A Lesson in Persistence!
by Kevin Jones
I am the biggest advocate of persistence! When is it too much? Can you Actually be a pest? Or cross the line in your Agency? Even become Unethical?
Here’s a brief of an ordeal we went through yesterday … Listing was in multiple offers and gave 72 hours for best and finals. Cutoff was 10:00am, at 10:05am I received a phone call from well let’s call her Tiffany from Diamond Bar. No hello how are you doing, this is Tiffany did we get the deal … Did we get the deal? Talking a mile minute! I explained that I was going to prepare the offers for presentation at 2pm today and that the Seller will choose the offer that they want to. Then she asked if they are the highest offer, If not we can raise it, they can change it, we will do whatever it takes to get this deal, so are we the highest bidder, are we, are we? All in one breath!
I explained to her that she had a good offer and that her offer was near the top … without finishing my sentence, ok, ok, I will get it changed, what should I write, what will it take to get the deal, how much more do I need to raise the offer, we will do anything just tell me what it will take … well … you get the picture … I love her energy and persistence … but I explained to her that the deadline was 10:00am and that I was preparing the offers for presentation and that I was leaving the office in just a few minutes and would not be returning until after the presentation and that she had 72 hours to submit her best and final offer.
So I arrive at the house a few moments after 2:00pm (Yes, I was late to my appointment … shame on me) and there is a couple standing outside the property. Hmmm … maybe a Realtor is going to show the property? Didn’t think much of it and proceeded to go inside. We waited for a few moments for the daughter to arrive as she was to be included in the presentation. We begin the presentation of the seven (7) offers we had received. A few minutes later at approximately 2:15pm the sellers phone rings, the wife Karen answers the phone and is in the kitchen for several minutes just listening to the phone. The husband Jerry is getting upset that the wife is interrupting the presentation. Jerry tells Karen, if it is not about this deal to hang up the phone, the Karen walks over and tells the person here is my husband.
Then the Jerry is on the phone for a good couple of minutes and finally he says, my Realtor is right here do you want to talk to him? Now my curiosity it peaked! Another almost minute goes by and he says, here I think you need to talk to my Realtor. Jerry hands me the phone shaking his head.
I say “Hello” … it’s Tiffany, my buyers are outside, they want the deal, they will do whatever it takes to get the deal, what can we do to get this house for my buyers, did we get the deal, did we get the deal … blah blah blah … a mile a minute … in pure desperation! Then she says I will be right over … I tell her that it is in appropriate for the buyers to be here without an appointment and even more appropriate for her to come over other than to tell her buyers to leave. OK, OK I will do that, I will ask them to leave.
At 2:20pm my phone begins to ring like crazy I have to turn it off. We proceed and go through each offer. It has been 19 years since Jerry and Karen have sold a property, they have several questions about the contracts, the process, what the fees are, what their net is on each deal, etc. Jerry looks for his mortgage statement and we proceed to finalize his net figures as this is a part of their retirement income!
We finally are down to two offers. One at $426,000 with $300,000 down (Tiffany’s offer) and another at $430,000 with 20% down. The Sellers ask me if it is worth the extra $4,000 for the risk, so I explain the various different scenarios and they are discussing it amongst themselves. Jerry explains that it makes more sense that the larger down payment is the better way to go.
And this is the turn of events where Persistence can become a Nuisance … Karen says, look, the agent and the buyers are standing on the front porch! Jerry says, if they knock that will be it … I don’t want to deal with someone that is going to constantly bother me! Tiffany knocks, I look around, it is dead silent in the house, you could hear a pin drop! Everyone is sitting there with a very shocked look on their face!
Jerry said this agent is going to give me a heart attack, he turned to me and asked, would you please go out there and tell them that I don’t want to deal with them because this is just plain annoying! So I go outside and ask Tiffany what she is doing here without an appointment? We really have to have this deal we are willing to do anything … blah blah blah … I tell her that this is completely inappropriate and please leave, thinking that I possibly could save her deal.
Here, here is a cake for the sellers … now it has escalated to Bribery! She is trying to force me to give this cake to the sellers … Karen is Diabetic and can’t have sweets. ( I was thinking Flowers would have been better … just kidding!) Anyways she won’t leave, I then tell her what she is doing is inappropriate and is unethical in her approach to capture this deal. I ask politely several times, she still won’t leave, so then I tell her what Jerry told me to tell her, which I did not want to embarrass her in front of her buyers. I explain that she is costing the buyers the deal. Still won’t leave! So, in a very firm voice, I turn to the Buyers and tell them … Your agent just cost you the deal … You need to leave now … go on. They just stood there. Leave Now! I felt so bad, but what do you do?
The Sellers really wanted to take her deal … if Tiffany would have just left things alone, hands down she would have had the deal. Business wise it made all the sense in the world to take a 70% down deal … wasn’t worth the risk over $4,000 extra profit they said … but the aggravation and stress that this agent would cause is not worth their health.
Lesson … be Persistent … but don’t be a Pest!
Here is Tiffany’s email this morning:
Dear Mr. Jones:
When I received you message yesterday, I finally realized the reason that you are mad. You think “I across over your agency and talk to seller directly!!” No, It is not true!! Please check the message I left yesterday afternoon one more time. I said, my buyer is outside of the property and trying to meet with seller and she wants to see the property again. I was trying to ask your help to stop them from doing something unappropriated. You didn’t pick up the phone. Then I called seller. Please ask your sellers, did I said anything to negotiate the price? I wouldn’t so stupid to do that while you were there with sellers!! I was just trying introduce myself. I said, I am the agent from the buyer who made the offer for $426,000. I talked to Karen this way. Then she passed the phone to Jerry. I though it is you. I called your name. He answered” no, this is Jerry.” Then, I introduce myself again the same way. He said, “you want to talk to Kevin.” I said, “yes”!! After that, you picked up the phone and very angry. I wasn’t trying to do anything to negotiate the price with seller without you. When I said sorry, I am sorry for interrupting your presentation and bothering the seller. Now, I feel sorry because the misunderstanding among us, I let my buyer lost the chance to get the house. I would do anything to help my buyer to get your seller’s house back. Please think it over, you will know for fact for what happen yesterday and what I said is true. I know it might be too late to said so. But if the current buyer back out or the escrow didn’t go through for any reason , please please re-consider about my buyer’s offer.
Sincerely, Tiffany
Here is my response:
Tiffany,
Thank you for your offer and we appreciate all of your hard work. First off I am not mad or angry with you or the situation. This is business, I have no emotion to my business or the people in it.
The key here where I feel you crossed the line is yes calling the Sellers directly, this is why we have Agency relationships to establish boundaries. If you call the listing agent and they don’t pick up the phone wait for a call back. You knew that I was presenting offers and that was not an appropriate time.
The Sellers side of the story is different regarding your telephone call while we were presenting offers. The Sellers, both Karen and Jerry both state that you were adamant on them accepting your deal. This type of pressure, persuasion and just having contact with them is inappropriate action on your part.
It was completely inappropriate first to call the sellers during the presentation and then to knock on the door just minutes after I asked you to ONLY come to the property to remove your buyers. On top of that, to bring gifts (Cake) and try to Bribe the Sellers is completely inappropriate.
Hopefully this will be a valuable lesson to you in your business. If you would have just let the deal progress you would have been the winner. But the Sellers based their decision on a less desirable offer because they did not want the stress involved in the process that you brought to the table.
Actually they were about a minute away from signing off on your deal when you knocked on the door!
I am putting you on notice not to contact the Sellers again, the property is reported “Pending” and you have no reason to contact them directly. If you have a question regarding this property all communication must go through the Listing Agency. Any attempts will be dealt with through legal action as per the Sellers request.
Any questions or concerns please contact me immediately.
The Saga intensifies!
I decide to call Tiffany’s Broker after her email this morning to snub off any possible Legal issues that could possibly arise! When I went to do this … I notice her broker is out of the San Francisco area (Northern California) … unusual for a Southern California agent. I follow up on her license and it appears that she is current on the DRE site as a Broker.
Finally I track down the Broker of the company Tiffany filled in on the offer form. The Brokers name is Shelly. Shelly lets me know that Tiffany does not work for her! Hmmm … this is interesting! Shelly is an Independent Agent/Company with no one working under her!
So I call CAR Legal Hotline and they advise me that Tiffany is not a “Realtor” so she doesn’t belong to a board … how she is getting her MLS access I do not know. Well maybe I figured it out … there is a different name on the Winforms!
You would think that if you were doing things that could be possibly not so Kosher, no pun intended being Passover, that you would want to fly under the radar!
My Valuable Lesson:
I will never tell another Agent what time I am presenting offers!
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