[Laneco]

We have been absolutely appalled at the horrendous quality of human being who chooses to label themselves as an "agent." The worst is when you are selling a property... We had one SARC show up 40 minutes late for her appointment at a rental we were owner-selling. Her clients made it on time but spoke absolutely no english. My spanish is pretty poor. We waited and waited. Finally she shows up with three little kids in tow ages 4 to about 7 or 8. She had on a stretchy green shirt with very fresh food stains all down the front. She stomps into the house with her clients. Kids are running amuck. Two of them decide to climb the little tree in front of the house and snap off a good sized branch. I straighten the kid out... The kid promptly runs over to the renter's car and starts hitting it the broken stick. I shoo them back to their car where they proceed to dismantle the interior of the SARC vehicle. Then SARC comes out and wants to make sure that I will pay her 6% commission....

Here's the deal. Most of these people are clowns. But some of them are pretty terrific. We have an agent here in town that we've been using for years. We deal only through him even if he is not the listing agent. Doug knows that if we are walking into a property, we have already checked comps, schools, our financing, and done our own drive-by. If the inside is as advertised, we are going to buy it. Period.

So find someone you like and deal with them exclusively. It will save you a great deal of grief in the long run.

angela