(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
oh I would believe it...
It DOES look much safer than my choosen profession, which is IT :)
"Still, work hard at it and the greatest pleasure to be had, apart from making money in real estate, is to help people move into their first home. Nothing on earth will ever replace the satisfaction of helping people and that counts for a lot more than all the money you'll ever make. It gets you wanting to get up every morning out to the office."
Okay, I've been fairly nasty on many threads around here lately, and I'm making a sincere effort to tone it down. So please don't take this personally, as it's not directed at you...it's a reaction to what you said about real estate agents.
I'm sure what you say about real estate agents being the conduits to people's hearths and homes must be true, somewhere, but I've never come across people like that. Some RA's are very "nice" on the outside, but they are all driven by one thing: maximizing their commission on the sale. If my family REALLY needs a house...and the deal is in process (not closed, but underway), and something better comes along, the agent will do his or her best to sour our deal in order to get the other one. It's happened to me, and in many, many other cases I know of.
And no, there weren't credit issues, or financing issues or anything else. The deal just...couldn't happen, things shifted, the seller had made a commitment to this other buyer, and it happened at the same time we began talking, but technically their offer was on the table first...but don't worry, you will get your hand money back.
I'm 56, I've had homes in NY, LA and PA. Across that time, you do a lot of investigating...shopping, as it were. Here's my experience, and the experience of every homebuyer I have known: While they love to paint themselves as a cadre of genteel professionals, the real estate agents I've been exposed to will cut your dog's heart out, behind the scenes, to make an extra hundred bucks.
Please don't anyone waste time telling me how "highly regulated" the industry is, and controlled by "tough laws," no matter the state. For most restrictions, there are a hundred behind-the-scenes ways to get out of them.
Lived and worked and bought places in a lot of places, and at the end of the day, I'd rather sit down and have a brew with a lawyer or a used car dealer. At least you know a used car dealer is out to screw you. And once you've been exposed to the soulless, unethical, dancing-on-the-edge of illegality that is the bag of tricks RA's carry around, you realize they're the only profession that makes lawyers look...not that bad after all.
My reaction is so strong because I have either been screwed out of houses or forced to pay premiums over agreed-upon prices because of unethical RA's, and I think anyone who would manipulate a family once they are emotionally invested in what is to be their HOME...is about as immoral as they come.
And the only thing worse than a male real estate agent, in my experience, is a female real estate agent. I have dealt with several monsters (we had to call out the National Guard, as conventional weapons wouldn't kill them).
For those of you who are agents, or were agents, or are married to or the brother, sister, mother or father of an agent...I know your people are the exception. I surely wish I had had the opportunity to work with any of them, but I simply was not that fortunate.
For all that long response to you, I made the same mistake over and over again: should have used the abbreviation RE, instead of RA. Sorry.