Why is Real Estate so Scammy?

[Rich Riley]

New poster, here.

I've begun educating myself in real estate and have been following the guides on this site. One guide provided a link to the FHA Loan site where you could fill out information to see if you had an appropriate income for the loan.

After filling out the information half way (because the 'click here for free report' link just kept going to another page asking for additional information), I gave up.

Now, in less than 24 hours, I've received 3 unsolicited calls from Quicken Loans.

I've contacted 5 real estate agents about houses.  3 never emailed me back.  1 has cancelled on me 5 times over a 2 week period.  FINALLY when it was the day for me to finally view the duplex I was waiting to view, someone made an offer.  Her opinion?  Oh well!  There are others out there.  Thank you, but if I had viewed that duplex when I wanted to, I could be the current owner.

Only 1 agent called me back and kept our scheduled appointment date.  So, I have a 20% favorability rate for agents so far.

The entire process (from gimmicky books which just refer back to the author's own site to the agents themselves) seems like some sort of multi-level marketing scheme.  I feel I'd have more success with a true MLM such as Amway.  They at least don't spam you with calls 3 times a day.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Is it just something I should suck up and put up with because 'that's just the way it is'?