Friends or Foes?

they can be both as long as your friendship doesn't affect your client. having rapport and mutual respect can help a transaction vs. the I am going to win this negotiation attitude. Be professional, represent your client well and have respect for one another.

I think that if people get twitchy about be friendly towards competing agents and agencies then they should look at their business.  I've found that most successful agents are more than willing to be friendly.  The less successful ones are the ones who scurry away to a corner and wrap their hands around their "precious" when another agents gets too close.  If you've got stuff going on and more in the pipelines, then you're right, other agents can be friends - it's called networking.  When you have a particularly picky buyer isn't it nice to be able to pick-up the phone and ask your friend if they've got something that will appease them?  Also, with transactions getting sticky as they can, who would you want to spend all that time with - someone you consider a friend or the other guy?  You're right, it does need to be professional but in the end, I think the buyers and sellers end-up ahead when you can be friendly with the other agent.

good thought but we must not forget we are all friends when it comes to a referral out of our area. I have many working relationships with many Realtors and love to both receive referrals and sending referrals. I understand that we sometimes think local but I like to thing global. Keep me in line if you need anything in Florida. Warmest regards,

The piece of the pie is big enough for everyone.  I invite competition because it makes me better at what I do.