"D. Gerasimatos" wrote in message
...
In article , Todd H. wrote:

But the Realtor doesn't work for me. He may have agency to represent
me, but by definition, he gets paid when the sale closes, whether or
not the closing of that sale (with a given set of documenting
circumstances) is in my best interests or not.


That is not true. The realtor does work for you and by law must look
after your interests. That's what agency is.

Thats never been my experience.

One realtor showed us lots of properties that she was also the listing agent
for, as if they were handled the same as any other property. Then when we
had an offer that was going to be accepted she had us sign some legal
document about dual agency and said someone else in the office would be
representing us for the final negotiations. Well, the sky didn't fall but
we probably gave up a few thousand by doing this.

Another realtor selling our house was a real gem. First, she told us NOT to
fix the tuckpointing. I can't even remember how many people loved the house
but ran their hands over the bricks and then walked away, never to be seen
again. Our first offer was a lowball that we turned down. Then she told us
we were in luck. An agent in her office had buyers that were looking for a
place just like ours at our price. But the buyers really dragged their
heels about making an offer, they'd take days to respond to our counter
offers, and it days had now become weeks. In that time our agent did
nothing to bring in other buyers and I'm convinced she was keeping people
away. She was salivating over the extra cut she'd get from the in-house
deal. I kept asking her to contact our original lowballers and she kept
putting us off. Finally, I had to flat out told her to do it because we
weren't going to work with her in-house people.

The realtor we used to buy our first house told us just to put down $5000
earnest money in the contract for a $173000 home purchase. Had we put more
earnest money, we probably could have bought the house for at least several
thousand less.

Sadly no realtor I've used has represented my interests, even by chance.

S