I recently read a blog post where people were ranting about some of the issues they had with real estate agents.
To be very clear, I know that the real estate agents that I work with would never conduct their business this way – but I wanted to share with you what both sellers and buyers have given as the reason they have fired their real estate agent and chosen someone else to represent them.
- Not Notifying Clients When Going Out of Town – Whether it’s a day or a week, send them an email and let them know if you will be available by phone or email. You may be attending a seminar all day and simply not be available. Or you may be on vacation in an area with no internet or cell service.If you have a back-up person that clients can contact, give them their information and advise them you’ll follow up when you return.
- Not telling the truth – It’s the information age and pretty much anyone can find out about anything!
- Not providing full disclosures – this goes along with “not telling the truth” – but this is a little different in that agents purposely left out important information that they should have told their clients about right away.
- Not giving bad news fast enough – Give bad news right away—but also try to provide a solution to the problem or issue (if there is one).
For example, if the buyer is making comments that they want to back out of the contract, let the seller know why and what they might offer to get the deal closed.
- Not filing paperwork on a timely basis – Let’s face it, there is a lot of paperwork in the real estate business and it’s easy to forget to order inspections, documents or take care of title issues on a timely basis. This delays closings.
Consider creating a checklist to make sure all bases are covered.
- Not being a full-time real estate agent – Yes, buyers and sellers get frustrated that they can only contact their part-time real estate agent between the hours of noon and 1 pm (lunch hour) and between 6 to 9 pm – because the agent works another job during the day.
What other reasons have you observed as to why clients fire real estate agents?
Comments(2)