{"id":651,"date":"2006-11-18T07:31:34","date_gmt":"2006-11-18T14:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=651"},"modified":"2006-11-18T09:34:12","modified_gmt":"2006-11-18T16:34:12","slug":"the-headline-buried-in-the-news-real-estate-agents-are-as-safe-as-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/651\/the-headline-buried-in-the-news-real-estate-agents-are-as-safe-as-houses\/","title":{"rendered":"The headline buried in the “news”: Real estate agents are as safe as houses!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday, and you know what that means. If the Arizona Republic<\/i> doesn’t piss all over the real estate business<\/a>, someone might accidentally go out and buy a house.<\/p>\n

Here’s the scoop:<\/p>\n

Complaints against real estate agents are on the rise, with consumers accusing them of everything from selling property without a license to cutting corners to make a sale.<\/p>\n

As of June, the number of complaints opened with the Arizona Department of Real Estate had jumped 53 percent since 2003, the year before the housing boom took the Valley by storm. Complaints forwarded for discipline increased 150 percent in that same time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If those numbers sound nebulous to you, you’re reading too carefully. Stop that!<\/p>\n

Part of the spike in complaints reflects the rush of new agents who flooded the market to take advantage of the housing boom of 2004 and 2005.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does it? Is there a correspondence of complaints to new licensees? If there is, it’s not demonstrated in this story.<\/p>\n

The number of new brokers and agents rose 38 percent in the past three years, well behind the pace of complaints.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New brokers aren’t new licensees, so the correlation is even smaller than intimated.<\/p>\n

Here’s a real number, though:<\/p>\n

Most of the complaints come from consumers. Others come from agents complaining about other agents or governmental jurisdictions reporting what they believe are illegal subdivisions. In all, 1,620 new complaints had been opened with the real estate department through the fiscal year in June.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are 90,000 real estate licensees in Arizona. About 90% of ADRE complaints are dismissed without action. With the right microscope, this “news” is a conflagration.<\/p>\n

The top three complaints: License violations, convictions or failing to disclose a conviction, and advertising violations. Real estate advertisements must list the name of the broker that the salesperson works for, according to the department.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And these would all be complaints brought by the ADRE or other agents, not by consumers.<\/p>\n

Elaine Richardson, the state’s real estate commissioner, said she was alarmed by the trend of new complaints exceeding the number of new brokers and agents.<\/p>\n

“If we don’t get a handle on it, that brings us back to people getting bilked out of Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday, and you know what that means. If the Arizona Republic doesn’t piss all over the real estate business, someone might accidentally go out and buy a house. Here’s the scoop: Complaints against real estate agents are on the rise, with consumers accusing them of everything from selling property without a license to cutting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":151,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/151\/catching-up-for-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":0},"title":"Catching up — for now . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I live in Safari, an exceptionally adept tabbed web browser. In consequence, I can pile up page after page of stuff, each crammed with semi-organized tabs, that I intend to deal with later. Well, fast is the new slow and later is now -- at least for the moment. How\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2518,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2518\/net-borne-buyers-create-new-burdens-for-listing-agents\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":1},"title":"Net-borne buyers create new burdens for listing agents","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Net-borne buyers create new burdens for listing agents \"Eighty percent of buyers start their home search on the internet.\" You don't have to dig too deeply in the real estate world to unearth that statistic. There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":284,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/284\/labor-day-linkathon-catching-up-with-real-estate-topics-raised-here-and-elsewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":2},"title":"Labor Day Linkathon: Catching up with real estate topics raised here and elsewhere . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From a comment here, here is the full context of Marlow Harris's remarks to the New York Times:\"The only complaints I hear about are those noted on the official Redfin blog or talked about by their CEO in newspapers. As I mentioned in my previous email, they have such a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3221,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3221\/are-you-driving-in-the-left-lane-but-only-going-the-speed-limit-or-less\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":3},"title":"Are You Driving in the Left Lane, but Only Going the Speed Limit (or less)?","author":"Dave Phillips","date":"June 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I travel Interstate 64 between Charlottesville and Richmond at least once a month. It is a fairly lightly traveled highway (compared to 95 and 81), so it is justifiably only two lanes wide in either direction. It is also a fairly boring drive because the scenery (which is nice) does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"fast lane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.siggraph.org\/publications\/video-review\/sig2005\/SVRAT151Images\/png\/LifeFastLane.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":533,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/533\/for-sale-by-owner-sellers-can-help-move-real-estate-market-into-new-buyers-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":4},"title":"For-sale-by-owner sellers can help move real estate market into new buyers’ world . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I gripe about the meager little 350 words I get in my column in the West Valley sections of the Arizona Republic. What I want is 1,500 words on page one of the Sunday Buiness section! But today's column (permanent link) is an example of how 350 words can effect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/258\/sleaze-versus-sleaze-we-didnt-get-this-awful-reputation-by-accident\/","url_meta":{"origin":651,"position":5},"title":"Sleaze versus sleaze: We didn’t get this awful reputation by accident . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Give a glance to these excerpts from this article in today's Arizona Republic. There will be a quiz at the end. Sleaze:Home builders are spending big bucks and dishing out heaping helpings of hospitality during what has become the summer of love in the Phoenix new-home market. The objects of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}