I'm not one to believe that all used car salesman are cheats or immoral but I was particularly taken aback by a story I heard yesterday about a Realtor. To set the scene a bit the Realtor was formally a Cadillac salesman. He even had a predatory look. Obviously I can say nothing about his company or him personally, but it was a budget real estate company.
So I met a girl yesterday that had spent years saving money to put a nice down payment on a house. She had searched for homes and in the process actually fired a few Realtors. A few were trying to act like a parent figure, others just not doing their job. So she went on her own using the Internet to find properties. She eventually found a great house listed with the budget company I spoke of above. At this time she wasn't working with a buyers agent so the listing agent was operating in a dual agency position, however he wasn't providing services on the buyer side. He was simply in this for a commission check.
So they went through the whole process this girl essentially representing herself. They added 5000 toward closing on the contract but she never received the money at settlement. They Realtor had her sign something she didn't understand and nothing was fixed at settlement. There was little to no loan advice and so forth. This story alone makes a great case for a knowledgeable buyer agent.
The girl confronted the realtor about cheating her out of money and he said "you should call your dad about this, he'll understand." He refused to fix the problem. She made the natural argument about adding 5000 to an already agreed upon contract doesn't help her at all. He pretty much said thats too bad.
They ended up getting through settlement in different rooms. The agent collected his dual commission and cheated the buyer out of 5000. I still am wondering if dual agency was disclosed or explained. At this point she is reporting him to every possible authority and with good reason. Realtors like this give all realtors a bad name. I just met her yesterday so I suppose more details will come out in the future.
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