It just cost $62.00 to fill my little Saab! With gas prices at $3.63/gallon in my area I have had to make adjustments to my business budget so I can afford to just get to my appointments. My office is 40 minutes from my home so I haven't been spending as much time in the office as I used to either. Every realtor I know is talking about the impact these crazy prices has made on our profession.
Yesterday I had an appointment to show a house to clients I just met recently. The home was 37 miles away which would have been OK if they would have shown up, but they didn't. I hear stories like this constantly from other realtors too.
This got me to thinking about the way we work as buyers agents. What is the difference between us and other professionals? When I have appointments with doctors, dentists, attorneys, or even massage therapists I make sure that I'm there on time or I call 24 hours in advance to cancel or reschedule. Why? If I don't cancel in advance I get charged anyway because I took up valuable time that they should have been getting paid for!
Why don't clients respect our time as professionals? We don't give them a good reason to have to! Although we don't charge per hour we do want to get paid eventually for our hard work. I for one am tired of people who are chronic house hunters and want me to show them multiple houses for weeks on end and then decide they aren't going to be buying. I understand that things can happen to change plans but there are those people who just like to look and feel like it is our job to show them whatever they want to see.
My thought is why don't we charge potential buyers a retainer fee? When we sign a buyers agency contract we take a $750 deposit that is held in escrow. If they buy this deposit is credited back to the buyer at settlement. If they run us around like crazy people for weeks and then change their mind about buying for no great reason the deposit is ours to keep. That surely won't be enough to cover all of our time and money invested, but at least it would be something. More importantly it would give us an idea up front about how serious our would be buyers really are.
I am dying to know if anyone else has had the same thought! Please let me know what you all think about this topic.
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