Review: Zip Realty (Ziprealty.com) Sucks

Too bad for your experience. How much under the asking cost were you on your initial offer? If it was an insult, I wouldn't expect any agent to push for it. Bottom line is the agent wants you in the house. For that matter, why would any agent regardless of whether they give you a kickback not want to get the most for a house. This is how all agents get paid.

From the inspection aspect, Zip does not have "big" relations with inspectors. The specific agent is the one with this relationship as well as closing company preferences, lenders, etc. Unfortunately the Real Estate business in general is prone to Agents work with shoddy or suspect inspectors in order to get the deal done with the banks. If you received a faulty inspection, sue the inspection company and report the agent.

My original offer was less than 10% below the asking price which I hear any where between 6%-10% is quite the norm these days. I understand that any agent wants you to buy a house so they get paid but I also think that since you basically hire them to be your agent ("Buyer's agent") that they should work for your interest and not the sellers which I did not get that feeling when working with Zip Realty. The feeling I got is they would do anything in the power to make the house sale go quickly and smoothly as possible for them to get you in the house with out any issues for them, not necessarily without issues to me.

My realtor gave me a list of three inspectors to use. He recommended the first one on the list because the inspector "had just been to their office and is a great guy" but I chose another one on the list based results of an internet search (and I found it a little weird for the inspector to be a real estate office).

My feeling is I would have been a lot better off if I just didn't hire a Buyer's agent. Zip Realty didn't really do anything for me that I couldn't do myself. I thought you used a buyer's agent because they were good at negotiation, good with setting up all the appointments.. but in the end those are the points that really went wrong with the sale. So my question to any one, why even use a buyer's agent? The only reason I can see is during the searching phase. You have the potential to see more houses in less time because the agent should have access to any house on the market. However I don't think that's good enough.

Next time, I am doing the searching myself, calling up the selling agent to set up appointments to see the house, and then repeat for how many houses I'm interested in. Then when we get to negotiating I'm going to point out that I'm saving them by not having my own agent and hopefully can get the price down by what a buyers agent would receive (have I had one) which is usually 2%-3.5%. Then once you get an accepted offer you find a bank, an inspector, am I missing something?

Some agents at Zip Realty are just plain lazy and rude. I've had very bad experience with them recently a, dn I do not recommand ZipRealty. You are better off with some other company other than Zip Realty. Terrible terrible reator.

You said it yourself; they are going to try get you the highest purchase price because they have to make their money some how. This includes agents on both sides.

The seller's agent is going to be even less inclined to give you a good deal as are likely in your cost cutting technique to be directly cutting their commission as well. No to mention you now have them letting you into the house, therefore possibly introducing some double duty.

As you are going into the transaction looking to cut the base price, you need to know the seller agent will most likely not cut their commission at an proportionate amount. Say they would make 3% or 9,000 on a house at 300,000. You cut say that same 9,000 on the buyers side to reduce your offer to 291,000. They are still going to be looking to recoup that 900 built in to the base price. Factoring in also the buyers commission comes out of the purchase price, the sellers might be reluctant to reduce the full price and give you any additional closing costs you might be desiring.

Are you an agent, tbone?

Are you saying the sellers agent would rather a buyer who has their own buyers agent?

And are you saying the agent will be afraid of letting of me in the house if I don't have an agent? I expect the agent would want to be there to let me see the place but I didn't think they would be afraid to show it to me without a buyers agent.

I think I'm missing the logic here.

If I were to forgo a buyers agent who would usually get $9,000 commission I would be happy with just getting $5,000 off my purchase and giving an extra $1000 to the sellers agent for showing me around the place. That way I still save, the sellers agent gets more, and the seller doesn't lose any money. Basically I want to split the buyers commission between me, the seller, and the sellers agent because I don't think they are needed in a sale.

No I am not an agent, but I have dealt with enough Realtors on the buyer side to know how I can benefit from their services. For instance if you are looking at one house your plan would probably work, but try that on a Saturday when you want to see 10.

If you want to truly take it on, why not cut out the Seller side as well and only look for a FSBO?

Remember, fault on the sales price could also rest with the sellers agent not presenting the situation clearly, or the fact that you still are dealing with an emotional transaction with a seller who might refuse to understand that homes are going 5-10% below the asking price. Again, I'm not counting out Zip as any other realty company could have its fair share of bad agents. I just don't completely blame the company when you made the decision to go with them to save money in the first place.

You could have had the same experience with a full price agency.

You're right I could have had the same problem with other places. However, I also think that people will find my experience with Zip Realty helpful so that is why I posted it. They can read it and take it for its worth to them. If Zip is like the rest of the agents then that is all the more reason not use a buyer’s agent because I don't think they made a satisfactory effort with me. I chose Zip Realty because I liked their online interface and their method that you get to choose what houses to see, not to save money. I find it unfortunate that they really didn't put my interest first, and at some points were deceptive, and that is the point I want to make, end of story. Going for a FSBO is completely different league, I think, and contains a lot of uncertainties that I wouldn't be interested in.