An Observation About Agents Representing Themselves or Family
In the past twelve months, I have had the opportunity to work with four agents representing themselves or family. Three of these transactions have one common theme. Complacency. Complacency for deadlines. Complacency for contractual obligations. It's really disturbing.
In all these cases, I was the Listing Agent. And since only one of the agents seemed to have a clue about how a contract worked and actually CARED, I am left to think that agents that represent themselves or family, have fools for clients. The one exception to the careless rule was a MEGA top producer in our market. This guy didn't get where he is by not knowing contracts. The other agents are average agents, producing multiple transactions per year, but not setting the world on fire. Here's some of the misrepresentation I've seen:
Agent (representing himself) removes financing contingency, signing a notice stating the earnest money was now at risk. He makes a declarative statement that just because he's signing off on that, doesn't mean his earnest money is really at risk. Really? Yeah. That whole thing about things being in writing in a contract is just baloney. What really matters is what you THINK.
Agent (representing himself) doesn't have his loan funded on settlement day and thinks he is not in default. Thinks he can just reinstate the contract (a short sale no less) and get back to gettingg his loan approved....one that had been denied twice. And this guy has a license to advise other people?
Agent (representing herself) doesn't return addendums or finally, a contract release, requiring her signature, in anything less than two week's time. Sometimes it took three to four weeks! Would that be acceptable to one of her clients?
Agent (representing her son) allows a home inspection contingency period to EXPIRE without realizing it. No inspection was ever scheduled to allow her son the opportunity to inspect the home and actually get out of the contract if he found out something that was a deal breaker for him. Thanks, Mom! Is this how you treat your other clients too?
I did have another transaction that settled just weeks before this post where a real estate agent, licensed in our state, had another agent represent him on the purchase of my listing. There was never a deadline missed, misunderstanding about the contract, or delay in getting paperwork. It was great!
I'm not saying that all agents that represent themselves, or family, are this careless, but my experience is that 75% of the time I can expect things to go haywire. Why? I think these agents are prioritizing their non-relative clients or clients in general, over themselves. They take their family for granted. They let their own transactions take a back burner. All I know is that when it comes time for me to sell my house, I'm likely to call Cindy Jones to represent me. I don't want to be my own worst enemy. Everyone can use someone to look out for them.
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