PruCalVoices

Buyers…are You Commitment Phobic?
January 28, 2009 ·  

You’ve made the commitment to buy a house. You’ve committed to a lender and gotten your pre-approval letter and now it’s time to go looking. When it comes to choosing your Realtor(R), you’ve decided to take a different approach…find as many Realtors willing to work on your behalf. You’ll give the business to the one that actually finds the specific house you want. Sounds like a good plan, but is it? Are you hurting yourself instead?

How hard would you work at your job if you knew there was only a 50% of getting paid? In a conventional paying job you go to work, try to look busy, maybe get some things done and collect your check on the 1st and the 15th. It is difficult for people outside of a sales environment to understand how we as Realtors get paid. We put in lots of hours and effort with the understanding that the payoff will be when we do what we are hired to do. In short, the only way we get paid is if we provide results. Having multiple Realtors does not mean you will have more people giving 100% on your behalf. It is only in being willing to commit to your Realtor that you will get the best service. In addition, if you as a buyer are spreading yourself thin with multiple Realtors you may not be giving all the pertinent information to each Realtor. This makes it more difficult for them to weed through listings thatwould not be as suitable for you, as well as not having information that is critical in getting your deal done. In order to give a client the best service, we will limit the amount of clients we can work with so that each client gets the best we can offer and we can develop the necessary relationship. While you as the buyer are not asked to pay for our services, you can repay us for our work by being willing to commit and showing the same loyalty in return.

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Filed Under F A Q, Real Estate for Buyers and Sellers

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Comments

6 Responses to “Buyers…are You Commitment Phobic?”

  1. Adam Chinn on January 28th, 2009 9:26 pm

    Great post Julie,
    I understand and agree with what you are saying. It is important that people understand how most realtors work. I like how you put it, “In short, the only way we get paid is if we provide results.” More people would work harder and get their job done more efficiently if we were all paid this way.

  2. Brian Boisson on January 29th, 2009 10:04 am

    Julie,

    I really liked how you explained in simple terms how we operate.

    Time management dictates that a busy, professional agent needs to insure that their loyal, serious customers get the most attention!

    Brian

  3. Michael Monozon on January 29th, 2009 10:40 am

    Julie, well put, I suspect that most customers that have chose working with multiple agents do so because they lack the understanding of our role in the process. Communication goes a long way towards eliminating this issue

  4. Kathy Wall on January 29th, 2009 11:07 am

    Great post, Julie! One thing that I think home buyers sometimes don’t realize is just how personal and emotional purchasing a home is. Consequently, it is very important for them to find an agent with whom they can be totally candid and comfortable. And, they need an agent who really listens to them and genuinely knows what they are looking for. This type of a relationship is built by spending time together, looking at properties and can’t be built by hopping from agent to agent.

    If I know that a client is loyal to me, I will work day and night to find them just the right home and will make it my personal responsibility. If they are working with multiple agents, I feel that it is a waste of my time and that they are not really serious about finding a home.

  5. Larry Franzella on January 29th, 2009 12:54 pm

    Julie,

    Great expalnation of the process.

    Larry

  6. Jean Joh on February 2nd, 2009 2:43 pm

    Great post Julie, and a subject that I think about often too. Like Kathy said, when clients are loyal to me, I work that much harder and go out of my way to keep on top of the market in their area of interest and to even preview new listings that I think might work for them. I wish I could do the same for all of my clients, but time and energy are so limited.

    Whenever I go through a Buyer Consultation with potential clients, I make sure to ask them to either commit to me or else to commit to another agent, if they don’t feel comfortable with me. I try to explain the process to them and let them know that I will work hard to earn their trust (and my service fee), but that it really is a matter of professional courtesy not to take up someone’s time, gas and energy, if they are not serious about working with that person in the future. So far, the response has been quite positive, as I think they appreciate the explanation.

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