Would You Buy Real Estate From This Guy?
Used car salesmen have suffered a bad reputation for years – and – not altogether undeserved. Lawyer jokes abound for good reason. Realtors and real estate agents struggle with public perception also.
I have been very interested in why it is so difficult to get home sellers to recognize the "reality of the market" and price their homes accordingly. Emotional attachment (utility value) and personal finances seem to be the two main barriers.
Many of my decisions boil down to the "Happy Factor" or quality of life issue. In addition to evaluating the financial burden of keeping a home overpriced while the market continues to decline, there is the issue of – happy. What's the cost of happy?
Serving the client's best interests is always our first priority. This past week, we had interactions with two Realtors that underscored, to me, the continuing struggle with public opinion and professional integrity. The two incidents are pretty much identical in nature: Realtors too busy, so they say, to return calls on their clients behalf!
Can you believe it? These agents are too busy to return calls to other agents with buyers in hand. One of these involves a bank owned property that continues to suffer the frustrations of dealing with lenders that demonstrate no real interest or motivation in assisting home owners or buyers with resolving the current housing crisis. The other is an agent that is too busy to consider a backup offer in case the deal in escrow falls through.
How bad is that? The real shame is that there is no avenue to inform the home sellers that their agent is too busy to put their interests first.
3 Comments
We received an email from a fellow Realtor objecting to this post. His main objections seem to be that we should put a rosy face on everything and that this post is nothing more than a pat on the back for us and a slam of all other agents.
It certainly, was not my intention to say that all Realtors behave like the two mentioned. Or, that we are the only agents that put our client’s interests first.
The point I was attempting to address is that there is an existing attitude in many consumers about Realtors and that a few bad apples continue to reinforce this.
A few things:
1. You can’t fix stupid.
2. It’s not your job to fix stupid.
3. You do have an avenue – it’s your local MLS board.
John,
I can vouch for you as a consummate real estate professional and one of the nations leading hyper local blog authors in the real estate space.
My question to the man who questioned your integrity:
What value are you offering fellow real estate professionals, consumers, and interested real estate followers?
The biggest part of a blogger’s authenticity, integrity, and genuine honesty is t-r-a-n-s-p-a-r-e-n-c-y.
If people wanted to be told stories they would still believe in Santa, the tooth fairy, and Bernie Madoff!
Well done John as always.
dean