As an agent for a prominent Washington, DC/Maryland developer I have the privilege of working with a handful of new agents virtually every day. As such, I have had an opportunity firsthand to see the gamut of agent behavior from excellent to fair to… well, I’ll try to keep this family friendly...
From time to time I have the displeasure of working with an agent whose behavior, for one reason or another, is so distasteful that I simply feel the need to discuss it openly so other agents and home buyers can become aware of potentially illegal or unethical behavior they may not notice firsthand.
Currently I am working as an agent on a large, newly renovated luxury condominium building in Takoma Park, Maryland. We have approximately 230 units to sell and business has been very good. We have gotten very favorable feedback from buyers and agents alike, and we have consistently been writing contracts on the units (10 new contracts in the last week alone).
Success seems to breed greed, however, as we have lately discovered disturbing behavior by several of the agents in our area. The fact that we have constant traffic of new buyers coming through the building has attracted unscrupulous agents who are looking to “pick up” buyers during our open houses.
One particular agent has been loitering around the building recently, waiting for potential buyers who are coming to the open house. She has been representing herself as an agent, but never fully discloses that she doesn’t work for the developer or our brokerage. She’s gone so far as to try and take client information from our sign-in sheets so she can solicit our visitors by phone or e-mail.
Originally this agent was introduced to the building after a client of hers brought her for a tour. Recently it was revealed that during this tour she solicited another buyer who was viewing the units without agent representation.
Our company as a rule has gone out of its way throughout the years to be as accommodating and cooperative with other agents as possible. We do not require, as other developers do, that agents register their clients when they tour a property or for agents to accompany their clients when they tour. In fact, there have been several instances where we were not even aware a buyer had an agent until days before settlement because the agent never came to the property and never communicated with us (this will be the subject of an entirely different post to come). The company still honored the agency of those agents and paid full commission, despite the fact that procuring cause may have been debatable and no buyer’s agency agreement had been signed.
Having said that, it is plain to see that if this agent and other agents who have recently displayed similar behavior cannot conduct themselves in an ethical manner, we will have to blacklist them from our properties. This may seem like an idle threat in a thriving Washington, DC / Montgomery County, MD market, but this project is unique. With the high-end luxury finishes, long list of desirable amenities and truly affordable pricing, our project has become the place to buy in the area.
Obviously it is in our best interest to allow all agents to bring as many buyers as possible to see our properties, but if an agent is going to be acting unethically, it simply isn’t worth the potential headache.
We pride ourselves on offering an easy and smooth buying process without additional red tape so buyers can feel comfortable buying and recommending our projects (this has kept our company in business nearly twenty years). As such, we don’t want the buyer to be put in the awkward situation of going through an arbitration or licensing hearing about the ethical behavior of their agents.
So my question to you is “do you think it is fair to blacklist specific agents if their behavior on site is leading to ethical and potentially license-threatening issues?”
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