"Some" Realtors are Slimeballs.  It hurts to say this because I am a Realtor.  

 

Last week on two occasions and two separate locations a Realtor holding an open house told our customers "if you go thru me I will make sure you get the house today and at a lower price." Wow --- The Sellers Realtor represents the Seller.   It is legal in California to represent both sides of a transaction but the Seller is paying the fees and the listing Realtor has an obligation to the Seller to deliver the best offer to the Seller. It is also an Ethics Violation for a Realtor to solicit a client who is known to be working with another Realtor. In both our cases the clients announced up front that they were working with a Realtor. We know in the past that the Sellers have not seen an offer that we made to a Realtor and later found out that the Realtor represented both sides; therefore a double commission and perhaps the Seller did not get the best deal.

I was not going to write about this but then another event happened yesterday.

 

One of our loan officers just closed a loan and said she was contacted by the

 

 

Realtor who referred the buyer to her and the Realtor wants 40% of her

commission.   It is illegal - illegal - to even pay that Realtor a $20 referral fee

much less hundreds of dollars. Realtors know this because I am a Realtor and know that the RESPA laws are all covered in the training.

 

I am sure my choice of words really will upset many and my guess is that a large

 

 

percentage of the Realtors are completely honest but again, "some" are slimeballs