How to Find the Right Realtor: Learn from Others’ Mistakes

Have you had a bad experience with a real estate agent? Have they not lived up to expectations, not earned their commission, or actually cost you money from their incompetence? Well now you have an outlet: introducing… Really Rotten Realty.

This new website, based on Dallas real estate agents, is a hypothetical real estate website aimed at poking fun at real estate agents who don’t get the job done.  It points out – in a comical way – all the terrible ways that an agent can ruin the home buying or selling process and notes the importance of finding a good agent. As the site says: “Our Really Rotten motto is, ‘Ethics is something you work around and only the most crooked agents follow the straightest path to success.’”

As a Realtor myself, I find the site good for a laugh or two and actually very helpful for buyers and sellers. After reading all the testimonials you get a great sense of how important it is to have a competent agent, because if they’re not, you really are at their mercy. My favorite line on the site is: “Worried about getting pre-approved by a mortgage company? Why bother? That takes all the fun out of home shopping. We’ll figure out all that math stuff after you have fallen in love with a home you can’t afford.”

The worst part about the site is that most of the jokes stem from real life events that have happened to real people. It also points out some hilarious stats:

Number of agents in the Dallas area claiming to be #1 – 2,320!

Number of homes listed on the MLS with no pictures – 2,048!

I don’t understand how either of these stats are even possible, which furthers the notion that you better know who you are working with.

ReallyRottenRealty.com was created by Agent Harvest, a free, agent-finding service that specializes in finding top producing agents in specific neighborhoods. Right now, it is localized to Dallas; but, Bill Petrey, the company’s founder, has plans to take the site national.

So keep an eye out for an Agent Harvest site in your neighborhood soon, as it may save you from having a really rotten agent.  Would any of your previous experiences with agents make it on their site?  Please share them in the comments below.

Alex Quaid is a Realtor and neighborhood expert,
focusing on the Westside communities of Los Angeles.
Follow Alex on Twitter via @alexquaid5

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