I was a little tentative about taking the Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR) classes. I have my CRS the granddaddy of designations and felt the ABR may be a CRS light.
There were three things that changed my mind and helped me make the decision to go for my ABR and take the classes:
- The predatory practices of several agents in the area.
- Professionalism; is it professional to work with a client without clearly spelling out your relationship in writing?
- The need to demonstrate to the public that I take my business serious.
I have resisted using buyer's agency contracts in my business for several reasons. The number one reason was I like the ability to stop working with a client who I decide I do not want to work with. Many of you out there understand why I feel that way. Although most of my clients are wonderful, there are some for various reasons that it is not going to work out with.
The class I took was attended by about 60 or so local agents from the Honolulu area of which I knew several. Included in the group is new agent Lielane Peralta, from my office. Lielane is one of my a former clients. She has her first listing, co-listed with me. I was happy to see her making the commitment to take on professional development as party of her business plan.
The instructor was Curtis V. Hall from Arizona. Curtis is known in the industry as a revolutionary in the subject of buyer's agency. Curtis did a great job of presenting the material and taking away any doubt I had for using buyer's agency agreements. The three day class covered working with buyer's, issues of professionalism and was intertwined with the REALTOR® Code of Ethics.
Here are a few of positive reasons for going to a Buyer's Agency Agreement:
- It formalizes your relationship with the buyer.
- It is a much more professional way of doing business.
- You treat your buyers the same way you already treat your sellers, with a signed contract.
- It makes it much harder for other agents to poach your clients, with predatory practices.
Yesterday I got a call in the office from a potential client who was unhappy with her current agent and wanted to seek other representation. I let her know that I could only work with her if she did not have a relationship with another agent. Here response was she had nothing in writing. I asked her to let the other agent know that she was not going to be working with them anyway. I would have appreciated the same call. But what she said sounded almost like our instructor sent her to me. It did strengthen my resolve to change my business practices when working with buyers.
A big Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian) to Curtis V. Hall a great instructor. Hopefully a future Active Rainer.
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I recieved my ABR designation earlier this year and learned much from that class. My Elective class was "Short Sales and Foreclosures". In my market which is South Florida we have a tremendous amount of Mortgages going into default thanks mainly to those 1% Negative Mortgages.
I learned how to structure these deals and coordinate with the banks and I had my first closing of a "Short Sale" last month. That alone has paid for the class not to mention all the great stuff I learned. I am working on my CRS and that is going to take a little bit of time. Good Luck with your new skills!