OT: NAR agrees to $418 million in damages. A boon to home sellers/buyers?

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by HenryA

Although you will from time to time hear breath taking stories of the actions of bad lawyers, attorneys are highly regulated. The result that usually follows egregious bad acts is disbarment. And there goes years of schooling and your livelihood. Would you like fries with that?

There are dishonest plumbers, contractors, engineers and most any profession you can name. Doing a little study and using common sense can help you avoid them.

I've definitely seen my share of unscrupulous building contractors and subcontractors over my decades of work, including a plumber on my own renovation in 2013. But I'll say again, separating competence from ethics, I just haven't encountered that issue with attorneys, doctors, dentists, engineers, architects, and surveyors, and that's over a 45 year career.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by NHAero

As .RJ says, low barrier to entry. I think it's similar to people working for investment firms, the ones where they get a % of your assets win or lose, and they steer you to investments they make the most from with fees.

I remember when a friend who'd been a school teacher for 25 years was all of a sudden an investment advisor at the local Merrill Lynch or similar (can't recall). So if I walk in there tomorrow, he's gonna advise me on how to invest my money?

I've had a not so great dentist but at least he had to study a long time to earn that Dr.

I wish the ones I dealt with were the fly-by-night types, but they weren't. A few are brokers, and the one who didn't want to offer advice on pricing is a broker in a major city who taught RE courses at a local university as an adjunct. It was somewhat inconceivable that he'd balk at offering suggestions on how to make a competitive offer.

[avalonracing]

Originally Posted by benb

...Not really sure what I think about Realtors but IMO attorneys would be way up the list of professions harshly judged by the public without reason, often times by people who might have never actually had any direct experience with an attorney!

Surely you've heard the line "99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name". That can be said about real estate agents, cops, mechanics, or any other group that someone has had a bad experience with (or heard about a friend's friend who had a bad experience so they want to sound in-the-know by repeating it).

I've done residential real estate for a long time and have sold hundreds of houses (some to and for people I have met on the Paceline). In that time I've met horrible agents who should not be in the business and fantastic agents who I would personally use if I were looking for an agent. What is interesting is sometimes agents who only sell 10 homes a year are great and some who sell a hundred a year I wouldn't buy an ice cream from.