So on Monday, I posted about an irate email that I had received.  I chose to respond to the angry consumer in a public forum so that she would feel that her concerns had been heard.

She responded back, and boy, did she unload her issues!  Take a read:

"I really don't have time for blogs and the like.
 
Problems that I have seen in the industry -
too much focus on commission and no focus
on service and information.
 
This is especially true when it comes to HOA
information and the problems that are now prevalent
in the industry.  Just because it works once doesn't
mean that it can always be duplicated.  Legislation
is woefully behind on enforcement and uniform
standards.  It is to the detriment of your
profession when no less than 4 or 5 realtors in a
development get caught because they never
read their own HOA docs and to my amazement
never even checked into the retention basin or
county infrastructure of the development once
the builder pulled out.  This has happened time
and time again in VA - I am originally from a northern
state and code enforcement is obviously not uniform
across this country despite regulations. However,
try and find a realtor who understands what I just
said and knows how to direct their client.  Now, I know
exactly what to avoid but I have yet to find a real estate
professional who is willing to direct me.
 
Something else that I have seen - ridiculous pricing.
Crazy pricing with absolutely no rationale behind WHY!
Just because someone wants to place a price on a house
doesn't really belong.  This crazy run up in pricing was
fed on many things - GREED was primary.  Not VALUE
or the house itself. 
 
Put yourself in the chair of a bank lending the money -
would you lend money to Mr. and Mrs. John Doe or
Mr. Smith as an individual or Ms. Jones as an individual
without adequate resources?  I rented properties - sure
I had a few tenants who wanted to rent an apartment
they could not afford and I suggested the efficiency -
but they were not getting the more expensive apartment!
I owned it and unless they could justify HOW they
divided up their paycheck to me so that ALL expenses
were paid - I just wrote them off.  My rents were not
outrageous - but I did place standards on my qualifications
for what my expectations were with payment and I did
not want my tenants hating me for demanding payment
for my property.  Why?  Because I had bills to pay as well
and a small profit for my time and effort as well as some
kind of percentage of return because of the money tied up
in the property.
 
Too many realtors believe that all properties must appreciate
in value!  I would love to meet the person who started this
nonsense because they never had grandparents who lived
through the Great Depression.  Read about Tuxedo Park in N.Y.
where some of our great scientists lived.  See what happened
to Tuxedo Park when people no longer had money to pay for these
homes.  There are communities like this across America that
fell during the Great Depression.
 
Last but not least, I think you have moral obligation to both
sellers and buyers (particularly buyers) in your community.  It
really does no one any good when house after house goes into
foreclosure.  As a taxpayer who SAVES and invests - I do not
feel that I have an obligation to bail out people who buy on
credit!  Sorry, but I don't - but on the other hand look what
happens when people use too much credit.  It destroys our
communities.  I come from a part of the country that is old -
much older than younger communities in the south that have all
of this NEW building.  One thing that I have noticed is that in
older neighborhoods you do not have many foreclosures (if any).
Why?  Because people did not have new housing to buy and
people stayed in their homes and fixed them up or added on to
them.  I am not saying that growth is bad, but we need to
control building and credit just like we must manage our trash
and be responsible citizens in our community. 
 
Too many people stay up watching infomercials dreaming of
wealth instead of working and saving their salaries.  Greed
based off selling is not the road to wealth. 
 
This actually happened last year - I tell the story about a physician friend of ours (elderly man
who is now semi retired) talking to a realtor friend who
is the owner of two too many houses in an HOA.  She has
been desperately trying for over 3 years to sell her first house.
Our wise/old and experienced physician friend asks her about the
market and what is the current status.  Realtor friend goes on and
on about unrealistic buyers and sellers who are demanding too much
for their homes.  Basically, stating what your association tells the
papers - Dr. friend then says - "please then explain what is the
problem with the sale of your house?"  She turns heel and leaves -
totally embarrassed.  Why?  Because her home was way over
priced.  Another realtor that I know has a house on the James River -
basic house and it is okay but nothing special.  She buys it for
$350K or less about 4 years ago.  Last year she put a price of $500K
on it - last week she listed it for $575K!  Give me a break - people
are not stupid and even if they were - you had better believe that
this nasty bank person is NOW against the wall to justify pricing and
unless this realtor finds a nut with cash - she won't get the price
to fly past the mortgage or bank people!  This is how business used
to be done in the good ole days when the country wasn't broke.
 
Just remember - I have been both buyer and seller, landlord and
property owner for well over 30 years.  I look at things different
because I learned a long time ago that owing the bank meant
I could end up homeless.  This country will not survive on endless
amounts of credit.
 
As for how I feel about the realtors of today - I have been bullied,
lied to and basically ignored regardless of what we request.  I am
appalled at the number of people who buy and then attempt to sell.
What I see is this - they want to buy house ABC for $100.00 but
their house is only worth $50.00 maybe $75.00.  So they attempt
to make up the difference by raising their sale price - meanwhile,
they put their purchase on a contingency contract HOPING that a sale
will happen on the remainder.  Do you know how many people were
paraded through our home under the premise that they were QUALIFIED
to buy - every single one, but nary a one actually qualified!?  I was able
to do my own search after the fact just using their names and
addresses!  This is a FACT!  Sure I am upset - I was lied to time and time
again by no less than 20 or 30 realtors not to mention the listing agent!
 
As for stories about builders and other lies we have met up with in VA -
I don't even have the time anymore which is why we are leaving the state.
It is not my fight to fight.
 
One thing I learned as a landlord - try to see how your tenant looks at you.
How do I want to be treated?  What would I expect from my landlord?! 
Same thing goes for contracts - any good contract is only as good as the
person negotiating.  It is not just about price or commissions.  It is
about information and other consumer oriented draws.  If you are selling
less expensive homes to a family - it is about relationships that will
carry over to a larger home.  If it is about elderly people - it is about
how to relocate them.  It is about service and answering questions.    
 
I didn't mean for you to take what I said as a personal attack - it is
about the real estate profession as a whole today.  How do you think
I feel when I give a young mother a chance to list my house and then
learn that she doesn't take calls or even return calls because she is
busy transporting her kids?  Do you know how many times I have called
a realtor in VA and I am still waiting for a return call?  We had to call
the homeowner to get a showing through their realtor on one house!
 
My personal belief is that most real estate sold itself - today it is an
entirely different business and market."

You know, after chatting with her over email, she and I have discovered common ground.  I don't do business in the way that she has experienced, and in fact I AGREE WITH HER on so many fronts. 

Do YOU have the ability to put your 'big girl panties' on and admit that perhaps you're part of the problem?  I am delighted at the number of agents fleeing this industry.  I've said it before and I'll say it again-we need to get back to the folks who are passionate about real estate as a career and calling and away from those who got licensed to save a couple of bucks or who were just bored. 

Folks, this job isn't a game.  If you're selling 2 houses a year on the side, you are endangering every person you come in contact with.  I cannot imagine wanting the kind of liability that goes along with this job for that.  In fact, it would not occur to me to hold myself out as a professional if I weren't dead flat serious about every transaction in which I'm involved.

"Maybe some of your people need to go back to understanding what it is like for
both the buyer and seller - you job is a broker - you are brokering
deals.  The best broker forgets the commission and goes for the
deal." 

She's RIGHT.  If you are seeing commission dollars at the end of each deal, then you're thinking transactionally and not relationally.  If you're seeing the human impact of each real estate deal and figuring out what you can do to improve the situations for everyone involved, then SPEAK UP. You are part of the solution, too.  Good agents have a duty to call out bad agents-turn them in to your state real estate commission or local board and let them get called on the carpet.  We have to police ourselves if we are ever to change the impression that those who came before us left.

You can call me a diva or a barracuda or just call me Leigh.  I'm here for today, for tomorrow, and still watching over the folks from yesterday.  This crazy profession is what I know and what I do.  I just hope to continue finding ways to improve.

Angry web consumer, THANK YOU.  Thank you for letting me know what got you to this point.  I do hope to be your trusted advisor-I think that you and I will get along famously for years.

Leigh