This past weekend, I was showing property to one of my buyer clients. During the course of the day, the client identified two homes that he wanted me to check into further before making an offer. After leaving messages on the other agents voice mail, I heard back from agent # one within an hour or so of my original call. Agent # two did not return my call by the end of the day on Sunday. No big deal, I try and take Sunday's off myself. On Monday, still no call, so I left another voice mail message. Tuesday, same thing, no call. Wednesday I leave another message and finally get a return call about 4PM in the afternoon. The agent was quick to apologize for her delay in getting back to me. What she said next made me sad and angry all at the same time. This woman had to two part-time jobs in addition to her real estate practice, recently divorced with two young mouths to feed. Very sad!

This got me to thinking about her client and if they were made aware of the fact that their agent was part-time at best. Not even mentioning the fact that my buyer client was ready to make an offer on the first house because we did not hear back from the agent for four days after my original phone call. While I feel sorry for agent # two, I feel even more sorry for her clients. Do they know that they do not have full-time representation? Would they be ok with their agent not returning a phone call to another agent for four days? How pissed dissapointed would they be if my buyer and I had written an offer only to find out that the offer was not longer valid because the response time had already expired?

I know we all have challenges to overcome but now more than ever, buyers and sellers alike should only work with full-time agents to represent their best interest. The key phrase here is not full-time but rather best interest. I find it impossible to believe that an agent can truly be affective and represent someone's interest as a part-timer.