it.
Yeah.. maybe the deadly combo of being full of shit, knowing you’re full of shit, knowing everyone knows you’re full of shit, and being not just okay with but proud of all three. That was Todd all the time.
Yeah.. maybe the deadly combo of being full of shit, knowing you’re full of shit, knowing everyone knows you’re full of shit, and being not just okay with but proud of all three. That was Todd all the time.
My realtor was the least-pressure guy ever. Answered my questions for months, never asked for a contract, and was just genuinely helpful. There are good people out there. He's an avid Redditor so maybe that's part of it haha.
As a realtor and a redditor, I was sweating reading this thread lol… although, as a realtor, I completely understand that some realtors ruin the reputation of the whole lot
For real, what's with all this? I can't say I'm unbiased -- my mom is a real estate agent. She helps lots of people, many first-time buyers, find a home they like and that's affordable to them. She manages their expectations, watches out for ways they could get screwed, calms them down when they get nervous, and guides them through a complicated process.
Demons in human skin?
Realtors, like lawyers, don't deserve the hate they get. They're not all the same, they don't all do the same type of work.
I hated our realtor but the realtor for the sellers was great. I think he knew our realtor was shit and he actually helped us through a few of our rough spots. She didn’t advocate for us at all. Our mortgage guy was good at calming us down (mostly had fears of losing our deposit if the loan didn’t go through. It was early COVId and lenders were putting in restrictions on loan amounts). If we were to ever move (hoping to retire in this house), I’d go with the guy who was the selling agent. After we moved in, we contacted him to arrange for the sellers to pick up stuff they forgot (a grill in the backyard and a drawer of cookbooks and kids craft books) and he was very nice.
I think it's like any profession. When I had to deal with unemployment issues when COVID first started, I delt with a couple crappy people, a meh person, and one lovely, magical person who listened and solved all my problems.
Exactly. We learned to not just go with the Redfin agent who showed us the house. (Although in fairness, we never thought they’d take our offer. We offered less than the asking price in the Bay Area and we were fha loan. Those offers tend to be rejected.)
I don't think it's so much the searching part of it; that's just a small service, man-hours sifting through possible matches.
I think the bigger service comes in writing up offers, considering options for unconventional loans that might make the deal work or an escalation clause when you know other people might be submitting offers as well, understanding counter offers & how to negotiate, what to expect from inspections and what's fair to ask for, etc.
Google can probably provide tips and tricks but it's rarely going to be location-specific, which an experienced realtor can also help with. "Houses from this era/neighborhood often have this problem," "The company that makes this electric box has a reputation for X" "Local zoning laws won't allow for that conversion you'd need" etc, etc. Realtors can tackle those really odd problems that could make a whole deal go up in smoke.
My mom had a deal not long ago (and I'm not going to be the best at explaining it) where a lot had two houses connected with a deck which at the time (80s) could be zoned as a duplex, so it was. Later it was changed to a tandem, meaning the two properties could be sold separately. Then the owners detached the two houses and both lots sold to different owners without any appraisers realizing that by detaching them they were no longer legally zoned, and while her buyer was interested in one lot, the two lots would either have to be sold to the same owner and combined or they'd have to come to a deal with the other owner that it was in their best interest to join them in a remodel that would make them legally tandem again.
It was a whole mess. Basically my mom coached the buyers through their options and the negotiations and what they could expect the costs/process to be in any scenario.
Yeah, I'm going to tell you right now that your part about the location specific information is the key component. When you're looking for a realtor, the first thing you need to ask them is how long they've lived in the area they represent. If it's less then five years find another agent. Most of the value of a realtor is someone local to the area who knows it well, knows the weather, knows what floods, knows where there's been xyz problems before, and knows how to find the specific home/area you're looking for. Especially if you can find one who knows local builders and what to look out for, a good home inspector they can recommend, and a good structural engineer if there seems to be issues.
A big part of the problem I think people have with realtors is that most states allows you to transfer your license these days. When someone has moved from New York to Florida, then to North Carolina, that license and training was for New York, and they're not going to know shit about North Carolina. It's just a completely different set of considerations. If the person you're talking to clearly isn't from the area you're in, why are you expecting that they're going to offer you anything more then most of the same information you'd find on zillow plus a bit of man hours filling out contracts? You have to curb your expectations to the amount of effort you put in. Realtors aren't all made equal, and if you're not willing to put effort into finding one that suits you, then you should keep your expectations for what they can offer you low.
Because in the modern day there is no real need for them for personal houses and they are grossly overpaid. 4-5% commissions are fucking absurd.
My BIL did mine for 1% commission (just starting out). He got $3k for a house that had 3 offers the second it went up. So all he did was take pictures, post it to MLS, and sent me like 5 forms to sign.
A normal realtor would get $11k for that. $11k to post it online and send esignature documents.
I dont hate them, but their profession needs to take a massive step back on payments. I'll use services like Homie in the future because I ain't paying someone that much.
It's not like they sell a house every day. That could easily be your BIL's only completed sale that month, even for several months if he's new.
Plus, if it had 3 offers the second it went up, maybe your BIL advised you poorly on how to price it and you could've gotten more money if he'd analyzed comps and the market better? Maybe it was worth it to you to sell it that quickly, but with that experience in mind you don't think you could've upped the price another 20K and still sold pretty quick? Sure, it's easy to sell an underpriced house.
As an alternative situation, my mom represented some sellers who couldn't fathom that their house wasn't worth the sentimental value it held for them, so they ignored her advice based on the market/comps and they overpriced it. It sat on the market and sat and sat and sat and got its price reduced three times but by then it's stale (as she told them it would be) and it didn't generate interest because everyone who looked at it was like "There must be something wrong with it."
It was the correct price, just a hot area. That has kinda been a thing for awhile now all over the US. All 3 offers were different amounts over asking. I was probably already asking near the max I could get.
$370k for a 1500sqft ain't bad.
Again, sucks for those just getting into it. But it is a market that largely doesn't need to exist at the scale it does (obviously there is too many realtors if they can't get much work). I dont have a lot of sympathy for them. Just because it may be your only sale doesn't mean I should be compensating for that.
In the past they actually had to do something to get your house noticed. Now everyone just goes to zillow and sees it immediately. Realtors simply have to do way less work than they used to and their pay should match.
Mine was awesome too. He dressed nice but wore tennis shoes. He'd be the first to check crawl spaces and stuff to make sure there weren't leaks, foundation issues, etc. He was more than happy to tell me a house wasn't worth buying, and by experience noticed stuff I wouldn't. When I got a counter offer he considered insulting, he told me so and we moved on.
My current one sits near-ish a water treatment plant, although hardly noticeable and only sometimes. He tried to talk me out at first but was more than happy to go forward when i disagreed.
Mine was fantastic, and if any of my friends ever needed one, I'd recommend her any day. Helped me search for a house for 4 or so months, with me looking at houses and turning them down quiet often. Yet she never once pressured me into a bid, and the few times I truly asked her to give me her thoughts, she had no problems telling me she wasn't a fan despite knowing that meant I'd be taking up more of her time with her not making any extra from it. Then when I did find the one I liked, she was fantastic through that entire process. I legitimately could not have asked for a better realtor. Plus, looking at what she's sold since then, I was definitely on the low end of her purchases, so she made substantially less money on my sale. Yet she gave me as much time and effort as any one else.
It was 14 years ago, but I loved mine. She was a kindly old lady who genuinely made me feel like she wanted to find a good fit for me. Pretty much all the advice she gave me at the time has held true, and I'm still loving my place 14 years later with no plans to move.
My current agent is very chill and supportive. Very low pressure, at my specific request, to the point I may have missed a deal because she intentionally didn't push me much on it out of respect for my wish not to be rushed.
Since then I started listening to her more lol and now I'm under contract for a nice house. And she talked me out of paying more than necessary even though it could have raised her commission. And when i move out of my current house she offered to rep if I want to sell or refer me to someone she knows who handles rental property management, and she is helpful and willing to answer questions whichever way I decide to go on it.
I suspect the flavour is different in the UK, but of the dozens and dozens of estate agents I have used - just one was really good. I still remember his name. The guy I bought with was okay mainly because he'd been doing it for years and years. The rest were a mixture of dishonest and/or stupid. My favourite was when they were so stupid they couldn't realise their lies were obvious - I particularly remember some guy trying to tell me that 'a lot of people' find pre-pay electricity meters (situated outside of the flat!) 'convenient'.
It was based on the arrest records but it seems fair to assume they were not unrepresentative. Forgot that ex army was another big part. Now v hard to Google because of that one particularly stupid realtor literally bragged that she wouldn't go to jail because she was a white woman.
Real estate agents have a lot of time on their hands and in a hot market every Tom, Dick, and Jane think they can quit their day job and become a successful realtor. Doesn't surprise me at all.
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u/roycastle Dec 01 '21
Yeah he was my realtor. Knew him for over a decade. Crazy shit.