Realtors are worthless

Yesterday we decided to take a look at a piece of property in a nearby smaller community. We found a listing for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home on about 3/4 of an acre for $24,900.00. We were told that the property was a repossession and would probably need a little work. We decided to see what 25K would buy you in a little town in the middle of nowhere, so we set up an appointment to take a look. The realtor said she'd meet us there. We went on a hunt for the address using the GPS and ended up 10 miles out on a sand road with 2 foot deep ruts we had to straddle. Our top speed was about 15 miles an hour... We hit the end of the road that the property was supposed to be on and called the realtor. She told us "oh, I did that same thing - I think I know where it is now though, so head back toward town on the road you went out on and meet me at the local high school". I found a paved road about 2 miles out of the way - I wasn't risking the rut road again - and we met the realtor who led us to the property. When we arrived and just before we walked in the door, she warned us that the place was listed as "uninhabitable", but that the seller had dropped the price to $20K... What?!? We drove 2 hours out of our way to look at a place that she had earlier said needed a little work. She admitted she had never seen the place before we arrived... How can someone sell something they've never even seen? Is this not one of the most worthless jobs on the planet? She was no help at all... I wouldn't have bought the piece of land alone for even $5K. The neighborhood was horrible, the town was horrible and the property was smack dab in the middle of it all.

The place was series of walls placed directly on the dirt or up on cement blocks. There were no fixtures - no sinks, no counters, carpet was on a dirt floor in some places. All of the sinks, toilets, tub, shower, etc had been removed... The light fixtures were gone and a lot of the wiring for the house was exposed. The entire building had mold along the base of the walls and you could visibly see termite damage everywhere. It looked like a house under construction. Someone was in the process of trying to cover the exposed studs with new sheetrock but it had gotten wet and was sagging in places. You could see sunlight through the walls in the kitchen and the windows had bullet holes in them. The walls didn't meet the ceiling in some places... There was nothing (and I mean NOTHING) that could have even been salvaged from the place as scrap. It was truly a place that needed to be torn down, hauled away and burned... The realtor had lied to get us there so she could find out what we were looking for and try to sell us a more expensive home. It's the same tactic used by them all - show something scary that is way over-priced and then try to sell something nicer for a lot more money... We left.