I love the real estate business! In fact, one of the most gratifying aspects of this business are the people I meet within the industry (i.e. clients, other agents, etc). I guess I must be a people person and look forward to the challenges of learning about people and why they do what they do (or don't do) and say what they say (or don't say).
The business of real estate is largely a people business and having good relationships and communicating effectively with my fellow agents is very important to me (and should be to my customers as well). The other day, I received an offer on one of my listings.
Here is the story: Received a call from my office receptionist that I had just received a fax. It was an offer. The offer had a fax cover letter that just said my name (To) and the first name of the other agent (From) along with a phone number. The offer itself only had 3 pages. Apparently, the other 7 pages were cut-off in the fax transmission. When I picked up the fax, I immediately called the phone number listed on the fax. Fortunately, a receptionist from another brokerage company answered the phone. I asked to speak with (blank) and she said their were 2 agents that had the same name. I had no idea which one I needed to speak with so I asked the receptionist to connect me with one agent and give me the phone number of the other agent. I thought to myself, how embarrased I would feel if another agent called me and said "did you submit an offer on so and so". Well, I ended up leaving voice mail messages for both agents and received a return call ( almost 2 days later) from the agent that made the offer. The agent said that his buyers were having second thoughts about making the offer and wanted to withdraw the original offer.
The end result was not the greatest but people do have a right to withdraw unexecuted offer. Here's my problem: I never received a courtesy call saying an offer was/is being faxed. If my office never received the fax (faxes don't always work) and the deadline for acceptance of the offer came and went, who would have been at fault? The fax cover letter only listed first names, no page count was listed and I was lucky that their office was open. Since the fax was cut-off, I had very little information to pass on to my clients. Nontheless, I did pass on what I could and informed my clients that this was not an executable offer (i.e. missing pages 4-10 of the contract and no signatures).
Needless to say, I was sorry for my clients that an offer was received and nothing was put together. These situations give the general public the right to say whatever they want about the lack of professionalism in our industry. Lack of professionalism can be interpreted as lazy, lacking knowledge and not worthy of the commission dollars.
As agents, we need to be above the pale and communicate with our clients and our peers. All of these experiences just make me better and more conscious of my habits and business practices. Here's to the agents that take a little extra time, a little extra effort and never forget who we they are working for.
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