Say what you want about Realtors but you can certainly spend a lot of time dealing with people and make absolutely no money.
Sometimes being a surveyor feels exactly like that...but I bet realtors don't accept the liability surveyors bear.
[sarcasm] Much of that time is spent burning a hole in the welcome mat and hounding some people to death.
Like any salesman, surveyor, banker, lawyer and other businessmen there are certain phrases they have repeated a gazillion times.
I agree that that realtors are hard to nail on liability. Have witness many that have sold the wrong property and showed property that did not go with what they were selling. Worst case was client of a realtor actually was 20% into building their house where realtor said would be on their property (reason they bought the land) and it wasn't even close.
Bottom line, all of that is under the fraud clause and that is near impossible to prove and most attorneys run from those cases.
All the wrong I've seen done by realtors has never been righted by any realtor.
After all that, they even get to keep their 6%. [/sarcasm]
edit:
omg, Wendell that is a powerful tool, gonna have to slow down on this sarcasm thingy, bout used it up on my first highlight, wow
yeah, maybe, but I'm getting tired of having to be nice to people and answer all their ridiculous questions. I finally got sick of it and tore up their deposit check. Luckily I worded my agreement that the contract started as soon as I cashed their check. I get some kind of strange satisfaction when I deny someone something they really want when they tick me off.
I became a licensed real estate sales person in 1981 just for heck of it. Still licensed today. Although I’ve never practiced, I have certainly dealt with numerous “realtors” and 99.9% haven’t a clue when it comes to lot surveys and surveying in general. I have always found it absolutely deplorable these people make a 6% commission on the sales price of a property. Why can’t surveyors charge a percentage? I’d be more than obliging to survey a typical lot and house for 1% of the selling price. We simply don’t have the clout (i.e.: money and organization) to do this. It’s a damn shame too. We have to have a 4 year degree to become licensed while all a “real estate professional” has to do is sit through a 40 hour course. Sigh, rant over.
Y’all have a great week.
It ain't easy being a Realtor>BUT!!!
It beats working for a living!
> ...Why can’t surveyors charge a percentage? I’d be more than obliging to survey a typical lot and house for 1% of the selling price.
I think the general consensus is that as professionals we are not allowed to work on a contingency, whereas realtors do. A bit of a double standard I suppose. We do the work and we're supposed to get paid, whether or not the deal closes.
Kind of funny though, I'm currently sueing somebody for an ALTA where the deal fell through. Not good and odds are I'll never see the money due to their bankruptcy. Kind of an odd scenario I let myself get into in this crappy economy, with a fellow surveyor from out of state (not a broker). I may make a seperate thread on that one.
I know you guys all hate realtors, but they only get the commission when they actually sell the house. Even then, they often split is with the buyers realtor. The realtor may show a house dozens of times only to have another realtor get the sale or have the contract expire..
Of course, there are some surveyors who do dozens of surveys without any of them closing.;-)
> I know you guys all hate realtors, but they only get the commission when they actually sell the house. Even then, they often split is with the buyers realtor. The realtor may show a house dozens of times only to have another realtor get the sale or have the contract expire..
>
> Of course, there are some surveyors who do dozens of surveys without any of them closing.;-)
They call them real estate brokers because they are broker than the investors
