Choosing Your In-Laws, Brother's, Half sister's, cousin for your realtor is REALLY not a good idea if they are not ready, willing and able to serve your special real estate needs. SERIOUSLY!!!
I've recently come across a few posts that got me to thinking about the way that some buyers and sellers choose their Realtors/agents.
First, there was You Don't Want To Bother Your Agent, So You're Bothering Me? by Lorrie Semler and then there was Your lender is your In-Laws brothers half sisters cousin? Oh joy. by Cynthia Larson and lastly, there was I don't work in that price range by Tish Lloyd. All really good posts and worth reading!
My comments on these posts were based on my professional experiences with my borrowers here in my market in Los Angeles & Ventura counties. As a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO), I work predominantly with buyers so I'm not going to address working with sellers. Furthermore, many of the buyers I work with are low-medium income borrowers who are either first time buyers or are using some sort of down payment assistance (dpa) program to purchase a home. These buyers are typically in the low-end of the market here, which is approx. $400,000 or less.
These types of buyers have many challenges in finding suitable and eligible properties to purchase. Because our market here in Los Angeles & Ventura counties is absolutely saturated with run-down, dilapidated, dumpy REO's, many of these properties are simply not suitable because their condition disqualifies them for financing.
Furthermore, some dpa programs here have also disqualified certain types of short sales and tenant occupied properties are also disqualified. Lastly, some programs are very area specific and are only eligible for certain cities, counties or census tracts.
Needless to say, a Realtor/agent for this type of buyer will be spending more time and energy serving the real estate needs of their buyer. As a result of the additional time and energy required for these types of buyers, many Realtors/agents have made the decision not to work with these types of buyers.
Without getting into my professional position on this practice or my personal opinions about these types of Realtors/agents, suffice it to say that finding a Realtor/agent around here for these types of buyers is really challenging. Consequently, many of these buyers are then left to either working with listing agents of the properties they wish to see/buy and/or working with friends or relatives who are out of area Realtors/agents.
These types of scenarios pose so many issues and predicaments with the most obvious ones being:
A) Out of area Realtors/agents (who are not members of the local boards) are advising their friend or relative buyers to lie to listing agents in order to see properties so that the out of area Realtors/agents who are a friend or relative can swoop in later and write the offer.
B) Working with the listing agent to represent you as your Buyers Agent (BA).
C) Realtors/agents with little to no business are taking on these buyers and then dumping them or ignoring them later once they have a few higher end clients to work with.
First and foremost, scenario A is just downright dishonest and unethical. Realtors and agents are bound by rules, regulations and codes not to behave and/or engage in dishonest and unethical. PERIOD!!!
Advising clients to lie to other Realtors/agents just because a particular Realtor/agent can't or won't spend the time, energy or resources to serve their clients real estate needs is simply no excuse to engage in this type of behavior. Furthermore, recruiting clients to engage in the same dishonest and unethical behavior is just despicable.
For buyers out there working with an out of area Realtor/agent who is a friend or relative, if your friend or relative tries to recruit you into engaging in this type of behavior - RUN!!! Engaging in this type of behavior sets you up for potential liability later on and you should be asking yourself why your friend or relative would put you at risk like this.
What your friend or relative should be doing is referring you to a local Realtor/agent who can properly, ethically and legally serve your real estate needs. Buying a home is one of the most important decisions you can make and choosing the right Realtor/agent is one of those decisions that a buyer really needs to make very wisely.
As for scenarios B & C, these are topics that could be a post all unto themselves because there are just so many reasons why these are just a really bad decision for a buyer to make so I will address this in a later post (stay tuned for Part 2). 
Today's real estate market can be really scary, which is why it's important to get as much information as possible before you start your search. The home buying process is not a simple process and it's because it can get really complicated and convoluted, that buyers today need to find the right person who is best suited to assist them. For more info on affordable home loan options in Los Angeles or Ventura counties, contact me, Donne Knudsen, at 805.2069123 or donne4loans@earthlink.net.
Photos courtesy of flickr: nadinereilly cheesecurls idreamininfrared giacomomacis
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