Sunday, May 9, 2010

Real Estate Scam

Being a real estate agent in NYC, I've learned an awful lot about just how dishonest the real estate business is.  I've worked at three different companies and left them all for various reasons.  One thing the last two had in common: fake advertisements and fake photos of listings.  They would say in the ad "Upper East Side Gem, located in the east 70's."  They would post a photo or two of a super nice looking place.  Well, they stole the photo from a legitimate broker's website, then posted it as if it were their own.  The ad was a fake because there wasn't an actual specific listing they had for rent.  They were advertising a "listing of theirs" to get people to call.  Then when a client phoned in about "the specific listing," they would say "ok, so you're looking in the East 70's and your price range is such and such.  Great!  We've got five listings just like that to show you."

However, anyone who isn't a realtor doesn't know that those brokers go to a website called OLR.com.  OLR stands for online rentals.  The broker finds five "open listings" which are available to any and all brokers to look through and take clients to.  But they try to tell you that those are exclusive listings of theirs.  They pretty much lie to your face.  I quit the last two places because of this very practice.  I would rather be honest with people and tell them that those are "open listings" and get a good night's sleep.

For a quick article about real estate overstatements and exaggerations, this article will enlighten you:
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/109494/4-biggest-lies-in-real-estate?mod=realestate-buy