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Avoid These 3 Shady Real Estate Tactics

Shady real estate tactics are an unfortunate part of the business. Lazy, arrogant, opinionated, inconsiderate and dishonest. These are all words agents posting in a Trulia forum use to describe agents they’ve worked with.
“I’ve had my share of agents with whom I would hate to do another deal. Those agents’ reputations are tarnished,” says Oakland, CA agent Pacita Dimacali.
It’s bad enough that most agents have to work their hineys off to protect our professions’ name, but to have to make excuses to our clients for another agent is enough to frustrate even the most easy-going among us.
If you want to stop relying on these shady real estate tactics and start presenting yourself in your best light, use a LeadSite – and leave the dirty tricks to the amateurs.
Wanna tick off your colleagues? Read on for some sure-fire ways to not only accomplish that, but further tarnish the industry as a whole.
Shady Real Estate Tactics - a blight on the industry
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1.Be inconsiderate

A real good way to get on other agents’ blacklists is to be absolutely devoid of even the most basic courtesies. For example, Doral, Florida agent Ann Ryan tells a story about one of her listings.
The home is owner-occupied and her client insisted that Ryan hold the only key to the home so that the buyers’ agents and their clients would need to meet her at the home. She ended up with “a string of real estate agents” who requested access and then didn’t show up.
Think about this. It’s bad enough that Ms. Ryan had to find time in her schedule to meet another agent to allow them access to one of her listings — that’s her client’s fault. But to not show up and not call is the buyers’ agent’s fault. He just wasted time she could’ve been spending on lead generation, marketing or even walking her dog. Time she will never get back. The ultimate theft.

Thoughtlessly causing inconvenience to a colleague should be among the “don’t-you-dares” in NAR’s list of shady real estate tactics

2.Post “Lying Listings” in the MLS

Shady Real Estate Tactics - Being inconsiderate
Wish we could take credit for that one, but it goes to Jay McDonald with bankrate.com. You know what he’s referring to, right?
It’s about those listings that tell you a shoebox-sized home is “cozy,” that neglect to mention a home has a pool (a feature many buyers don’t want) and condos and townhomes posted to the MLS as single-family homes.
Buyers’ agents rely on MLS descriptions and remarks when looking for homes for their clients. Do you honestly think that an agent looking for a three-bedroom home will think kindly about you when they show up and find out that the third “bedroom” lacks a closet and is therefore actually a two-bedroom home? How about the “Rich Brazilian Hardwood Floors” that are actually laminate? (True story)
Whether accidental or just part of a string of shady real estate tactics, even honest mistakes show a lack of attention to detail. And real estate is FULL of details.

3.Play hard-to-get

This might be the king of shady real estate tactics. When an industry that relies on SALES needs a video that instructs its sales people about “Returning Phone Calls for Real Estate Agents,” you know there’s a problem. The video in question is instructing agents how to return potential clients’ calls – sadly enough.
When you don’t return another agent’s call, however, you are doing a disservice to your client, and that is unforgivable.
Antonio Vega Pacheco, an agent in Saint Cloud, Florida, works with out-of-town buyers who are typically in town to view homes for only a day or two.
“As mostly a buyer’s agent my problem comes when I place 2 or 3 calls to the listing agent asking for showing instructions and they never answer back until after we have left the area,” he posts at trulia.com.
According to a Harris Poll conducted a couple of years ago, the most prestigious occupations include doctors, firefighters and scientists.
The least prestigious includes – yup, you guess it – real estate agents. Think it’s any coincidence after reading up on these shady real estate tactics?

In fact, the real estate profession ended up at the bottom of the list

Shady real estate tactics - lying
“Real estate broker/agent is the profession with the highest percentage of adults considering it to have less prestige (74%), with 50% feeling it does not have that much prestige and 24% believing it has no prestige at all,” according to Hannah Pollack, Harris Poll research analyst.
The truth is, it only took a handful of “lazy, arrogant, opinionated, inconsiderate and dishonest” agents using these shady real estate tactics to give birth to the public’s perception of the industry as a whole.
You can help change it. One client at a time.
Avoid using these shady real estate tactics, and start growing your business the right way. Get a LeadSite, and build your online reputation your way.
You’ve heard about the worst – now learn from the best.

Agents aren’t the only ones who don’t always play by the rules. Tired of dealing with fake contact info? Check out this video:

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