Several items have come up recently, both in my practice and in the news, regarding the way that clients use the advice their Realtor provides to them in the performance of their agency obligations. The general point of these stories and situations lies in one major question: whose decision is it to buy a property? And how do clients use the advice they receive?
A few weeks ago I was showing properties to a young woman who had come to me through a recommendation. She was looking at listings in a part of town that has a lot of renovation activity, and that she knew had some “rough edges” but was in the process of being “gentrified,” for lack of a better word. She found a property that she liked very much in a location that was further from the real frontier of the neighborhood than many we had viewed. She asked me the question I expected: “Is this area safe?”
I explained to her that this was a question I really couldn’t answer for her. I would never substitute my perception of safety, being male and at 6′ and well over 200 pounds, for hers. Nor would I want her to do so. I gave her what is my standard advice: I provide on this website a link to the Baltimore Police Department’s crime statistic page, where she could look up the various types of crime stats for a radius around that address. I also encouraged her to visit the area at various times of day when she would conceivably be leaving, coming home, or having guests over, and to get her own impressions as to whether she felt safe living her life there.
Obviously, that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. My impression at this time is that I lost her business.
Then, my manager puts a copy of a recent Baltimore Business Journal article in my mailbox at the office, talking about how buyers are now starting to sue their agents because of the advice they gave a few years ago to buy a house at an inflated price, or to buy more house than they were able to afford, etc. My mind went back to this young woman, because it has always been my policy never to forget two very important principles, first: Its not my money. I’m not the one who is going to have to budget for the mortgage payment, and I’m not the one who will be eating peanut butter and jelly if something goes awry. Second: Its not my home. I’m not going to have to put up with the nuisance that is associated with any given neighborhood… and there can be many different types. Parking, traffic, nuisance crime, taxes… everyone has a different irritation threshold.
Real estate agents should never assume they can make decisions for a buyer, whether that means telling a person that an area is safe, perfect for them, or that a particular mortgage is a wise decision. My job is to help that buyer become educated to the point where they can make that decision for themselves. Otherwise, I think that court cases are inevitable, and probably richly deserved.
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