Wow, did I get an earful from a client!!
I saw her name in the paper (again, she has really dug in her heels to be an active part of our community!). Anyway, I called to brag on her and tell her thank you for being such an inspiration to relocating families everywhere. She had been invited by our local Observer Newspaper to be a part of a newcomer's forum. She and fifteen others got together to tell the newspaper and each other what they thought of moving to Charlotte! I mentioned that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall and she got kind of quiet. She went on to tell me that real estate agents got HAMMERED!!
There was an African American woman who's agent would not show her specific neighborhoods she asked to see. She had already signed a buyer agreement and felt her hands were tied so she bought a home with this guy she refers to very negatively. My client had actually been working with another agent when she called me and asked if I would show her homes in Harrisburg. Of course, I would. Later on I learned that the agent before me refused to show her anything in Cabarrus County saying, "You won't like that a bit!" The agent wouldn't elaborate on tax rates or schools saying it wasn't important because she wouldn't live there. My client's comment was, "He was going to have us live in Huntersville come hell or high water!" Nothing wrong with Huntersville. Love the city! It just wasn't for her family.
Thankfully, my client stood up for us saying that her REALTOR (ME!!!) was brought to her as a gift from God. Not often I get devine praise but I'll take it. She did say that people got their issues worked out but real estate agents fell very low in the eyes of the moved and the moving.
Folks, what can we do??? We have to have a better screening process before handing out the licenses. Maybe raise the fees to astronomical amounts to weed out the low producers who don't do enough business to stay in touch with the changing marketplace? I mean steering, really!!! In this day and age of embraced diversity not to mention the "law suit happy" culture we live in today we have to believe in the equal rights policies of F.R.E.S.H. C.O.R.N.
Part of my job that I enjoy the most is meeting people. You meet regular folk, odd folk, celebrities, etc. And they are all different. All of 'em! I love that!!! And the consistent comment I get is, "She listened and took me right to what we were looking for." We need to listen and care about what we hear from our clients. When we all do that I know our reputation as REALTORS will explode.
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