Pick One, PLEASE!

Good Afternoon Everyone,

As you will note from my header I am referring to those Real Estate Junkies out there who spend all their time online and calling the listing or preferred agents who are paying for premium placement on the syndication sites.  These sites do a horrible injustice because many time the "internet cruisers" are not seeing all there is to see.  What they are seeing is those listings that someone is paying to have front and center.  It causes so much confusion, they don't understand that unless they connect with one agent they are not going to see all that is out there. 

What brought this to light was a conversation I had with young buyers the other day who had found themselves in an bad situation.  About a month and half ago they contacted a listing agent about a property listed.  These particular buyers were in need of a seller carry purchase because they had a home to sell in another community that was likely to have to be sold as a Short Sale.  The buyers were moving to our area because one of them had taken a job locally.  They were relocating. 

A few days before they were scheduled to close a hiccup came up in the transaction that killed their sale.   It was an issue that should have been  handled far earlier in the transaction in my opinion but since I don't know the details I won't judge the agent, but the bottom line was these young buyers were bumped out of the purchase of this property by a cash buyer at a higher offer.  The details don't matter but understandably these buyers were very upset about it. 

Upon further investigation with these buyers I found out that they had connected with the listing agent online about this property.  This agent, because of the dual agency situation could not or did not explain to them the kind of transaction they were entering in to. Their Earnest Money and their down-payment was at risk from day one because of the kind of transaction it was.  They swear the agent did not explain circumstances to them until they were almost at their closing date.  True or not, I don't know, but bottom line is these buyers were out a house they were ready to move in to and were stuck living in a leaky RV with the children and the family pets. 

This brings me to my point.  Conversing with these people and other buyers like them, I found that they do not understand that jumping around from agent to agent, or looking at listings online and calling listing agents is not necessarily in their best interest.  In the case of these people no one had ever explained to them that every agent has access to same information and every single listing on the MLS.  We all have the same information.  Looking online does not necessarily get them more information, or even factual information and in fact it might limit what they are seeing because they don't understand how those systems work.  In the end I told these buyers that they needed to find ONE agent they wanted to work with as a Buyer's Agent and stick to that agent. Jumping around from agent to agent was not going to get them any more information and in fact could be limiting their search because no agent is going to work hard for them if they don't know they have a client. 

One more nail in the coffin of online syndicators as far as I am concerned.  They provide inaccurate and misleading information and the people get sucked in by them.  The syndication has taken the agent out of the equation and allowed the consumer to think they can do it themselves.  I swear if they could make an offer online and buy a house without ever talking to an agent they would do it.  The "Do It Yourself Home Buyer", forbid they should commit to an agent and ask for help.

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, REALTOR®