Are you the listing agent on the house? I get this question all of the time from buyers that found a home of interest to them on sites such as Zillow or Trulia. When it isn't my listing I obviously explain to them that I am not the listing agent on the particular home they called about but that I will be more than happy to assist them if they aren't working with a Realtor®. I further explain that the listing agent was hired by the seller and that I can assist them as buyers at no charge as the seller pays the commission.
Today I had an interesting call from a potential buyer that wanted to see a new listing they just saw on Zillow. The caller provided me with the address and I pulled the listing up in MLS. Just as I opened the listing in MLS the caller asked "are you the listing agent on the house?" I explained that no I wasn't but would be more than happy to assist them if they aren't already working with a Realtor®. The caller then said they just assumed I was the listing agent but that was not an issue with them and wanted to know if I could show them the home today. I then asked again if they were working with another Realtor® and was shocked when the reply was "we have several friends that are real estate agents but called you since I didn't have their phone numbers handy". The caller then said hold on for a second and discussed with someone in the background what would be a good time to see the house. When the caller came back on the line they said "can you show us the house this afternoon or should we call another Realtor®?" I politely informed them they should contact the Realtor® they would be utilizing to purchase the home in the event they decided to place an offer. I about fell over when the response was "I will try to reach them but if I can't I will call you back. If you haven't heard from me within 30 minutes I was able to reach them - If I can't reach them I will call you back to have you show us the home this afternoon".
I am a friendly person and love to help people however I don't show homes I don't have any possibility at all of earning a commission on if the buyers purchase the home. No, I am not the listing agent so I won't be getting commission on that side. The buyer is obviously going to use one of their friends to draw up an offer so no commission on that side either. Fortunately in this case the caller didn't call me back. Reality is if they had I would have declined to show them the property anyway. Are you the listing agent? No, I am not and I do not work for free!
Comments(3)