Housing Market: Double Agents

Kenneth Harney at the Washington Post brings us a tale of realtors playing both sides of the transaction in an effort to get their precious commission.

I'm eternally mystified that first-time--and repeat--buyers will trust such a complex transaction as buying a home to someone who's taken a few courses and does realty as a part-time gig, often while raising rugrats and trying desperately to pay off their own jumbo mortgage. Hell, your average Mickey D's employee gets more training than most "brokers" get. If you don't trust them to mess up your Big Mac order, why would you trust someone with even less training--and more incentive to pad their own pockets--to ensure you sell your home and buy for the best price possible?

Here's another great story from the L.A. Times about being paid to refinance. Amazing stuff, and there is so little regulation to cover this that brokers, agents, and others can pretty much do whatever they want. (A tip of the derby to Ben Jones.)

I find it not coincidental that all of a sudden, people are shocked--SHOCKED!--to find that there're unscrupulous realtors and brokers out there, just as the market is sagging and rates are increasing. Where was all this dogged journalistic reportage five years ago?

As an aside, Silver Spring is located in Montgomery County, MD--the same place where there's a court battle taking place over anti-predatory lending laws. Perhaps the new "bubbles" we will see in the post-boom market will be test cases for stronger oversight of realtor practices. :)

Posted at March 19, 2006 06:13 PM

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Kenneth Harney at the Washington Post brings us a tale of realtors playing both sides of the transaction in an effort to get their precious commission. I'm eternally mystified that first-time--and repeat--buyers will trust such a complex transaction as buying a home to someone who's taken a few courses and does realty as a part-time gig, often while raising rugrats and trying desperately to pay off their own jumbo mortgage. Hell, your average Mickey D's employee gets more training than most "brokers" get. If you don't trust them to mess up your Big Mac order, why would you trust someone with even less training--and more incentive to pad their own pockets--to ensure you sell your home and buy for the best price possible? Here's another great story from the L.A. Times about being paid to refinance. Amazing stuff, and there is so little regulation to cover this that brokers, agents, and others can pretty much do whatever they want. (A tip of the derby to Ben Jones.) I find it not coincidental that all of a sudden, people are shocked--SHOCKED!--to find that there're unscrupulous realtors and brokers out there, just as the market is sagging and rates are increasing. Where was all this dogged journalistic reportage five years ago? As an aside, Silver Spring is located in Montgomery County, MD--the same place where there's a court battle taking place over anti-predatory lending laws. Perhaps the new "bubbles" we will see in the post-boom market will be test cases for stronger oversight of realtor practices. :)