Foreclosure Listings with Out of Area Agents - Is this good Customer Service? No.
My client called and asked to see a new foreclosure listing. I said I would meet her there in one hour. She asked for directions. She said she had driven up and down the street named in the listing but could not find the home. I thought that was funny and gave her pretty clear directions on how to find the house. When we met, I understood the problem.
The home sits of the main road with a few others and they all have their mail boxes in a bank on the main road. The home would have been easy to identify if it had a sign, but the agent does not have a sign on the listing. I don't imagine the bank asked specifically to leave a sign off so as not to disturb the occupants... there aren't any.
Once in side, I read the MLS detail sheet, the home obviously sits on a raised foundation, there's a crawl space, but the agent had it as a slab foundation, along with the mention of a fireplace, there isn't one and I had already emailed the agent the day the home was listed and let her know she had the square feet and year built incorrect, so she's batting about 1000 for inaccuracies. Her pictures on the MLS were taken BEFORE the trash-out was done and they are deplorable. My client mentioned that she had never seen such awful pictures.
This agent lives in Southern California, 18 hours away from our market (I looked it up on yahoo.maps) and more than likely has never been here to service this listing. I know all this because I called the company that gave her name to the asset manager and they told me. The woman I talked to at the work-flow-management company (they supply agents to asset managers) said this agent probably has a relative here who is helping her. Funny, I haven't read in the NAR code of ethics that this is an exceptable way for an agent to do business.
Here is quote from the companies website:
Real estate service professionals including lenders, real estate brokers and asset management companies benefit from [company name] cutting edge technology for varied users to access and manage specific components of property portfolios from anywhere in the world.
Agents, asset managers and vendors communicate and transact business utilizing the [company name] platform for all their real estate system needs. [Company name] unique portal ensures maximum supply chain efficiency through cross-functional task management.
I emailed this company telling them of the obvious flaw in their system. I asked them if I could go ahead, sign-up, and list the zip code of every family member I have in the state of California and have my relatives service those listings under my license? Why not? It appears that's what this agent is doing and they're handing her name out to unsuspecting asset managers who have no clue that this agent is in the opposite end of one very long state.
I told them I would like to sign up for their service but only if they could guarantee that I would receive local listings over this agent. They said they could not guarantee that. So let's see, I pony up $250 to join this work-flow-management company and become a valuable part of their team, put a sign on my clients listing, take really nice pictures, do a virtual tour (I do one for all my listings, even foreclosures), have all the pertinent data correct on the MLS, advertise my listings on a jillion websites, live locally and can answer buyers inquiries about local market trends, local schools and our job market, but this other agent could possibly get the listing instead of me or another local agent. Where are this agents ethics? Is she sitting on them?
You don't have to be a brain surgeon to know that REAL ESTATE IS A LOCAL BUSINESS. Use a local real estate professional who is an expert in your market for the best results.
I am here to assist you with your real estate needs!
DelNorteCountyREOForSale.com & REOAgent95531.com
GOOGLE ME
Thank you for stopping by. Your comments on this post are welcomed and appreciated.
No one sold more homes in Del Norte County in 2009 and 2010--*both in number and volume--than Fran Gatti. Put Fran to work for you!
*PER CCMLS
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Fran,
I love this post, and I'm flagging it for a feature!!! Thanks, Fran