My Pet Peeves With Realtors

[Bryan Kubiak]

What MLS u guys on Greg? Baries?

 

[Pa'akai]

In the Knoxville area MLS listing will state house has 3000 sf. living area. Actually its 1500 sf with a 1500 sf unfinished basement. Realtors out here put basements whether finished or unfinished in living area.

When I appraised in Calif. the desert local board used to put A, B, C, or D in living area.
A= 900-1300 sf
B=1300-1700 sf
C=1700-2000 sf
D=2000+ sf


In Hawaii almost all the Realtors put patios, garages, balconies, under heading Under roof with living area. So a 2000 sf house is actually a 1300 sf house with 440 sf garage and 260 sf patio.

 

[CANative]

Bryan I'm on:
BAREIS MLS
Lake County Board of Realtors MLS
Coastal Mendocino Assoc. of Realtors MLS

 

[Steve Owen]

MLS or a realtor should not be your source of information for zoning, building permits, taxes, assessments, etc. After all they should be contacting a government office for the information--why can't the appraiser?

That is true, Jo Ann, and that's what we always do. Your intitial comment sounded broader than that. So, imagine this scenario; MLS says property sold for $zzz. You pull the deed and call the buyer; he says "I bought it for $zzz -100." You call the seller, he says "I got $zzz +100." What are you going to believe? MLS is the only unbiased party. In that situation you might as well just take what the MLS says to start with.

For zoning, which is the direct subject of this conversation, it's a no brainer. I get it straight off the map (I know the areas where the map might have changed) if it's in Joplin. If in doubt or one of the small towns, I call the city government. Outside of town, it's a real no brainer - there ain't no zoning nowhere!!!

We do have a new problem, though. Near Joplin there are several incorporated villages, some of whom have posted signs at their city limit saying a zoning ordinance is enforced. But, there is no one to call. The client won't wait until the city aldermen meet next month for me to find out, so in those cases I either rely on MLS, which was probably the realtor's best guess, or guess myself (along with appropriate comments like those posted in my earlier post).

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

My pet peeve: No listening skills

I call the real estate company having a listing and ask for Ms. Jane Doe, the listing Realtor. After a short time, Ms. Jane Doe picks up the phone.

"This is Jane Doe"

Me: Hello, Jane, this is _____. I've been assigned the appraisal on one of your listings. The address is 12 Orange St. and I'd like to do that appraisal tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. How can I access that property?

Jane Doe: "There are no more showings on that property. It's under contract"

 

[Bobby Bucks]

Originally posted by Charlotte Dixon@Sep 19 2004, 07:17 PM
Jane Doe: "There are no more showings on that property. It's under contract"

Charlotte wait until your MLS offers the services of a centralized call
appointment system. I recall an entire week when no houses could be seen
by an appraiser...."that property is under contract and cannot be shown" CLICK..
.the people running it were AMC phone monkeys with GEDs and a digital appointment book. They never seemed to consider the owner might be willing to look at a back up offer.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

They never seemed to consider the owner might be willing to look at a back up offer.

A lot of our better properties get 1 or 2 back ups

Other Peeves....new sub, next to municipal airport. No mention of Airport, nobody has been able to get 2ndary market financing, many fallen sales...Realtor calls us complaining that we are "killing" their deals by mentioning the Airport...duh...who built the stupid subdivision there.

Room count 11 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 ....say what??

SF: 999999

DOM: 776 REMARKS: Hurry, priced to sell, great office space undated by Architect-owner Owner: Withheld [now how many architects do you think live in Gentry, AR, pop. 2,000/] Listing: $126,900 Sold: $60,000 [reportedly appraised in 2002 for $65,000]

Remarks: New roof, new CHA, needs work Zoning: A-1 (13 mi. from town?)

Remarks: Road will be paved soon! [that is from a 1994 listing, the road is still not paved...can you spell l-a-w-s-u-i-t? Of course, the County still says its on its short list to do, and rumor has it the County Judge bought property near there...so maybe it will be paved.]

 

[Mister Ed]

Originally posted by Pamela Crowley (Florida)@Sep 13 2004, 09:31 AM
MLS info in too many cases is a real joke.

Pam,

Do you use NEFAR's Flex MLS? I always go to the county for the zoning information. When NEFAR has it, about 25% is wrong!!!!

-ed-

 

[Steve Owen]

I e-mailed a link to this thread to our Board of Realtors executive. She just e-mailed me back with the following comment, which is oh, so true:

Very funny...soooo true! Never mind the spelling, how about the violation of Fair Hosing Laws!
Yikes!

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Ed,

I never trust the info from NEFAR MLS tax records. Toooo many errors. I get my info directly from the Duval County on line records.