Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Nope, it ain't gonna happen.
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Note to Brokers/Agents |
| In the best interest to our clients and as a general rule, we cooperate with Georgia licensees outside of our MLS in selling our lisings. However, according to the provisions of the Brokerage Guide published by the Georgia Real Estate Commission this cooperation is not automatic and is not to be assumed. A Georgia licensee who is not a member of the Milledgeville MLS wishing to offer our listings to a prospect must first contact our office in order to establish our working relationship prior to any presentation or offer to purchase. This contact must be made to determine how property is to be shown and any commission division and any other pertinent details. We normally will not share commission in the event the prospect has an association with an agent in our office and the property has be presented to prospect by a licensee in our office. |
That being said, when a client hires me to sell their home, I do my best to make that happen. It's my job, it is after all why they hired me.
So let me tell you what prompted me to add the disclosure to my web site:
My duty agent got a call about one of our listings one Sunday afternoon. She gave the caller details about the property they were inquiring about. It seems this property they called about really did not fit their needs. They wanted deeper water, a boathouse and a FEE SIMPLE lot. They were in a certain price range and my agent knew of another property that better fit their needs, so she told them about it. Gave them directions (by water as they were boating) and met them at the property. Now the one thing she did NOT do was ask them if they were working with an agent. (Shame on her- lesson learned)
They loved the house. It was perfect, in their price range and met all their needs. They asked my agent what they could do to "hold" the property. Her reply was they could make an offer. They then explained they planned to make an offer with THEIR AGENT on Monday, but wanted to know what they could do to HOLD the property until then.
They did buy that house and we did co-op with their agent. WHY? Well because our loyalty was with our seller. And without co-oping those buyers were going to walk because they did not want to pay what they offered for the property and also pay their agent (with whom they had signed a BBA) a commission. Rather than our seller not sell their home, we agreed to give their agents company 1/2 the commission. Shame on them.
That being said can you guess what the topic of my next sales meeting was? Asking about agents... how did you guess?
The first two questions? Are you working with an agent? Are you an agent? MUST be asked when we get phone calls.
Will I still co-op with an agent outside my MLS? You bet I will, but only under certain conditions met...
the agent must contact the actual listing agent to set up any showing. For the most part, we have keys to all of our listings in our office and will loan those keys to agents not in our MLS with a set appointment to show. The non member MLS must also agree (formally and in writing) to accompany their clients for each and every visit to the property. We're happy to co-op with you and yes, even share the commission, but only if the NON MEMBER agent is doing their job and earning their commission.
If the NON MEMBER agent won't sign the agreement, they simply can't show our listings. If their clients then come and lie to our agents and get our agents to show them the property and then their agent parachutes in with an offer we present the offer, but our counter offer includes the disclosure that the buyer will be paying any commission to said parachuting agent as it was not earned.
By placing a listing in the MLS we offer stated commissions to members of said MLS. No membership, no offer, plain and simple.
If you have an agent and would like to see our listings please just have your agent contact us. If your agent is telling you to see homes with the listing agent and then come back to them to write an offer, you seriously need to wonder if they have your interests at heart at all. When we work for buyers we actually work to earn our money and I think any of our past buyers would tell you we worked hard for them. So if you agent doesn't show you property, do a CMA with comps when it's time to make an offer, recommend good vendors for the inspection, lender, closing attorney... maybe you need a new agent. There certainly is some value in having an agent who is local and knowledgeable about the area.
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