Today a good client (who currently has their property for sale with us) received a phone call from another real estate salesperson who works for a different company.
The conversation went something like this…
Other Agent:
“Hello Mrs ….., I have a good buyer interested in a your area. Are you listed exclusively with Restate?”
Client:
“Yes we are. So please give Restate a call, they are happy to work with you if you have a genuine buyer interested in our property.”
Other Agent:
“No I don’t share my buyers because I will get less money. So I won’t be calling Restate…”
Hmmmm…
Sorry folks but on this one I’m not going to hold back… I believe this has the stench of a self interested commission only agent using underhand tactics to try and line his own pockets. And heres why…
1. The Client / Consumer is now left wondering if they are missing out on a potential buyer, when the reality is that the other agent DOES NOT have a buyer. Because…
2. Agents don’t “own” buyers. The large majority of Genuine buyers are looking for the right property. They don’t care which agent they buy from, they just want the right home and will look with any agent who has a property matching their needs.
3. In the unlikely event that there is a genuine buyer, that for some reason refuses to look at the property with the listing agent, and has asked the other agent if they can show it to them… then under our industry code of ethics, the other agent is obligated to direct their enquiry to the listing agent, not directly to the client.
4. In the even more unlikely event that a buyer has engaged the other agent as a “Buyers Agent” (meaning the buyer is paying the agent to find them a property), then ethically he cannot receive a fee from the seller as well as the buyer. Again in this circumstance he should have made that clear to the client and then immediately directed his call to the listing agent.
Therefore, it certainly appears that his phone call was nothing but an underhand attempt to lure a client away from their current agent and get the listing for himself. And I don’t think that is the sort of behaviour we want in our industry.
Anyway, rant over…
UPDATE:
Interestingly, several days later we received a call from a potential buyer wanting to view this property – who just happens to be the daughter of the real estate salesperson in question. Hmmm…. could this the the same buyer? Or maybe just a coincidence? If so then even more questions arise around the massive conflict of interest that would have been in play had our client fallen for the other salespersons approach.
I’m very interested to know what YOU as a consumer think about this? Is this the sort of behaviour you want to see from the real estate industry?
