Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support, proudly brought to you by Crock Acceptic
for this August 25th, 2025, have your host James here, we're joined by now by a good friend
David Farmero for Reality Radio.
One of our favorite segments every month we get to hang out with David, talk a little bit
about reality, local reality, world reality, all these subjects.
Today David, I love the question for today, I love the approach to today's episode.
Why do people hate realtors?
Yeah, it's wonderful to be with you James, I'm glad to be back in the studio with you.
Now I hope that not everybody hates me, but when you look at the list of the most hated
professions, right up there with politicians and journalists and lawyers is for some reason
realtos.
And often I've wondered about that and I've tried to sort of identify it.
And I've come to the conclusion that in most cases it's because people really don't
know what we do.
So people see a little bit of what we do and they think, oh well I haven't done much.
Yeah, I think in just when I have heard this kind of thing before and the professions
you listed to me, well one of these things is not like the other and that being realtor
and that and you're talking about somebody who is kind of the middle person to help you
get this home, this gigantic purchase, something that most people, it's the biggest purchase
of their lives.
And I think that to piggyback on what you're saying, David, a lot of people look at this
as a sale, like any sales job and any kind of salesmanship and they almost compare it
to car dealerships and some of these things and stuff and that's where I think to your
point, it gets a little bit gray, the gray area of what does a realtor do.
That's absolutely right.
And you know, I've bought a few cars since I've lived here in Rapids and I've dealt with
some great car sales people over at our local Ford dealership and they've been really nice
very kind, very helpful.
Obviously they're in a sales job, you know they're trying to sell a car but I haven't felt
terrible pressure, I haven't felt that anyone's being dishonest and I think that's probably
the difference between someone who is a salesperson and somebody who is a maybe a high-pressure
dishonest salesperson.
When I was growing up, one of my favorite people, my uncle Rich, he was a car salesman,
he was the greatest I ever seen at, he was so good at this job but part of what I liked
about him was he wouldn't try to sell a car to somebody that they were just going to
bring it back a month later.
As people were turning to him and his reputation and I learned from a young age, oh, all sales
is about reputation and so I don't know how much this really has existed for that long
as far as the kind of thing you've seen TV show and movies that they use car salesmen
and the shady use car salesmen and everything.
I would imagine that if you were doing that, you probably wouldn't stay in business very
long and reality is the biggest of all of these to me as far as reputation goes and
if you're shoddy at this or you're just not good at it, let alone if you're shady or
something like that, chances are you're not going to stay in the business very long.
That's absolutely right and I think what tends to happen is you do get some fly-by-night
people who come in and maybe they're not so principled or not so good at their job but
they don't last long in the business.
Most of the realtors here, I don't know what the stats are but I would say probably 70%
of the realtors here in Rapids are people who've been doing this for at least five years
and when you talk to them you know that they're not just trying to sell a house, they are
trying to, in most cases, match the person with the right house.
Of course there is a difference between being a buyer's agent and a listing agent so a listing
agent is trying to sell a house and that's more of a marketing job and that's got a different
emphasis but generally they're not going to be the person who is showing the buyer the
house and so they're not trying to press that particular house on that particular buyer.
Like most things I think in society, David, when it comes to disliking them, distrusting
them, hating them even, I think nine times out of ten it becomes a matter of well just
not understanding, just information not being shared, we fear what we don't know, we dislike
what we don't know in those things.
So I thought I got some props here for you, I'm going to give you some kind of, it's
kind of lead off of these if you don't mind and that would be great.
Similar things that we've heard in conversations many times, my first one, don't you just
stick a sign in the yard and sit back and wait for a big check to come your way and that
way all the realtors does, David.
That would be wonderful.
In fact it would be a nice kick because I wouldn't take pride in my work if that's all
I did.
Now you do need to sign outside the house, you need a good sign in one that shows up well
from the street in night and day and you need something that's not going to be obscured
by our Wisconsin weather or blown away when we get our strong winds.
So putting a sign up is important but I'll give you an idea of how putting a sign up might
seem to be the only thing you need to do but actually all the other steps are really
important.
I had a home I sold quite recently, it was actually a pretty high value home and the
sign people put the sign up actually the day before the listing which I was a little
bit annoyed with them about because I can get in trouble for that but I couldn't get them
back to take it down and put it back up again.
The day before the listing someone was walking past and they approached a homeowner and said
hey I see your house is up for sale.
That turned out to be the eventual buyer of that home.
Now did I need to do all the other things I did?
Well look at all the other things I did.
I helped the homeowner prepare their home for sale.
I brought in a staging consultant whom I paid and it was quite a high fee because it
was a very large house.
I brought in a drone photographer to do photos and videos so that was another $300.
People don't realise that's all coming out of the realtor's pocket.
I did a full 3D virtual tour of the home.
I put together a marketing video.
I spent a lot of money on advertising.
Now that meant that we did drive other showings.
We had other buyers who are interested but it occurred to me that if I hadn't done all
those things, if I just stuck the four sales sign up then that buyer would be there with
no competition.
They wouldn't have any attitude that they had to make their offer competitive.
They would have offered a low bull and well all we've got is that one buyer, that's
all we would have done.
Even if you don't think all those other things are necessary, really the amount of work that
you put in as a realtor does pay off and in the end we're able to get that particular
homeowner more than they expected for that house and to sell it well within the time scale
that they needed and everybody was happy.
A friend of mine at the school I work at and everything was waiting around for, he says
I could stay in the meeting a little longer and he's waiting around for a ride and I figured
it's just a ride.
It's an Uber rider.
He will only go to this specific Uber rider in part because of the little add-ons that
they do.
One of the things that other Uber drivers don't do and he asked this person, how much you
spend on bottled water, how much you spend on these things and said 20, 30 bucks a ride
or a day, I'm sorry, a day, on these added things.
How much do you think that gets you more rides?
The guy just left hysterically, of course it gets me more rides because of these add-ons.
People like that I do these little extra things that he adds on.
Now he takes it out of his own pocket but he looks at it and it's like I'm still finishing
in the black, this is still working out for me.
This is an Uber ride is very different than buying a home.
You're not going to be doing this every week or anything like that but you are going
to know more and more people that are going to buy homes.
One of the things that we almost hand down much like our music or our recipes is our
realtors and these people, well I bought a house from so-and-so and it went really well.
I can recommend them, things like that.
It really does.
Those add-ons, well, I don't like it coming out of your pocket, David, being fair.
I get it.
I see why you do that and you can see the return on investment in it and it also shows
the added bonus of getting a realtor as opposed to just trying to do it yourself.
This is a key concept in marketing.
Anyone who's done a marketing class will know it is called product differentiation.
It's like you know when you go to, I know, you go to buy a car basically, I mean I'm
not a petrol head or a gas head, whatever they call them in America, but I like
cars but I'm not mad keen on them, I don't care really what my car is.
So if I go to buy a car, I'm looking to see what it's got that's different from the others.
So okay, something like really good gas mileage, that might be a really good product differentiation
for me and it's the same with your Uber driver, it's the same with your realtor.
So if you're going to go to a realtor that doesn't do 3D virtual tours, then well maybe
you want to come to me because I'm going to sell to that guy in Florida who hasn't even
seen your house and you know, I'm going to provide floor plans, but if the other guy
doesn't well, someone from out of state might not be able to see what your house is like,
but that's the sort of product differentiation that I like to provide for my clients.
Okay, all right, nice, nicely done, did a good job with that one David, I got another
one for you here, okay?
All right, so how about you, let's see how you do with this one.
Isn't being a realtor an easy job, anyone could do, heck, I might even become a realtor.
Yeah, I hear this a lot and what we find is that a lot of people do try to be a realtor.
The exams are, I don't want to say they're not that difficult, you know, you do have to study,
it's something like an ATL course and you do have to do exams, but basically if you've
passed your exams at most public schools, you should be able to do it and as a job, doing
the job is not difficult, but doing it well is and again, you're talking about people
who stay in the business for a long time versus people who are just in there for a year.
And we do see that a lot of people come into the business for a year and then they leave
because they've realized they're not making enough money, it's not worth renewing their
license. People don't realize we have to pay license fees, we also have to pay membership
fees to the realtor organisation and depending on which brokerage we're at, there are other
things involved. So I think for my first year in real estate, I paid about 2000, you know,
just to buy into the profession and people who are not making a decent return will not
stay in. Now sometimes there are people who can, you know, people who've got another
job, people who have a spouse or partner who have sufficient earnings that they don't
need to earn anything, but generally speaking, people will not stay in real estate if they
can't make a go of it. So it's fairly easy to get into, but it's hard to stay in and
that's why you say, you know, like I said, round out Wisconsin Rapids area, we've got
a sort of core of people who've been in the business five years or longer and those
are going to be the ones who hang around.
And you know, I think that this happens with a lot of jobs in society, a lot of people
look at, you know, our early jobs this way. And most of most of people, including myself,
could never do them. I've mentioned this many times about fast food. I've worked in a fast
food job once. That's it. I don't make it here, man. You will not find me in fast food
industry. Not because I don't respect it or I don't like it. It's because I know myself
and I am not that fast at making food. Right. These individuals that are able to do these
jobs are excel in these situations and these certain things. And a big part of our lives
is say, where do I put my skill set with a job that I can make a good living at? The
people that end up in real estate have that skill set, have that ability to be able to do
this. If you don't have that skill set, you can have all the education you want. You're
probably not going to survive in the industry. We see this in radio all the time. I would
say in two decades of radio, the people I've worked with are equal 50, 50 of people who
went to school for radio and people who got a chance and got their foot in the door
and they just stayed in the room. It's a little bit of a mix. And I think you can find
that almost any profession where you find people who come out of school and they're
good at it. And then people who come out of school start doing it and realize, oh, I
spent four years and all that money on this education. And now I do not want to do this
for a living. Most jobs, you got to do them to really know. There's certain things in
life that you can't figure out unless you're doing it. Yes, that's right. And something
like real estate has a lot of different aspects to it. So we are selling homes. We are selling
offices. We are renting offices. Very rarely do we sell, do we rent homes these days.
Most of the time people go to the internet for that. We're also helping people buy homes.
We're helping people buy commercial premises. We've got to do a lot of things like marketing.
We need to have a marketing head. But we also need to have a very good customer service
head. So that's really number one. You need to be very good at customer service. I think
you need to be oriented towards the customer outcome. That I think is very important.
Do you think David that it helps having a, because one of the questions that I was thinking
of with this is I would prefer a realtor that lives in my city. It doesn't have to be my
neighbor. But I like somebody that, if not maybe not necessarily the same city I live
in. But a next door one or something like that. I like the idea of this. I do think to
your, you know, what you're talking about earlier, that Florida person that wants to see it
virtually and everything. I think there are outliers to this when you're looking at moving
to another state or something that's completely different thing. But if I'm looking, I'm
going to stay in town. I want to stay in the same school district or something along those lines.
I'm mainly, I'm looking for a realtor that knows the area and everything. That's another
added on part of this, I think. Yeah. It adds to what you do. I think that helps. I think,
if you're buying a home in Stevens Point or Marshfield, you could use a realtor from Rapids,
like me. But also, you know, you've got your Stevens Point realtors who can really sell a home
here in Rapids because it's not too far away. The market's not too different. They really know
what the different sort of rules are because we're close enough. Now, when you start to deal with
a realtor that's based in Madison or Green Bay, it's a different sort of thing. So I'm not saying
they can't do it. If you have a really diligent, conscientious realtor based in Milwaukee,
they may be coming up to Rapids five or six times during the course of the transaction
to help you sell your home, but I doubt it. I think most of them will probably come up once
and they will, you know, maybe twice if they need a second visit to take the pictures.
And they will tend to do everything remotely. Now, will they know about our market?
They won't know about our market, but a really good, really conscientious realtor will be able
to do the research to sell a property that's not in their particular knowledge in a city that
they have knowledge of. So what we often see is that homes that are sold in Rapids by
realtor from out of town are often overpriced because they're used to dealing with a bigger
metropolitan market. It's not a hard and fast rule because, like I said, there are some who are
very good. They do a lot of research, but generally, generally, you're better off with someone
from your local area. All right. Speaking with David Farnborough and
realtor radio here in David, you've done a great job. But these are two for two for so far. I got
just a couple more. I want to see how you do it. Here's another one. What do I care if my realtor
shows me 10 houses, then I buy through another agent. They still get the salary after all. Here's
another one that can be a misconception. Right. This is something that most people don't realize.
And this is because the way that our economy works, certainly our economy as far as real estate
agencies are concerned, real estate agents generally do not get any sort of salary or stipend.
They are usually commissioned only. So in most cases, there will be some where they're
salaried, but that's really very, very rare. And most of those that are salaried don't get
as much commission. But in the vast majority of cases, agents are commissioned only. So if they
show you 10 houses and then you go off and buy through someone else, they basically work for you
as a volunteer. So most agents will do that as good faith. They'll want to help you out and hopefully
they'll do a good job and you'll come back to them. Some agents will insist that you sign an
agency agreement straight away. That's up to the individual agent. That just depends on their
business practice. But if you do not have an agency agreement with your agent and they show
you lots of houses and then you go with someone else, they're not getting paid.
The old standard time is money, David. Do you think that with that being said that you could see
more contracts getting involved with realtors and people looking for homes or that kind of thing
where we're I hate the idea of anybody wasting their time. And especially when money is involved.
What I tend to do is I take a fairly relaxed attitude because I don't like to be the guy that's
pushing the contract on anyone. Also, I think that if I do a good job, someone will like to
like working with me and they'll come back to me anyway. But I usually do ask them to sign a
contract before they make an offer because that will allow me to represent them to negotiate on
their behalf. And it also sets the terms of the commission that I will earn.
And good on you for that. And I do think to that point, David,
and going back to what we were talking about before about the reputation business that real estate
can be and handing these things down among family members. I don't know if other families
will like this or not. But my family has always done this, whether it's in Illinois or in Wisconsin.
If we worked with a realtor and had a good experience, we just keep going back to that person.
My family, I think in total is probably about three or four homes in the Wisconsin area,
a central Wisconsin area here in between Nacusa and Rapids, all through the same realtor.
All through the same person. And why wouldn't you? That's the thing.
Right. You know, why wouldn't you go back to the same person?
So the idea of, you know, doing a good job and putting investing into that job and everything,
it not only has that effect of making sure that the client is happy, of course, which is a big deal.
But the idea of the reputation part of this and well, you know, other family members,
it's big family. They're going to have other homes that are going to be sold or want to be
sold or bought or something. That's right. And that's why it's not just about making a sale or
making a deal. It's about actually giving the best service you can to somebody so that they
think you're good enough to recommend you to someone else. One more, but it's probably the toughest
one, David, I think. And I think it's one that not only I, but many of the, in the audience,
might have thought of as well. I can just sell the house myself and save the money.
When, when? Why is nobody ever thought of this? This is a fantastic idea. I can just do it myself.
This should be fine. No problem. Right. And real quick, David, I know somebody who thought
this about a year ago, they are still paying for it. But please, you go ahead.
Right. And that's, and that's what happens. You get what you pay for. And yes, you can sell
your house on your own. Yes, you can sell it, save money. But how are you going to set the market
price? Are you going to go and look on online? You're going to look at the Zillow's estimate?
Well, the Zillow's estimator has not been to your house. They don't know that you've fully
updated the basement, that you've put an additional bathroom in, that you've maintained everything
perfectly, and that you've actually recently built a new three-store garage with a workshop.
They've got no idea. All they are looking at is the stats. They're looking at recent rising
house prices. They're looking at what you paid for your house. They are looking at things like
the tax data. And we know that the tax assessments can be off. So that's the first thing. You're not
going to, you're not going to be able to set the market price as accurately as if you have
advice from a realtor. Second thing is the preparation. Now, when I visit homes with buyers,
I know exactly what buyers look for. You know, a couple of tips if you are trying to sell
without a realtor, make sure your kitchen and your bathroom are spotlessly clean, because those are
things that buyers really look for. And if you have a dirty kitchen, they just will not like the house
at all. So I know those things because I've taken buyers through houses. So when I'm advising a seller,
I know what a buyer will worry about and what they won't. If you're not going to be using a realtor,
if you're doing it on your own, you're going to be googling. And what might be true on Google
might not be true in our particular market. It might not be true for your particular house,
the particular size of house and the particular demographic that you're appealing to.
What marketing are you going to do? You're going to buy one of those red and white house
house sales signs and ticket outside. Well, what if they call you? How do you know how to negotiate a
price with a buyer if you're not a trained negotiator? What advertising are you doing? Are you
just digging it online? Are you going to someone who'll charge you $100 to put it in the MLS?
Maybe or $500 or whatever it is now? You're not doing the marketing that a realtor will do for you.
So yes, you might save yourself some commission, but you might get a much better sale price if
you sell through a commission. And then the money you're paying the realtor's will be worth it.
The gentleman that I'm talking about, he knew the person he was selling the home to and they
felt they've known each other their whole lives. They could easily do this between themselves and
everything would be fine. They're not speaking to each other right now because this has gotten
between them because there are so many little things that neither of them had any idea that
you needed to do before signing over a home. Only didn't cash to, by the way, David.
You can only imagine what this is like. And in here are two lifetime friends that now are not
speaking to each other because of this. This is an extreme situation, of course. But I also
bring it up in part because, well, even when you know the other person and you feel like,
oh, well, what would be that? What's the big deal here or anything? There are so many other
things that you have to go through to be able to sell something like this, to be able to do a
purchase like this and make it official among all the other things that David is talking about.
And then just the things that you might not even think about or know about, you know, a realtor
goes into a house and they're going to inspect, they're going to look things through with a fine
comb. You, whether you're selling it to somebody you know or not, you may think you know your home,
but you probably haven't looked at it with another set of eyes. Most anything in life is better with
another extra set of eyes coming into it and being able to look at it. That's absolutely true.
And while a realtor isn't a home inspector, we don't have that level of qualifications and we
don't spend two or three hours in a home. We just spend, you know, half an hour while we're going
through doing a showing. We are trained to look for certain things. We do know what would be
considered defects. We can point to things and say to a buyer, look, that might be a safety issue
or that particular feature of this house is going to be a problem for your mortgage lender.
Whereas if you go, if you go ahead and buy without a realtor, you're not going to know those things.
There are some other ones and other questions I have, David. You know, I'd like to do this again
sometime. I think it'd be fun. Maybe especially if you get any feedback or I get any feedback from
our audience about questions they have. Maybe we can do a second or two part or this or something.
That would be a great idea. I think we'll, we'll look at doing that next month.
I always appreciate the topics, the free form nature of these and we appreciate your guys' feedback
out there on this one. Feel free to reach out to David or I with that and be on a lookout for
another edition of Reality Radio with David Farmworld. David, thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you very much for having me, James. We'll talk again next month, we'll talk soon.
And thank you everybody for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapid Support,
proudly brought to you by Crock Inceptic.
