On New Year's Eve I showed a property that an out of town agent had listed. It was an REO and I know those can sometimes offer surprises. When I got there I noticed the front door lock did not lock. Once inside I noticed that the sliding door leading to the back terrace was broken. The safety glass lay like little golden pebbles all over the floor. I made a mental note to call the listing agent and let him know that the house was no longer secured.
I finished showing properties to this client and got busy on some paperwork. In the process I completely forgot to call the listing agent and tell him about the break-in. By the time I remembered, I was on my way to our festivities for the evening and it was 7:45. I hated to call so late, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was the right thing to do.
- 7:45 wasn't that late.
- I was calling with an important message.
- The call was to benefit him, not me.
I've always appreciated the calls I've received from agents showing my listings to let me know that something is amiss. It sets the professional agents apart from the ones who really don't care. I decided to dial his number and tell him about the problem at his listing. After all, the banks expect us to be their eyes and ears as they are far from these properties. And this agent was about 3 hours away from this particular property. I highly doubted he was doing weekly checks on it.
The phone rang and he answered it. I introduced myself and apologized for calling so late. Before I could continue and say why I was calling he replied. "Oh no! I am NOT talking to any Realtors tonight. I am at home at a party and I am not speaking to you tonight!" Click. Dead space. He had hung up on me!
Fortunately, I was not driving to our soiree. I think if you had seen me you would have been able to see smoke coming out of my ears. The nerve of him! Here I was calling to do him a favor and he had been so rude as to cut me off, insult me and then add insult to injury by hanging up on me. Hmmppph!
I stewed for about 45 seconds or so. I don't give up that easily. I hit redial and got ready to give it to him. Two-fisted, two-barrels, whatever! This time he was even ruder, if that were possible. He picked up the call and replied with this instead of 'hello:' "That house better be on fire for you to be calling me again!" I told him he was the rudest agent I had ever talked to and before he could hang up I told him why I had been calling. Then I suggested that perhaps I should be calling the bank instead and letting them know what a horrible excuse for a listing agent they had in charge of their property.
He replied by letting me know that he basically didn't give a hoot what I did. I hung up and was flabbergasted that a colleague could treat another this way. I wondered how he treated his clients. Of course I followed up later and looked up his broker (he was it). I contacted my REO peeps and this property was not one of theirs. So basically he got away with it. I wonder how long people like this can stay in business?
If we can't treat each other with kindness and professionalism, is it any wonder that a real estate agent's reputation is one that's hard to clean up?
Thanks for letting me vent. =)
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