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More realtor lies
Did you ever wonder why forty or fifty thousand people can take off an afternoon from work to watch a baseball game, but that most of them insist on shopping for a house at night and on weekends?
Blame the nearest real estate agent. It doesn't matter whether it's the one in the red blazer, the one in the puke-colored blazer, or someone with actual fashion sense. They're all of a piece. Some agents start out as genuinely decent, intelligent people, but the brokerage business is a crucible. You either adapt to the standard way of doing business, or you burn up and evaporate.
This nonsense of 24/7/365 availability got started when a few agents got the notion to plaster their home phone numbers on for-sale signs, and everyone else followed suit. The trouble is, except for agents, buyers, and the poor seller caught in the middle of this, everyone else you need to buy or sell property works nine-to-five, Monday through Friday: title abstractors, attorneys, bankers, land surveyors, termite inspectors, etcetera. So the "I'm always available" nonsense creates a lot of pressure, but really does not get things done any faster. Add to this the ubiquity of cell phones and mobile internet, and we've now reached the point where you have to leave messages for Suzy Realtor at five different places, when she's too occupied getting her nails done to talk with you.
The biggest problem with the entire notion is that it's so infantile. When I was a licensed salesperson, sellers and buyers would call at some absurd hour of the night to confide in me that they were worried about some detail of a deal. When this happens, you have to grin and bear it, even though your first notion is to tell them to bugger off.
The constant-availability myth is one reason I don't consider real estate sales to be a "profession." You might have a fatal case of melanoma, but you are still not going to see your oncologist without an appointment, much less phone him while he's in the middle of watching Desperate Housewives.
A profession, as distinct from a trade, is an area of work where there is an entry threshold set high enough that the more mediocre aspirants are weeded out before they start. Professionals in the arts and sciences usually are required to make some original and unique contribution to their field before gaining credentials. PhD candidates, for example, spend several years researching and writing a dissertation, then must defend it in front of a group of devil's advocates. This is hardly the equivalent of passing a 100 question, multiple-guess test on real estate practices & principles, and having a credit report with no serious black marks, Any dolt can get a real estate license, and many do. Thus, as far as I am concerned, the only sense in which selling real estate might be considered a profession is in the same sense as "the oldest profession."
Next instalment, we'll consider the myths about "full time" agents and "top producers."
Until then, if you are selling your house, don't sign up with anyone without asking them some discomfiting questions. A suggested list of those is also forthcoming.
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