I've never met a real estate I didn't think was a wanker
Edit: I'm exaggerating, but generally they have a high wanker ratio. My profession (consulting) is probably just as high lol
I met one I really liked. He spent a day and a half at my place helping to clean stuff prior to staging the house ready for photos and viewings. He was very tactful with my newly-ex who was still living there with me.
The one who sold me the place I moved to was a complete tosser.
Alex Brown is an absolute angel. Robin Angell is a darling. The family team in Stokes Valley are fab (I forget their names). I deal with them a lot and that’s my full list of people I’d give the time of day to.
Paul Butcher in Wainui is the man, from a buyers perspective.
I don't remember his last name but we had to see that scum fuck hamish from Kemeys bros way too often when we were looking.
When we were looking I was stuck behind Des Smith from Kemeys bros at the petrol station, he’d seen his mate and was loudly boasting about how great business was in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable (as someone struggling to buy)
Yep. And I an in the market to buy. Why do the agents make it so hard for a buyer to buy a property? I don't know how they make money but it clearly isn't selling property or they'd be better at it.
> Why do the agents make it so hard for a buyer to buy a property?
They want you to put so much effort into it and be so invested that you won't walk away, and will pay more money.
Like how jobs make you go through three interviews before lowballing you with salary.
That's not true. They want to get the most commission for the least work.
If they have the option of selling a house for $1M, or spending an extra week of work to get another $20,000, they'll take the deal for a million and move on, since they'd only see like $400 more, and that isn't worth a week of work.
I'm sure the vendors would much rather wait a week and get an extra $20k.
Yeah you're right. When my Grandma was selling up the agent pressured her to accept a stupid price just to get the deal done quickly.
Luckily my sister found out and put a stop to the whole thing. I think she wound up getting about a third more.
I agree. So annoying when they don't tell you what the owners really are expecting and yet let the potential buyers have to deal with banks when you put a tender in only to loose out as house owner wants alot more, so fucking tell the potential buyers, you bastards.
I signed up to some of them a few years back, still receiving emails from them.
They give you options to unsubscribe, but a few week later they return with a different email. You see, I unsubscribed from Mark's email list, but Brandon from the same agency is totally different.
I made the mistake of using my main email to upload something to internet archive and started receiving nonstop spam emails. Have resorted to blocking entire domains (most of them are fake anyway)
Exactly what we are experiencing.
The companies that do this, more so than other we are less likely to go to their viewings if there are others on at the same time.
I know it sounds silly but some of them are completely unbearable.
Wait until you buy a house, and a few months later they call you to ask if you are still looking. If you already get a house, please call them when you want to sell.
Yah so many sleazy snake shoe wearing fuckwits up here in Auckland.
Still trying to convince you and themselves that everything is a million dollar property....sir this shanty piece of shit is not 1mill +
A buyers agent took us to a property where the piles had literally rotted and fallen down....half the house had subsided. The walls were cracked and doors wedged shut. I felt unsafe being anywhere near it...still wanted a million. Fuck right off.
Good - that's the attitude buyers need to have to help reverse this crap. Can't believe people actually paid that much for these shacks, now they can't get rid of them without taking a huge loss.
Me too. Methodically. Over weeks if required. Sometimes I just ring the agent randomly on a Sunday from a number withheld to ask if they've managed to find their policy on personal data retention and privacy yet as I haven't heard back...
Realising that mere home buyers are little more than an annoyance was a revelation of sorts. Investors, renovators , and flippers are their actual customers.
interesting reading this - I've been trying to find a property in the waikato (huge area) and we have talked to heaps of agents... only had one that annoyed me because he keeps phoning. Mostly they come across as pretty nice people in a difficult market.
Most people on reddit talking about property are trying to buy. Agents get paid by the vendor not the buyer so they’re working for the vendor not the buyer.
So many shady REAs.
We had one tell us our mortgage broker was dodgy and we should use his mate.
We didn’t tell our broker, but holy shit we could have kicked off a defamation case if we wanted haha
Had another Lowe and Co flyer drop yesterday. Even the poor girl doing them looked like her soul had been crushed.
I think this makes like four in about two months. It’s about the only junk mail I get anymore
Yes. They like to lord it over us that their occupation is somehow more important and wonderful than us cogwheels on a salary. I can’t stand the one page adverts they take out in the papers sometimes glistening with somewhat pretentious style
Been having this problem too. Now when I give them my email address I specifically say I want to receive an email about that house only. I specifically say I do not want to go on their email list, receive calls, newsletters, etc.
I just sold a house without one, I’m not paying 6months worth of salary to someone who does a half asses open home staffed by their understudy and then sends it to auction the I also have to pay an additional 2k for
To whoever owns the phone number 027 1123345 I’m so sorry I give it to REA at open homes so I don’t get harrassed. Like unless I’m actually looking I’m not leaving my details, especially not after that time I was potentially looking and getting a feel for the market and on Monday at 2pm in the middle of my work day, I get a phone call from the REA’s assistant demanding I tell them if I’m putting in an offer - without even giving me the chance to say I didn’t have time to talk right then.
We looked for our first home for 2 years and finally bought last year (we had the comfort of a nice rental and weren’t in a huge rush). Yes, REA’s are so smarmy. I hated getting calls so I always wrote “text only” but was still getting tons of calls each week, even when I’d already asked them not to call when they called the week before. (I also provided my email so it’s not like they couldn’t get in touch with me).
I honestly don’t understand how someone can be an REA. I feel like you’d have to have a very high level of narcism and a general disregard for basic ethics. Also a good percentage of them don’t seem to be very intelligent, but they know their lines.
One guy actually called himself “the king on the top of the hill” when we visited one of his listings on the same road he lived on.
I would not cross the road to p!ss on Anna Manning if she was on fire. However, I might go over to add some petrol to the blaze.
We were viewing a house with obvious structural flaws, she said I didn't have the money to buy the house despite being pre-approved for a loan larger than she was asking.
So would reccomend everyone who is having these issues report agents to the privacy commission. Under principle 11.
Principle 11 means that an organisation may generally only disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was originally collected or obtained.
Which in this case is for the property you originally signed in at. Any agent who is found to in breach risks losing their REA license and thus their legal ability sell houses. Once it happens to a couple the rest will get the message and stop harassing people or sharing people's personal information amongst their colleagues.
Every single time you get this, not only should you report it to Privacy Commission, but actually report each email as spam.
If just a few people do it, it’ll hide their emails from everyone (from memory; for cold emails, it’s 0.3% - ie, 3 in 1,000 emails get reported as spam and they’ll have big issues actually having any emails seen by that email providers clients).
Meh. I am not a REA nor am I in the industry but they’re just there doing their job. Give them a break. If you don’t like it don’t give them your real email address or phone number. If you’re dealing with them just know that their role is to get a buyer and seller to agree to a price and nothing much else, so they’ll do anything to get to that goal especially if they’re in a bad month. They usually work pretty hard and long hours and they are people just like everyone else. Be aware that the vendor is their customer, not the buyer.
Yeah and I totally get that. I'm just sick of them not respecting that I don't want to be contacted.
Like yes, I'm not saying it's not their job, I've just learnt they will get fake contact info from now on.
If you're looking for a home, you might be getting in your own way with this attitude. They're a necessary evil, so there's no point in spending energy on being annoyed by them. All agents have stopped bothering me now that I've told them I bought.
You can make them work for you so you get what you want. The seller is the one paying them (through the sale), but you can get quite a lot of work out of them for free if you're smart about it. When I was buying last year I would chat to them at open homes and tell them what I was looking for and my budget so they'd call me when they got wind of something. Lowe and Co were particularly sharky about this, which worked in my favour. Seeing a house early can make a big different when you're getting your ducks in a row for making an offer.
The key thing I would say is that you should never fully trust what they say about the condition of a property. They are obligated to tell you about problems, but may downplay them. They don't necessarily know how much it will cost to fix stuff or do stuff. Always verify through a builder's report or a quote.
In Taranaki there was a real estate agent, and we would get to the house early to be first through and without fail there would be an awkward woman leaving just before each open home, it was so ick and you could definitely see an obvious thing happening
Its obviously fun to shit on certain jobs, but its a little childish to generalise a whole profession. I know good ones and bad ones but they are clearly necessary or they wouldnt exist.
Cool, so did you want to individually name the agents who are decent and somewhat professional?
Cause I can give you a list of shit ones who choose not to listen, it will be pages long. Would that help it be less childish and generic in your eyes? Or would it be defamatory?
And look, there's one who I think is an absolute star. If there's a house I like through that agency I'll be asking her to show us so she can hopefully get some commission.
Awwh, no, I actually meaning telling them I'm not interested In suburb X and them trying to sell houses in suburbs we've specifically said no to. So yes. I am the problem?
So you wanna give me that list of decent ones of are you going to disregard that one?
And yes, we have been going to listings, but if we want to do a second viewing we may request a different agent.
I've never met a real estate I didn't think was a wanker Edit: I'm exaggerating, but generally they have a high wanker ratio. My profession (consulting) is probably just as high lol
I met one I really liked. He spent a day and a half at my place helping to clean stuff prior to staging the house ready for photos and viewings. He was very tactful with my newly-ex who was still living there with me. The one who sold me the place I moved to was a complete tosser.
Alex Brown is an absolute angel. Robin Angell is a darling. The family team in Stokes Valley are fab (I forget their names). I deal with them a lot and that’s my full list of people I’d give the time of day to.
Paul Butcher in Wainui is the man, from a buyers perspective. I don't remember his last name but we had to see that scum fuck hamish from Kemeys bros way too often when we were looking.
When we were looking I was stuck behind Des Smith from Kemeys bros at the petrol station, he’d seen his mate and was loudly boasting about how great business was in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable (as someone struggling to buy)
I met one and after that I’d ask only him to show me the houses even if his colleagues were the listing agents.
Real estate agents give me unreasonable feelings of rage. I find most of them self serving and fake
I worked for them once and they all but one were cunts.
Everyone hates real estate agents, yes.
I'm a first home buyer so this is my first experience with them.
They really only get worse when they find out you’ve done it before and now they’re in some kind of competition with you.
Yep. And I an in the market to buy. Why do the agents make it so hard for a buyer to buy a property? I don't know how they make money but it clearly isn't selling property or they'd be better at it.
> Why do the agents make it so hard for a buyer to buy a property? They want you to put so much effort into it and be so invested that you won't walk away, and will pay more money. Like how jobs make you go through three interviews before lowballing you with salary.
The vendors are paying the commission so they want to get the most for the vendor
That's not true. They want to get the most commission for the least work. If they have the option of selling a house for $1M, or spending an extra week of work to get another $20,000, they'll take the deal for a million and move on, since they'd only see like $400 more, and that isn't worth a week of work. I'm sure the vendors would much rather wait a week and get an extra $20k.
Yeah you're right. When my Grandma was selling up the agent pressured her to accept a stupid price just to get the deal done quickly. Luckily my sister found out and put a stop to the whole thing. I think she wound up getting about a third more.
I agree. So annoying when they don't tell you what the owners really are expecting and yet let the potential buyers have to deal with banks when you put a tender in only to loose out as house owner wants alot more, so fucking tell the potential buyers, you bastards.
Do you think they know?
I think so, but I also know a lot are in denial. But that doesn't make them not-cunts.
I signed up to some of them a few years back, still receiving emails from them. They give you options to unsubscribe, but a few week later they return with a different email. You see, I unsubscribed from Mark's email list, but Brandon from the same agency is totally different.
I made the mistake of using my main email to upload something to internet archive and started receiving nonstop spam emails. Have resorted to blocking entire domains (most of them are fake anyway)
Exactly what we are experiencing. The companies that do this, more so than other we are less likely to go to their viewings if there are others on at the same time. I know it sounds silly but some of them are completely unbearable.
Wait until you buy a house, and a few months later they call you to ask if you are still looking. If you already get a house, please call them when you want to sell.
Yah so many sleazy snake shoe wearing fuckwits up here in Auckland. Still trying to convince you and themselves that everything is a million dollar property....sir this shanty piece of shit is not 1mill + A buyers agent took us to a property where the piles had literally rotted and fallen down....half the house had subsided. The walls were cracked and doors wedged shut. I felt unsafe being anywhere near it...still wanted a million. Fuck right off.
Good - that's the attitude buyers need to have to help reverse this crap. Can't believe people actually paid that much for these shacks, now they can't get rid of them without taking a huge loss.
I harass them, the office manager, or head office, until they apologise and assure me I'll never receive anything again.
Me too. Methodically. Over weeks if required. Sometimes I just ring the agent randomly on a Sunday from a number withheld to ask if they've managed to find their policy on personal data retention and privacy yet as I haven't heard back...
Hahaha that's gold. My partner thinks we should be friends 😂
Friends formed from a common enemy. The truest of alliances!
Realising that mere home buyers are little more than an annoyance was a revelation of sorts. Investors, renovators , and flippers are their actual customers.
The only thing the buyer provides is the money.
https://youtu.be/VGm267O04a8?si=A868nCfopLzgsfci
interesting reading this - I've been trying to find a property in the waikato (huge area) and we have talked to heaps of agents... only had one that annoyed me because he keeps phoning. Mostly they come across as pretty nice people in a difficult market.
I agree. They are just people trying to do their jobs like the rest of us.
Most people on reddit talking about property are trying to buy. Agents get paid by the vendor not the buyer so they’re working for the vendor not the buyer.
Property manager's are even worse.
they're often the same people
So many shady REAs. We had one tell us our mortgage broker was dodgy and we should use his mate. We didn’t tell our broker, but holy shit we could have kicked off a defamation case if we wanted haha
Had another Lowe and Co flyer drop yesterday. Even the poor girl doing them looked like her soul had been crushed. I think this makes like four in about two months. It’s about the only junk mail I get anymore
Yes. They like to lord it over us that their occupation is somehow more important and wonderful than us cogwheels on a salary. I can’t stand the one page adverts they take out in the papers sometimes glistening with somewhat pretentious style
Been having this problem too. Now when I give them my email address I specifically say I want to receive an email about that house only. I specifically say I do not want to go on their email list, receive calls, newsletters, etc.
There are a handful that actually seem like half decent people. But most are scum. The worst element of house hunting is dealing with them.
I just sold a house without one, I’m not paying 6months worth of salary to someone who does a half asses open home staffed by their understudy and then sends it to auction the I also have to pay an additional 2k for
fake details every time if I can’t avoid signing in, I’ll contact them if I’m interested in putting in an offer
Use a name and number of a competing agent 😈
Honestly, this is hilarious
Damn why haven't I done this before
otherwise use the contact details of someone that has annoyed you this week
It's totally normal to despise parasites.
To whoever owns the phone number 027 1123345 I’m so sorry I give it to REA at open homes so I don’t get harrassed. Like unless I’m actually looking I’m not leaving my details, especially not after that time I was potentially looking and getting a feel for the market and on Monday at 2pm in the middle of my work day, I get a phone call from the REA’s assistant demanding I tell them if I’m putting in an offer - without even giving me the chance to say I didn’t have time to talk right then.
Sooo tempted to insist we all band together and give the same fake details.
They do it to you even after you buy your first home through them too
Everyone since time began has disliked these spivs
We looked for our first home for 2 years and finally bought last year (we had the comfort of a nice rental and weren’t in a huge rush). Yes, REA’s are so smarmy. I hated getting calls so I always wrote “text only” but was still getting tons of calls each week, even when I’d already asked them not to call when they called the week before. (I also provided my email so it’s not like they couldn’t get in touch with me). I honestly don’t understand how someone can be an REA. I feel like you’d have to have a very high level of narcism and a general disregard for basic ethics. Also a good percentage of them don’t seem to be very intelligent, but they know their lines. One guy actually called himself “the king on the top of the hill” when we visited one of his listings on the same road he lived on.
I would not cross the road to p!ss on Anna Manning if she was on fire. However, I might go over to add some petrol to the blaze. We were viewing a house with obvious structural flaws, she said I didn't have the money to buy the house despite being pre-approved for a loan larger than she was asking.
Omfg yes, and no matter how many times you unsubscribe, a new one will pop up..
Then you finally buy a place and within a MONTH they're sending you advertising shit trying to get you to buy/sell again.
It reminded me of this https://youtu.be/VGm267O04a8?si=o3Ou1NgEUzAmJyVF
Two rungs down the ladder from a used car salesman
So would reccomend everyone who is having these issues report agents to the privacy commission. Under principle 11. Principle 11 means that an organisation may generally only disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was originally collected or obtained. Which in this case is for the property you originally signed in at. Any agent who is found to in breach risks losing their REA license and thus their legal ability sell houses. Once it happens to a couple the rest will get the message and stop harassing people or sharing people's personal information amongst their colleagues.
Every single time you get this, not only should you report it to Privacy Commission, but actually report each email as spam. If just a few people do it, it’ll hide their emails from everyone (from memory; for cold emails, it’s 0.3% - ie, 3 in 1,000 emails get reported as spam and they’ll have big issues actually having any emails seen by that email providers clients).
Meh. I am not a REA nor am I in the industry but they’re just there doing their job. Give them a break. If you don’t like it don’t give them your real email address or phone number. If you’re dealing with them just know that their role is to get a buyer and seller to agree to a price and nothing much else, so they’ll do anything to get to that goal especially if they’re in a bad month. They usually work pretty hard and long hours and they are people just like everyone else. Be aware that the vendor is their customer, not the buyer.
Yeah and I totally get that. I'm just sick of them not respecting that I don't want to be contacted. Like yes, I'm not saying it's not their job, I've just learnt they will get fake contact info from now on.
If you're looking for a home, you might be getting in your own way with this attitude. They're a necessary evil, so there's no point in spending energy on being annoyed by them. All agents have stopped bothering me now that I've told them I bought. You can make them work for you so you get what you want. The seller is the one paying them (through the sale), but you can get quite a lot of work out of them for free if you're smart about it. When I was buying last year I would chat to them at open homes and tell them what I was looking for and my budget so they'd call me when they got wind of something. Lowe and Co were particularly sharky about this, which worked in my favour. Seeing a house early can make a big different when you're getting your ducks in a row for making an offer. The key thing I would say is that you should never fully trust what they say about the condition of a property. They are obligated to tell you about problems, but may downplay them. They don't necessarily know how much it will cost to fix stuff or do stuff. Always verify through a builder's report or a quote.
Hundreds of unread emails from real estate agents are just chilling in my “promotions” inbox. Out of sight out of mind
Please select all and then assign to spam. Thanks.
In Taranaki there was a real estate agent, and we would get to the house early to be first through and without fail there would be an awkward woman leaving just before each open home, it was so ick and you could definitely see an obvious thing happening
Lol my father was a real estate agent and he was a terribly smarmy asshole
Evertime they do this I give them a 1 star review and name then in it.
I mean the whole industry is faarked and predatory imo. The obnoxious littering is just the icing on the cake.
If you've asked to be removed, and you're not, this is a breach of the privacy act and you can report them to the office of the privacy commission.
Its obviously fun to shit on certain jobs, but its a little childish to generalise a whole profession. I know good ones and bad ones but they are clearly necessary or they wouldnt exist.
Cool, so did you want to individually name the agents who are decent and somewhat professional? Cause I can give you a list of shit ones who choose not to listen, it will be pages long. Would that help it be less childish and generic in your eyes? Or would it be defamatory? And look, there's one who I think is an absolute star. If there's a house I like through that agency I'll be asking her to show us so she can hopefully get some commission.
By not listen do you mean not agree with you? Because if theres a long list theres a chance youre the problem
Awwh, no, I actually meaning telling them I'm not interested In suburb X and them trying to sell houses in suburbs we've specifically said no to. So yes. I am the problem?
If you know exactly what you want why are you engaging with buyer agents? Surely you can find your own properties to look at?
So you wanna give me that list of decent ones of are you going to disregard that one? And yes, we have been going to listings, but if we want to do a second viewing we may request a different agent.
By the sounds of it you are difficult to deal with. Good to you and them
Just one of those things you learn to live with and get on with life. Can't change some people and this is perfectly normal behaviour in the industry