I recently received a referral from my website. I love getting referrals from other agents, because it shows that they understand the time it takes for me to blog consistently, know my market area, and work hard to get the job done. Agents tend to know when other agents are "for real" or if they just look or sound good on paper.
This one seemed to be fairly cut & dry until I spoke with the seller, a friend of the people referring him to me.
First, the seller only wanted to list for 90 days. He also wanted to price the property "a little high" but wanted to "sell it quickly". I told him, having sold one in a better location 2 streets over from his just three weeks ago, that those were two very different strategies. That, and only allowing 90 days for me to sell a property where the average days on the market is well over 200, plus pricing it out of the market, made it a lose-lose situation for both of us.
Did I mention this is most likely a short sale situation?
The husband of the agent who called me originally to set up the referral for his wife (it sounds like they work in tandem, though he is not a licensed agent), was out of town, but I wanted to get back to him quickly, so I emailed him to let him know that I could not accept this particular referral, but I appreciated the consideration.
When he called back, I come to understand that there is a secondary story, one involving him possibly wanting to buy the property, and that the high price was his idea -- because he didn't want there to be much activity up front while he submitted his offer to the bank. Um, WHAT?
So you, Mr. Referrer, know the seller personally, have interest in a company that is attempting to negotiate the short sale, want to put in an offer on the property, and have the house listed high at your recommendation so as not to have much activity while your offer is at the bank and waiting for the BPO, and your wife would get a referral fee on both the buying and selling side?
Alarm bells went off in my head, and after discussing with my Broker, it is not worth the possible liability involved.
Have you had a situation like this?
Would you have taken the listing?
I am curious as to others' thoughts on this situation. I just felt there was too much involvement on the one side, and it just didn't feel right to me.
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