El Chuxter
04-18-2007, 11:17 AM
I've never even dealt directly with a real estate agent, and I'm annoyed by their pushiness.
I bought a new home not quite two years ago. Unlike everyone else in southern California who bought a house, I wasn't looking to get rich. I knew the artificially-inflated market had to bottom out, and hard, sometime soon. But rent's high here, and we were spending as much on rent as we would on a mortgage payment, so we figured it should actually go toward something other than the landlord's new boat.
And now, every single day I get flyers from realtors on my door, on my car windshield in my driveway, stuck under the outlet guard on the porch, for open houses in the area or for real estate agents telling me to contact them for info on what my house is worth and to sell. The ones on the door are normally accompanied by a ring of the doorbell, though no one hangs around to actually follow up.
We have a corner house, and a lot of real estate agents don't seem to recognize that the side of our front yard is not a common area, and put signs in our yard all the time for open houses. (That to me inspires little confidence. You brag in your ads how knowledgeable you are, but can't look for a simple, clearly-delineated property line?)
We've even had one realtor who likes to put holiday-oriented junk in our yard. A bag of candy for Halloween, stapled to a business card and another request that we contact her to sell. (Needless to say, not knowing where it came from, we didn't eat the unwrapped candy.) The worst was about a week before the 4th of July, when she stuck small flags (with business cards, of course) in the corner of everyone's yard. So all the cards turned to mush when the sprinklers came on. But it makes you look bad if you take it down and you have the only house without a flag.
Unfortunately, the homeowners association won't allow "No Soliciting" signs, so it continues. (Hey, that would help with the armies of Jehovah's Witnesses and Kirby vaccuum salesmen who ring the doorbell at 7 in the morning.) And they don't actually list direct numbers to contact them and say, "Dude, stop putting all this &*$% in my yard and on my door!
I also get letters actually mailed (meaning that they pay postage, and these are most likely mass-mailed to everyone in the town) for the same junk. It's worse than credit card offers, because it's actually easy to opt of of card offers.
Don't they realize that, more than most services, realtors are a definite "Don't call me, I'll call you" proposition? Who ever received a card from a realtor and said, "You know, I'm happy where I am, but I should sell!"
Given how their profession has a reputation for being pushy when actually selling a house, does being so damned pushy when I have no need for them strike them as a good idea?
I know it's a competitive field. And I know the market is down right now. I can see the houses for sale up and down the street.
But, c'mon! I don't want to move two doors down, okay? Stop bugging me.
I bought a new home not quite two years ago. Unlike everyone else in southern California who bought a house, I wasn't looking to get rich. I knew the artificially-inflated market had to bottom out, and hard, sometime soon. But rent's high here, and we were spending as much on rent as we would on a mortgage payment, so we figured it should actually go toward something other than the landlord's new boat.
And now, every single day I get flyers from realtors on my door, on my car windshield in my driveway, stuck under the outlet guard on the porch, for open houses in the area or for real estate agents telling me to contact them for info on what my house is worth and to sell. The ones on the door are normally accompanied by a ring of the doorbell, though no one hangs around to actually follow up.
We have a corner house, and a lot of real estate agents don't seem to recognize that the side of our front yard is not a common area, and put signs in our yard all the time for open houses. (That to me inspires little confidence. You brag in your ads how knowledgeable you are, but can't look for a simple, clearly-delineated property line?)
We've even had one realtor who likes to put holiday-oriented junk in our yard. A bag of candy for Halloween, stapled to a business card and another request that we contact her to sell. (Needless to say, not knowing where it came from, we didn't eat the unwrapped candy.) The worst was about a week before the 4th of July, when she stuck small flags (with business cards, of course) in the corner of everyone's yard. So all the cards turned to mush when the sprinklers came on. But it makes you look bad if you take it down and you have the only house without a flag.
Unfortunately, the homeowners association won't allow "No Soliciting" signs, so it continues. (Hey, that would help with the armies of Jehovah's Witnesses and Kirby vaccuum salesmen who ring the doorbell at 7 in the morning.) And they don't actually list direct numbers to contact them and say, "Dude, stop putting all this &*$% in my yard and on my door!
I also get letters actually mailed (meaning that they pay postage, and these are most likely mass-mailed to everyone in the town) for the same junk. It's worse than credit card offers, because it's actually easy to opt of of card offers.
Don't they realize that, more than most services, realtors are a definite "Don't call me, I'll call you" proposition? Who ever received a card from a realtor and said, "You know, I'm happy where I am, but I should sell!"
Given how their profession has a reputation for being pushy when actually selling a house, does being so damned pushy when I have no need for them strike them as a good idea?
I know it's a competitive field. And I know the market is down right now. I can see the houses for sale up and down the street.
But, c'mon! I don't want to move two doors down, okay? Stop bugging me.