Who's working for who?

I went from ‘Oh, this is great!’ to ‘Have you lost your mind?’ to ‘How on earth is this serving your clients best interests!’

This morning I got a call from a man who is out driving around the area looking at properties. This buyer wanted to know if I knew of any properties in the $300,000 range.

 I proceeded to ask him some questions about what he was specifically looking for and after several minutes of Q&A,  I encouraged him that they were many properties currently on the market that fit his criteria.

I then asked him if he had been prequalified for a loan. He assured me that he had and he told me who his lender was. He then went on to tell me that he really wanted to find something soon as he wanted to take advantage of the current low interest rates!

Great, I thought!

I then told him that I could email him a list of properties that would fit his criteria and that either myself or one of my agents could meet with him while he was driving around and bring him a Buyer Representation Agreement,  Information about Brokerage Services and a print out of all the properties that I would email him.

His response was OH!

OH! ? What did that mean?

After a second or two passed he went on to tell me that he wanted to be ‘upfront’ with me and let me know that he was already represented by an agent. After telling me the name of the agent he informed me that he had been unable to contact this agent for the last few days but he would really appreciate it if I could just provide him with the list and then whenever he did get in contact with his agent he would have her show him the properties.

I scratched my head!

I asked him if his agent had already provided him with a list of available properties.

He casually informed me that no, his agent hadn’t. The reason this agent gave for not providing a list was that this agent would be out of the office for 10 days on vacation and that because properties move so quickly providing him with a list then would be of no use. They were better of waiting until the agent returned from vacation so that the list would be current and then at that point they could begin their search.

Have you lost your mind?

Dumbfounded, I asked him if this agent had provided him with another agent from the same office that could assist him until his agent returned from vacation.

Again the answer was NO!

When I asked him why, he had an answer for that question too.

He told me that his agent had informed him that she was the best agent in town and that she would not feel that she was serving her clients well if she passed her client onto someone else while she was on vacation. That it was in the best interest of this client if he waited until she returned from vacation before he even began looking for homes.  

Huh???

And how was this serving your client’s best interest?

I reminded him that if he really wanted to take advantage of these low interest rates then he needed to begin his search now and not wait another week or so.

He completely agreed with me and said that was why he was calling me and if I could just provide him with a list of properties then he could start the elimination process before his agent returned from vacation.

Oh there were so many things I wanted to say ………..

But all I could think of was…….

Who’s working for who?

Needless to say, I emailed him a list and wished him a whole lot of luck.