What if you were thinking about going into business for yourself and was told that you'd work long hours, drive all over town for days on end, share your expertise and wisdom with a client with absolutely no guarantee that you'd ever receive compensation for your work, would you be eager to go into the business? Yet that's what some buyer's agents do in real estate.
I referred out-of-town buyers to an agent in an outlying office of Lyon Real Estate because I don't work in the Sacramento foothills and felt I would be doing the clients an injustice if I accepted the job. The agent I referred them to has been in the business for more than 20 years and was extremely familiar with her neighborhood and home prices.
This agent picked up the clients from the airport on a number of occasions, took them to lunch, showed them neighborhoods and homes, helping them to get their bearings to decide where they wanted to live. She spent several months with the buyers and felt she had established good rapport. Last week the buyers sent her an email thanking her for her time, adding that they bought a new home directly from a builder's representative. The agent's response to me was, "It happens."
It happened because she let it happen. Buyers know what they are doing when they decide to dismiss a buyer's agents efforts and hand over a paycheck to another.
The first words out of my mouth when I talk to a potential buyer are: "Are you working with another real estate agent?" A buyer I wrote an offer for last month told me she had been working with an agent but decided instead to work with me. Fine, here, sign a buyer's broker agreement. When we wrote an offer she said, "It's too bad that Susan hauled me all over town and isn't going to get paid for this."
She knew.
None of this dampens my enthusiasm for the business. I love it. And I love working with home buyers. But I do expect loyalty. Why other agents don't is beyond me.
The Short Sale, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming from publisher Archer Ellison in January 2009.
Photo: Big Stock Photo
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
