The lies about price. Some real estate agents will tell a seller their home is worth more than it really is. Yes, that is 100% true. It's known in our industry, it's called buying the listing. It happens all the time, especially in a market like we have right now that's a seller's market and there's a low inventory. These agents, a lot of them are struggling to get business, and they go in and they just tell the seller that their home is worth whatever the seller wants to hear, or maybe even more than they want to hear, to secure the listing, so be careful.
I always tell everybody, "You're the homeowner, you're the decision-maker. You're the one that's going to determine the price, not the real estate agent. You're hiring the agent-based off of their marketing and their negotiation skills. Don't pick a real estate agent based off a price. If you do, you're going to probably be unhappy and you might not really have anybody to blame but yourself, so be careful of that one. I had to give you a little hard love there.
Lies about brokerage fees. There are some real estate agents that tell sellers commissions are fixed. They're not fixed! Don't believe them. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, real estate commissions are negotiable and not set by law.
Some agents don't have a ton of sales and they believe it's a good idea to lie about their sales. This probably happens. I think it probably does out there. I don't really understand it. When I was brand new in real estate, I told the seller straight up. I said, "Look, I have no business. I'm pretty much new. I've only been in the business a couple of weeks or a couple of months, but I have nothing to do but work on your home and get it sold. That's all I have to do. I work 60 hours a week and I will work like a dog to get your home sold," but I know some agents just think it's easier to go out and lie.
There are a lot of sellers that are really into the production thing that agents have and you have to be careful because one thing you definitely won't, I think, an agent that is experienced. Again, they have to do marketing, but there are, for example, agents out there that will do maybe $5,000,000 a month in production, and you may think that's pretty good until you hear they have 50 or 60 people on their team. That isn't too good because no one's really doing much of anything, but it sounds good.
The next one is lies about their experience. Again, a lot like the last lie about their production, maybe they are a newer agent and they're not that experienced. This is a pretty ridiculous one because all you need to do is go to the state's website. You could look up and see how long the realtors have their license.
Lies about their specialties. Yes, this happens quite often. About the specialty, you have people out there on both sides, with buyers and sellers. They'll say with buyers, "I'm a first-time homebuyer specialist," or they'll say with sellers, "I'm a waterfront specialist," or, "I'm a luxury home specialist," or whatever. People want to work with specialists.
First off, if you're going to call yourself an expert, you're going to call yourself a specialist, you really should have 10,000 hours under your belt before you start using and throwing those terms out. Be careful of the real estate agent, try to get more specific with them if that is what you're looking for. Again, you want someone who does marketing. They could specialize in anything, but if they don't know how to market, it doesn't matter.
Lies about their use of the internet. Some agents tell people that they're the only one using the internet to sell their listing. I don't get that. I'm in Utah and I don't think that would ever happen here. Especially in a bigger city, everybody has the internet. Every single real estate out there is going on Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia.
Lies about use of social media.I find very, very, very few people know anything about social media. When I say social media, I'm talking about Facebook, I'm talking YouTube, I'm talking LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+, Twitter, a lot of others. I don't find very many agents knowing that.
Lies about their website. Some agents find it a good idea to tell prospective home sellers that they're the only agent in town with a website. Everybody pretty much has a website. If you're with Coldwell Banker now, maybe you don't have your own, which is a little odd in this day and age, it's like a business card of a real estate agent, but if you're with Coldwell or Keller Williams or whatever, they give all the agents their own website. If you don't have your own website, I personally think it says a little bit about the agent not really understanding technology and marketing. I personally wouldn't hire an agent that didn't have their own website, but that's just me.
Lies about open houses. This one's actually quite funny. Real estate agents will lie to the seller and tell them the primary purpose of an open house is to sell the home. That is one of the biggest lies. According to the National Association of Realtors, statistically, it's about 7% chance to sell a home through an open house. I wrote an article about whether open houses actually help sell homes in Utah. The only reason 95% of the agents do open houses is to get a buyer so they could go sell the buyer. You do get about 5% of the agents that might do an open house because maybe they want to get buyers into the home to get feedback.
Lies about having potential buyers. This is probably one of the top lies. If you've ever been doing a for sale by owner, or you had one of your homes, a listing that you had, that an agent took and then your home expired, you're going to get this all the time.
It's taught by pretty much probably every company, every trainer, every book, every coach. Just call up and say you have a prospective buyer, you want to look at the home. Don't believe that. Every blue moon, that may be the case. I think in less than 1%. You say, "Oh, well just bring your buyer over with you," then they're saying, "No, I want to come look at the home.".
These are the 10 lies that realtors tell. You make up your own mind if they're lies or not, but keep your eyes open for them. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to give me a call. If you're in the Tampa Bay area and you're looking to sell your home, I'd love to talk to you. I hope you have a wonderful day, and if you're selling your home or even buying a home, I hope you have a wonderful experience. Check out my other YouTube videos. Goodbye.
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