Don't Call Me, Call Your Own Agent

Very well written post with excellent points :)  Hope you have a great day!

Margaret:

Great post. All parties in a real estate transaction are usually represented by an agent. Communication needs to be done through their agent not through you if you work for the buyer.

Somewhere in the future:  a seperation of brokerage firms into either Buyer or Seller.  When brokerage firms pay inhouse agents extra for dual-agency, the public has no representation.

Margaret, great post. It is not your job to do the work that the seller refuses to pay his own agent for. I think a lot of people who hire discount brokers count on the buyers agent to be there for them when they have questions.

Bravo!  I recently had a seller represented by a limited services brokerage call me with questions.  Sorry no can do.  Oh and yes, I muttered after I hung up the phone your home is overpriced :-)

Good morning Margaret,

Great post and you are right you are representing your clients and their interest...that is your fiduciary responsibility!

I believe that we as agents need to do a better job overall of explaining agency to their clients.  (You of course not being one of them)  I am always amazed at how people just don't seem to "get" the concept of how we represent clients.

Margaret, this reads like a case of listing onto the MLS for a fee, but do all your work direct with the seller. In our area there are some small brokerages that chase For sale by owners and offer to get them into the MLS and ultimately the larger syndicated search engines for a fee ranging from $500 to $1,000, and then leave the rest of the marketing and work of the transaction to the seller. All advice after that is 'A la carte'. Then the sellers hope to get an agent in there that will finish the job for them so they can boast of the money they saved. Good Post

Well you said it and unfortunately the right people that need to hear this message won't read your post. This is how all important messages are, the people that don't need to hear or read do and those that need to hear or read don't. Thank You for sharing

Excellent post, Margaret.  There is a company here that lists and leaves - all questions, appointments, documents, everything is handled by the seller.  Those are tough to work with because the seller often has legitimate questions that we can't answer since we are not their agent.  It's frustrating when your inclination is to help someone but you can't because they have already tied themselves to a service that doesn't.

Margaret, It's hard sometimes to say to someone "you got what you paid for", for me it is anyway...  You've said it very well...  Congratulations, if you negotiated a rock-bottom brokerage fee...  but the honest truth is that we do end up doing a lot more - because we are working in the best interest of our clients and they want THAT house.  So if we intend to represent our buyers wishes we find ourselves working directly with the sellers...

I personally look forward to a day when the fees don't come from the sale of a property: but rather when a seller hires an agent to list and sell their  home for a fee, and a buyer hires their buyers agent and pays their professional fee.... 

Pamela

Thanks for saying this so well. The public has long had a hard time understanding how real estate agents work and who they work for. It's not likely that most of them will ever get it completely as the average person does so few transactions in a lifetime. So, we must re-educate them all, one seller, one buyer  at a time.

Great post Margaret, I never cease to be amazed by the requests of buyers and/or seller whose agent is either not available or just to uninvolved to care. Of course the public also struggle with misinformation as well as agents who do not step up and behave in a professional manner. I like Glenn's point of educating them one at a time!

Makes sense to me. Some people just really dont get it. Like above education is the key and it's our responsibility.

Margaret:  I just had a buyer and seller negotiate an early occupancy directly but it worked out great.   The listing agent was very mad at me but they met at the home inspection and hit it off.  

Margaret, your post is perfectly stated. Hopefully, those that need to get the message will, although I tend to agree with Scott. Regardless, thanks.

Margaret: Great post as always.  I'm printing this one out because I know I will refer to it often and it couldn't be better stated that what you've written here.  As far as discount brokers or discount anything for that matter, the old adage, "you get what you pay for" holds true almost all the time.

Margaret,

     You really hit a nerve there. I also am in Md. and had a similar situation. The listing broker put in the printout to contact the seller directly with offers. I didn't mind presenting my offer to the seller after clearly explaining my agency obligations to my buyer client. I did decline to do a net sheet for him. I explained that doing a net sheet for him would give me specific information about his financial position that I would be required to relate back to my buyer and that his financial position could conceivably be used against him in negotiating the final sales price. Actually based on that situation I spoke with an attorney in a legal update class about the obligation of a listing broker to represent their client. Unfortunately, in Md. whatever the listing broker and seller negotiate as terms as far as the extent of representation is acceptable. I feel there should be some baseline of service requred by the state because the seller often doesn't know what their giving up by accepting limited service. I know some states have established baselines and requirements for listing brokers to disclose the limitations of their service. I would love to see that in Md. too.

Margaret - very well stated ..... if they don't want to pay for the service from their listing agent they certainly are not going to get it anywhere else ..... your obligation is not to them in any way shape or form. Which I suspect their listing agent forgot to tell them when he agreed to the rock bottom listing fee