Do Agents Use Their Position to Settle Scores? You Bet They Do!

Recently, I've been helping a great young couple find a rental.  I've really enjoyed these two, and I took great care finding them a great home.  Along the way I had a few interesting experiences with other realtors.

We are realtors, but we're not making decisions that will shape nations, change history or throw the earth off it's axis.  We are realtors.   When we found the first rental of interest I contacted the listing agent, set up a showing and submitted an application. 

The next day, I received a very condesending note from the listing agent critizing my use of a different rental application than he used.  In this part of Virginia you are likely to see a Virginia Association of Realtors form, or a Northern Virginia Association of Realtors form or a simple Staples vintage rental applicaiton.  They all accomplish the same thing.

I responded back with an apology for using a form other than what he uses, and I had my clients re-submit their application on the VAR form rather than the NVAR form.  There's not a thimbles worth of difference between them.  My client sent her credit report and other verifying docs in a couple separate files, and for the sake of time, I forwarded them on to the listing agent.

Again, the next day brought another condescending note with the line, "I don't have time to open all these individual files.  If you don't have the capacity to send them all in one file then hand deliever them to my office.  I am not going to waste my time doing your job!" I fought the temptation to call him Mr. Grumpy Pants and re-scanned the files into one file and resent them.

Then my clients had the audacity to ask if the owner would allow them to paint.  Well that was it!  They were denied the rental because they were too much trouble.  The search continued.  Ironically, the house is still for rent 45 days later.

Next, we found a nice rental (not my favorite) in a nearby neighborhood.  It was adequate so we made application.  This time, the listing agent was one who tried to buy one of my foreclosures a year before, and she missed it by a couple hours.  She got very angry that I didn't hold it for her, but it wasn't my decision.  The asset manager wanted to get all the offers in and the property sold.  We had multiple offers so the seller set a cutoff day and time, and she missed it.

 This time we made sure we had all the approved documents, the correct application and we were first in line to rent this property.  She declined our application.  Why?  No reason.  It was simply declined.  I'm sure it didn't have a thing to do with her missing out on that foreclosure last year.  It's still for rent today.

That brings me to my point.  We are realtors.  We're not junior high teenagers playing childish games with peoples lives.  I've run into this more in the past two years than the previous decade, and it makes wonder what's up. 

When the economy is in the condition it's in you would naturally think that people would go overboard to do a good professional job.  Boy is that a mis-statement.  It's a trend that I hope has a short shelf-life, but human nature is human nature.  If you've used your power as a Realtor to settle a score along the way, please remember that your clients are the ones who are suffering the consequences.