When it comes to a real estate transaction or working with an agent, some otherwise smart people make some pretty dumb assumptions.
Would you call five lawyers, and tell each of them that you will pay the first one that writes up an acceptable Will, based on the criteria you provide? Or, to move it to the other end of the trust spectrum, would you call up five car dealers and tell each one that you’ll buy your car from the first one that brings you a special order at your price with your list of features?
If you did, you probably wouldn’t hear from either the lawyers or the car dealers again.
I got a call from a successful area businessman today who basically asked me to do the same thing. Once it was clear none of my current listings suited his needs, he wanted me to keep an eye out for him. That was fine, until he declined coming to see me or hiring me as his buyer agent. Seems he has a friend who also is an agent, and he just couldn’t become a client of someone else. So, he basically thinks that I will work my butt off looking for properties that meet his criteria — with no promise of loyalty on his part to make sure that eventually I am compensated for my work. Its clear he also expects his friend to do that too… and who knows how many other listing agents he’s called and asked to do the same thing, once he discovers their listings also don’t meet his needs.
Does he think that he’s savvy and has five agents working their collective butts off for him?
In the end, real estate is about trust and loyalty between agent and buyer, or agent and seller. You might get a newbie, a raw hungry rookie, to do something like this once or twice until they had gotten tired of working for free, but no seasoned agent will bite on this kind of one-sided offer. We’ve all been burned by the potential buyer who won’t declare loyalty, work with you and reward your efforts.
So, think about this when you think its easy to get five agents to work for you at the same time. Fact is, they aren’t. If you want an agent to work their butt off for you, deal with them fairly and exclusively. Then you’ll find what you want.
0 Responses to “Taking Leave of Your Business Sense”