No kidding. Being a Realtor sucks. I think people are under the impression that we just make scads of money on every transaction...and, really, how difficult can it be to just go around and look at other people's houses?? Please.
Okay...the market is slow, the commission rates are down..but, a HUGE part of this job is customer satisfaction. That's not a bad thing because Real Estate sales are part of a service industry, I think. But, where do you draw the line? I have a listing for a very sweet, but slightly off her nut, lady and she thinks I am going to come and prepare her house before the showings. What? I have no problem with arriving early, lighting some candles for ...ahem...ambience, but I am not going to come and wipe out the corners because you only like to vacuum once a week!
Being in Central FL, there are a lot of out-of-state buyers looking to move to sunny F-L-A. I am working with a buyer in Massachusetts and his house is under contract as of yesterday. He has been down here several times and we have looked at what seems like every available house in this area, so today I get an email asking if I will go to a house that is no longer For Sale and talk to the owner, who has decided not to sell and see if I can change her mind. What?
Maybe I'm just getting tired of unhappy sellers and buyers. I can't help it if there is no one to buy your old house. Maybe if you priced it somewhere in reality, allowing for the fact that you have no grass, the refrigerator sticks half-way out into the kitchen entrance, you smoke inside like a fiend and everything you own is covered in cat hair, someone would buy it. He would have to be blind and have some kind of smelling disorder, but it could happen. And, I can't help it if someone has decided not to sell because there were no buyers when she was ready to sell, allowing for the fact that you had me take you there three times and made the lady prepare her house and leave for over an hour while you stood around and said "Hmmm-this might work."
Anyway...I have no idea what I would like to do. I was in the medical field forever and really do miss that an awful lot, but that's not practical at this point in my life. I know this is something I have to figure out for myself but I know somethin' has gotta change...life's too short to be unhappy.
5 comments:
I second those emotions and I commiserate. The buyer from Mass sounds like all my clients lately and you can't afford not to work with them because maybe they will buy....someday ( or maybe they will just go to FLA to bug you). Ask me about the Chinese woman who didn't speak much English that wanted me to hang her K Mart curtains in her 995K house!! But despites the ups and downs and the insane amount of stress we let people put on us, I can no longer imagine working a 9-5 job. Yuck!!
Janet
Yeah buddy. My sis in law is in your field and it is Hell right now.
You are at the road my brother is...he HAD wanted to go into real estate. So now he feels totally
gypped.
I keep thinkin' it has to get better but sheesh. House are NOT moving here either. bro and sil's best buddy (who we are buddies with as well)has always been a successful agent. It sucks for him now and he is working 3 times as hard. For 3 times less.
I send loads of good thoughts and stiff like that for what good that is...but if those good wishes get caught up in the right wind current, who knows? *smile*
But I gotta tell you...the picture made me laugh out loud. Kinda how I felt about Math in school. But then, doubt anyone would have hired me as a stripper. Another career field that was closed to me...double sheesh.
Hugs,
Sue
Okay - and you didn't send this picture to me directly why???? I laughed out loud when I saw it (and read it, of course). It really gave me something to smile about.
I'm sorry you're not happy in your job right now. I know that the market in Florida sucks right now. We moved from the panhandle 2 years ago. We got out just in time - we made a killing off our house (well, a killing for US, not so much for others, I'm sure. lol) It sold in 4 days and for almost twice what we paid for it 4 years before. Too bad we couldn't do that everytime, huh?
I've been looking at houses online for a friend of mine and I am absolutely amazed at how people don't clean their homes before they have pictures taken! Stupid, stupid people. I can just imagine how much you'd like to throttle some of them. I want to choke 'em and I don't even know these people!
Anyway - hope things start looking up for you. I'll quit blogging on YOUR blog now and just say goodbye. lol
Oh Cassie sorry to hear about your job, it truly sucks when you don't like your job and you have to deal with idiots. Hey maybe you could go back to that ballerina thing. LOL Sorry I just had to throw that in there.
Hugs, Tonya
I wanted to stop by and say thanks for the welcome back! It sure has been crazy. I know how you feel here in this post~ I felt that way for years and finally went for the "do what you love and the money will come" philosphy. It definately took time and it is the hardest job that I have ever loved. It took giving up things also, but I do really love it all. Even the rough spots as you saw on my blog. Somehow you never seem to lose the insane, but they do keep us balanced! Smailes!
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