by Sean Hess (Sean@StAugTeam.com), Broker and Manager for St. Augustine Team Realty (www.StAugustineTeamRealty.com). Join us on Facebook.
Florida Realtors Open House 2011
It’s the Florida Realtors statewide open house this weekend of March 26, and earlier this week I did a post aimed at buyers on how not to act at an open house. Now it’s my turn to help you recognize bad Realtor behavior.
1. If you tell the Realtor You Aren’t in the Market, but the Agent Still Bird-dogs You
So you’re out looking at open houses to get design ideas. And you follow my advice and tell the agent holding the open house that you are a “suspect, not a prospect.”
But then he won’t leave you alone. He follows you around. He tells you what a great time it is to buy.
The best thing you can do is just leave the open house.
While his job is to make a connection with anyone who enters (because he knows there’s only a scant 2% chance he will actually sell this particular home through an open house), if he knows you’re not a prospect and he still tries a sales job anyway, then he’s a numbskull. He won’t even last two years in the business. But get his name and adress so you can send him a sympathy card when he washes out.
2. When You Tell the Agent You’re Working With A Realtor, and They Won’t Leave You Alone
If you go into an open house and you tell the agent on duty that you’re working with an agent, and the agent still tries to snake you’re business, run away. Why? Because this person is a Scumbag.
In the Realtor world, proper protocol is that if someone else’s customer comes into an open house, and identifies themselves as such, it’s a “hands-off” situation. In those cases the agent on duty is generally even more helpful because they know you’re a real prospect, that you have a genuine interest in the house, and they probably know the other agent and it will bring good relations for the future.
So if a Realtor is so over-the-top by broaching protocol they are not someone you want to work with. Because if they don’t respect proper work conduct in an environment that affects them directly, they sure as hell won’t respect your wants and needs, follow proper protocol on your behalf and may not even respect the law.
The Exception?
When the Realtor you are working with doesn’t return your calls, disappears for long periods of time, etc.
Say you go into an open house and the agent on duty asks, “Are you working with a Realtor?” And you hedge.
You were trying to see this property all week, you called your agent but he never called you back. You emailed. No response. He wasn’t on vacation or out of town, he simply didn’t have any priroty about, oh, I don’t know, being in the real estate business. So feel free to punish that agent. And when he does call you back in two weeks explain that there is no need because “you’ve already found something.”
3. If the Realtor is Disrespectful To You, or Lies
Back in the halycon days of the real estate book I actually witnessed a Realtor speak directly to my male customer and call his wife “the little lady.” This same ass later in the same showing told my customers the home (wood-frame construction) was “termite proof” (no such thing by the way).
The best thing you can do? Get out fast. This is not normal behavior. And tell everyone you know not to work with this person. While boorishness may not be illegal or even unethical, no customer should ever have to experience it.
Want to work with a team of GREAT Realtors? Email St. Augustine Team Realty today, REquestion@StAugTeam.com !
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