Dodgy RE Agents..

[Realtorman]

The agent wont organise me a time to visit, wont tell me what time the open home is this weekend as he "Doesnt Know" and says to check the times out in the paper ?

Just sounds more than a little weird to me.

Sounds weird to me too.
This person needs to be kicked into touch.

As I said earlier I believe the next few months will see alot of current agents leave the business.

[Bluekiwi]

Sounds weird to me too.
This person needs to be kicked into touch.

As I said earlier I believe the next few months will see alot of current agents leave the business.

Especially on a 930k property.

But as I said early, if you happen to get a bad agent stick with them as their will beless opposition for you.

[artemis]

About using email to conduct business ....

A huge amount of business is done by email these days. Best to bite the bullet and learn to use it efficiently. If agents are not responding to emails because they are 2 finger typists, or because they are laboriously typing out every reply, or because they don't want to waste time on tyre kickers, they need to get a lot smarter.

For example, most email software has rule based, autocorrect and signature functions. It is not too hard to set these up for each property an agent has on his/her books so that if a general enquiry comes in an email is generated easily with useful information.

Using the autocorrect function - set up 2 or 3 paragraphs about a property, or general paragraphs which could apply more widely, assign a shortcut set of keys to each para, keep the list of shortcuts handy and choose the approprate paras to send polite and informative emails with a few keystrokes.

For example, set up an autocorrect called [bye. Set it up to call up text such as .... Thank you very much for contacting me. If you have more questions, or if you would like me to keep an eye out for similar properties, please do email or call with details. My contact details are shown below.

Or another called [14gre which calls up a para about 14 Green Street with details about open homes.

How hard is that?

[k1w1]

You lost me at "About using emails"

[artemis]

You lost me at "About using emails"

Sorry!

I was trying to give examples of how someone can work smarter with email, to enable much more communication with a lot less work.

It requires a little planning up front, but can save a vast amount of time ongoing.

Not all email software uses the functions in the examples I gave, but a lot do. I would expect that most firms with multiple office locations use email software with similar functionality though, eg Microsoft Outlook.

[k1w1]

Oh my........

[AndrewK]

So why is it then, that these three professions get the worst bagging: Lawyers, RE Agents and Car salespeople?

It's because they piss off the most people.

Sure, there are nice ones in all professions. But I would bet money that the incidence of a-holes in each of those jobs is higher than all the butchers in NZ.

Or maybe its because the industries they represent are involved in the biggest financial expenditures your average households ever encounter and no matter how good a deal you get anything that costs you that much and seemingly makes someone a hefty profit breeds contempt

[k1w1]

By that definition, bank managers should be reviled too. But they're not.

[Realtorman]

Or maybe its because the industries they represent are involved in the biggest financial expenditures your average households ever encounter and no matter how good a deal you get anything that costs you that much and seemingly makes someone a hefty profit breeds contempt

I tend to agree with you Andrew.
Part of the tall poppy syndrome I guess.
There is an unhealthy attitude shown to those in this country that make a dollar off ordinary Joe Public.

There are no bank managers now. They are a thing of the past. You only get drones who refer anything other than basic to head office.
In the days when we had bank managers they were held in high regard by Joe Public as they had to grovel to them to get a loan. a Lord and servant syndrome.

The others were seen to be taking money for evil profit.

[k1w1]

Ha. Nothing to do with TPS and everything to do with simply bumping into a large proportion of people whose parent's marital status when they were born can be seriously questioned.

[k1w1]

Tell me this...why are those 3 jobs consistently amongst the most hated people in other western countries, including the UK and US?

You'll tell me it's Tall Poppy Syndrome there too, next.

There must be something about those jobs that just attracts 'those people'. You know who you are. :-)

[Judge]

Kiwi, I am one of "those people" you are referring to and can tell you from experience - everyone hates lawyers until they need one. When people get into trouble and need advice they suddenly start loving lawyers and begin to appreciate that lawyers can add a lot of value and save people a lot of trouble. This is why lawyers do not really mind being "hated". Because most of those who "hate" lawyers, come to "love" us sooner or later.
Anyway, what do you do for a living?

[halfempty]

This really has developed into a very very funny thread.

We (myself included) seem to have had "Interesting" times dealing with agents.

So it would be fair to say that most investors at some time or another have had an issue with a real estate agent.

Based on that we quickly assume that most agents are hard to deal with.
Wouldn't it be just as easy to assume that we as a group are no picnic to deal with either.

We have all seen how the people on this website treat each other at times.


For my part agents are far from a required evil.

Most of the great profits I've ever made started with a conversation with an agent.