Yesterday I sat with a client who did not tell me upfront that she had been working with another Realtor. After a few suspicious comments I confronted her. The first words out of her mouth were "Yes, but can I fire him? Please say I can''. My response was 'yes, you can fire your agent, but..."
I needed to know more. It seemed that over the 4 months she was working with her agent she lost home after home because the agent consistently missed appointments, never assisted her in her home search, rarely communicated with her, and always had excuses for why her home search was turning up empty for so long.
It surprised me that she felt she had no recourse and had to continue to use a nonresponsive agent.
In Arizona our brokerage strongly suggests our clients sign a Buyer Broker Agreement which I call the hiring document. My buyer had not signed an agreement with her first agent making 'firing' much easier.
When I work with a buyer or seller disgruntled with their agent I first ask them to email or call their agent to determine if they can work things out, in difficult cases I refer them to the agent's Broker. If that is not feasible I suggested that they email their agent stating that they would no longer be working together and why. My client sent an email and never heard back from her 'unresponsive' agent.
I did require that this buyer sign a Buyer Broker Agreement with me but before signing I reminded her that if I also underperformed there was a clause in my hiring document that allowed her 'fire' me if her expectations were not met. The only thing I asked was that she communicate with me whenever she needed something. I also mentioned if either of us felt we weren't a perfect match I could refer her to another agent.
It took just one day and 2 home showings to find my client the home of her dreams. We have just completed the BINSR and the seller agreed to all repairs. She mentioned to a friend of hers on one visit to the property that like it or not I was her Realtor for life.
I get more buyers (and sellers) who have fired their agents than I get from regular referrals. It reminds me every day to continue to step up my game and keep the needs of my customers first and foremost.
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