How To Avoid Unethical Behaviors And Dirty
Tricks Of Realtors
Author: Amit Laufer

Like in many professions and occupations there are honest and
ethical people and there are some who aren't. Since the
commissions of the Real Estate Agent are being paid by the
seller of the house a buyer cannot relay on his objectivity or
impartial conduct, exactly as since without a buyer there is no
deal, the seller can expect the agent to exert pressure to lower
the selling price.

In short, the agents' main interest is to make sure that there
would be a sale, so he would be able to get his commission,
therefore he would do anything in his power to make the buyer
pay more than he wanted and on the other hand (the good hand
:-), push the seller to settle for less than he hoped to be
paid for his property.

In general it make sense to bring both sides to agree on
realistic price that can cut a deal, what we would concentrate
here though, is the unethical dirty tricks and manipulations
some of the Real Estate agents are using in order to achieve
it.

Misconduct of Agents to Seller

The sellers are the biggest losers from the real estate agents
tricks

- Home owners are often duped into paying money to agents
before their homes are sold. If their home does not sell, or it
sells for less than the consumer was led to believe, this money,
which often amounts to thousands of dollars, is lost.

- The main purpose of advertising is NOT to sell homes, but to
raise the profile of agents, this is at the direct expense of
home sellers.

- The payment of kickbacks from newspapers to agents can be as
high as forty percent. This rebate or credit is rarely passed
on to the home seller. It is kept by the agent.

- Home Owners lose millions through having their homes
undersold at auctions. Home sellers are being convinced by a
rational that the price goes up at auctions. But the reason the
price goes up at auction is because it starts at a very low
price. The truth is that auctions get lower prices more often
than they get higher prices. Among agents, an auction is
considered the fastest and best conditioning method.

- False and misleading offers, Many agents submit offers to
sellers which are lower than the offer actually made by the
buyers. This is done to make the genuine offer look good when
it is revealed later. It is a common deceit. At other times,
home sellers are given totally fictitious offers in order to
convince them to lower prices.

- Home sellers lose a lot of money when agents use 'bait'
prices to attract buyers. Agents indicate to homebuyers that
homes may sell for a low price when they know very well that
the home sellers would never want such prices. Agents say this
is designed to attract buyers who can then be talked up in
price. This ploy backfires on home sellers because it attracts
many buyers who can only afford the low price. The agents then
say to the sellers that "this is the most the buyers will pay."
The truth is that the wrong buyers have been attracted.

- Open Inspections, Almost anyone can walk through a family
home without identification. This reckless disregard for the
personal safety of home-owners is a serious ethical concern.
Also, the more 'lookers' who can be attracted to an open
inspection the easier it is to persuade the owner to reduce the
price. Agents will say that there has been "lots of activity"
and, if no one has bought, the price must be lowered. But
agents do not say that the people who looked were not qualified
buyers.

- Betrayal of Confidence, Many agents are quick to betray the
confidence of home sellers. If the home seller is ill or going
through a divorce or has financial problems, this highly
sensitive information is often given to buyers. One real estate
trainer openly boasts that he "loves divorces" and encourages
agents to exploit this emotional trauma. The personal details
of home sellers should never be revealed. Home owners are
advised here to keep their personal problems to themselves or
in other words "take the fifth amendment".

How Real Estate Agents Manipulate Buyers

- Untruths, They deliberately telling lies about the likely
selling price of a property causes enormous emotional stress to
homebuyers. Buyers are often given false hope about the price a
home may sell for. They get their hearts set on homes which
they have little or no chance of affording. Buyers are often
used as pawns to persuade owners to reduce prices.

- Apathy, The treatment given to many homebuyers is often
flippant. Many buyers are stunned at the almost complete lack
of interest shown by real estate agents when they make an
enquiry.

- Showing Setup Properties, The agent begins the tour by
showing to the potential buyer few run-down houses, in contrast
to these first impressions even the medium quality homes he
shows him later on looks pretty nice. This trick is based on a
well known psychological principle of "Relative Perceptual
Contrast".

- Reveal Information,By law the seller's real estate agent has
a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, and they WILL tell
the seller everything you say, so pretend you are under police
interrogation. The first thing the agent will do is asking you
how high you are willing to go on the house. Don't fall for
this trick. Just give them the price you want to pay for the
house minus 6% - 7% and if they ask how high you are willing to
go, tell them that's it.

- Needless expenses, when buyers are told that a home is within
their price range, they often spend hundreds of dollars to
obtain legal searches and building inspections. Later, when
they discover that the home was never within their price range,
they become emotionally upset and are often furious at having
wasted money needlessly.

- Auctions, Buyers are often lured to auctions in the same way
that sellers are lured by deliberate misrepresentation of the
price Buyers are told that the price will be low. Sellers are
told that the price will be high. Great pressure is then
applied to both sides at the auction. The sellers are pressured
to reduce their price and buyers are pressured to pay more than
they can afford.

- Buyers are often led to believe they have bought a home, only
to be told later that someone else has paid a higher price for
it.

- Investment Advice - The statements made to buyers about the
investment potential of real estate are often misleading. Some
agents tell blatant untruths about the potential of real
estate. For many agents, it is always the "right time to buy".


About The Author: Amit Laufer is a writer and an internet
marketer. Mba ans Bsc Computers information systems. Owner &
Editor of: http://www.buy-perfect-home.com/