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Is your (Out of Area) agent doing you justice?

By Nathan Diones

Real Estate Agent with Regioncy Real Estate

March 23, 2008 07:36 AM

As you may already know I live in Lake Arrowhead, CA. It is a very small lakeside reosrt community in southern California. I must say and agree with the fact that 20% of the agents in our community do 80% of the work. This is true. We have a private MLS up here which is not available to agents outside of our community (unless they go through hoops to join and cough up the money..its expensive).

To benefit my clients I'm a member of 3 different MLS / Boards. Thus doing so gives my clients huge marketing coverage and direct exposure to other agents all over California. So when an agent from Burbank, CA has a client in looking to buy a vacation home in Lake Arrowhead that agent can then search his local MLS and there is my clients listing. All the information he needs right there in front of him. Sounds easy huh?

But lately I've been searching the 2 MLS systems outside my community just for curiousity and have been finding numerous listings in my community that are listed with agents located over 60-120 miles away. These agents are not a part of our local MLS and does there client no justice by taking the listing. AND most of the time during the duration of the listing the agents dont even allocate the time for themselves to drive up to Lake Arrowhead and take at least 1 PHOTO! This is amazing to me! I have seen a lucky 1 or 2 sell by this method and by all means thats great congrats and I would advise you to purchase a lottery ticker after closing. Because that is about 1 in a million chance.

This has really hitting me lately. I would never a listing that is over 100 miles away knowing that I cannot service it properly. This does the seller absolutely no justice whatsoever. I would bet money that most sellers in this scenario have absolutely no clue about this either.

Closing Point To Sellers: Always hire a local professional (thats what we are here for) vs. hiring your friend or relative that lives 2 hours or more away. Your shooting yourself in the foot before you even get ot the door.

Feedback Encouraged,

Nathan Diones

LiveLakeArrowhead.com

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Summit Realty Group

Summit Realty Group- The Future of Real Estate Today! - Highlands Ranch, CO

The privacy and exclusivity is novel but it will price themselves out of the market. The Socal alliance will be too strong for Lake Arrowhead to recover from.

Mar 23, 2008 08:03 AM

By the way we are always hiring and we offer a 90/10 split with no junk fees.

Mar 23, 2008 08:05 AM

Paul Kaplan

The Paul Kaplan Group, Inc - Palm Springs, CA

Mid Century/Modern homes in Palm Springs - www.Pau

I experience the same thing Nathan. Greedy LA agents list properties in Palm Springs rather then referring them to a local agent that actually knows and understands the market. Often, you're correct, they'll not even have a photo on the MLS. Or sometimes its not even listed on our local MLS. In the later case, local agents don't even know about the property listings and can't show it to potential clients. Most buyers looking to buy in Palm Springs, aren't going to be looking in a Los Angeles real estate Internet site.

I think agents are doing a disservice to their clients by taking listings out of their market area. Most local agents will offer a 25 to 35% referral. Or co-list with a local agent. In the long run, your clients will be happier based on the more positive results.

Mar 23, 2008 08:13 AM

Alan Kirkpatrick

Austin Texas Homes - Round Rock, TX

Alan in Austin

Nathan:

Great post and some excellent points. I agree with you. These agents should belong to your local MLS if they want to list there. It aggravates me as an agent when I am looking at properties here and find only one picture or a picture of the front and back yard. Little do their clients know that I ignore these listings and move on.

Hey thanks for taking the time to read my blog and post comments.

Mar 23, 2008 08:17 AM

Ross Quintana

Real E Smarter - Spokane, WA

Real E Smarter Real Estate Coach - 509-362-1966

In the area or out of the area, I hope they do their job, It's annoying when they don't.

Apr 01, 2008 04:58 PM

Comments(5)

Nathan Diones

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