"Can the website you're using be convicted for lack of real estate evidence?" I heard this term at a real estate convention last week and I thought of the buyers who look on my website, email me for tax and school locations, gather other relevant information and make a package of listings they want their agent to show them. The next call I'll receive is from their real estate agent who wants me to give them directions, multilist numbers, names and phone numbers of owners so they can call and make an appointment. While I'm at it, could I just jot down to three of the houses and check the color of the kitchen walls for them. Would I mind making the appointment for them and call them to confirm after they've had their lunch so I won't disturb their dinner. After that, would I mind very much taking a few more photos and passing it on to their sellers because they're not allowed personal emails or to upload photos on their computers where they work 9-5 in downtown Atlanta. Would I mind walking their sellers through the elementary school as they can't get off work during the day.
I just got back from showing my own listing because the "agent" is a bank teller and she was on duty this weekend when her buyer wanted to see my listing. She proudly told me someday she wants to be a loan officer so she can sell real estate and get the loan, too. I wrote about this agent last week; this is the one who asked me to "up" the commission on her side and maybe we could work a deal. That's right, she's doing what we used to call "working for the commission" - not the client way back in the 1980's. Why are you doing all the work and why is your supposed agent using my website? Is it because your agent doesn't have a website or access to the multilist at work or at home or both?
RE/MAX Paramount Properties 678-595-5286 Direct
Or 888-940-0074 Toll Free Office
Atlanta Real Estate & Atlanta Homes for Sale 
Don't you love dealing with amateurs!?
Don't you love dealing with amateurs!?
Wow Jim, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience! Situations like this make me wonder what realty some individuals are living in?!? Too bad for the buyers, they deserve so much more!
-Karin
Wayne and Lynda Gomillion (Pinehurst, Southern Pines | Hagan & Hagan ) More like a criminal. How unethical to ask the listing agents to increase the commission, and you do all work for them!
Karin Smith - Slidell Homes - New Orleans Homes - Listing/Buyers Agent (ABEK Real Estate) The sad thing is this is not an isolated incident! I get calls like this almost daily! The reality is that the agent is living in their own world and "It's all about me!"
Jim,
I wish I could say it was just confined to the Atlanta market...but it isn't. Somebody needs to "drum" them out of the business.
Rich
Jim, ask her to sign over her buyer if they like your listing and give her a referral fee of $500 bucks. How do they not have MLS access, lockbox access, and a website? AT LEAST an AR page...
Jim, ask her if she would like for you to take her client and get them prequalified with a "real lender".....one that works part time like she does with real estate.......and then show them property and give her a referral. She's down right rude!
Yeah it is a shame when you have to pick up the slack for the other agent, but an offer is an offer and I want to get my client's home sold. They make us look good though. Sometimes you have to just tell them straight up they aren't earning their side of the commission.
For a time there are some talk of divorcing the commission, let the buyer agent ask for what they wish from their buyer. If an agent took advantage of me like that I would divorce them and their commission.
Huntington Beach Real Estate Blog - Felix Hung, Exit Beach Cities Realty (Exit Beach Cities Realty) Felix, I am seeing agents in Atlanta that do not belong to Realtors, either MLS, they do not have a lockbox key, and yet are trying tot figure out how they can beat the system...have someone else do the work, and still get paid! Sad to say..it is an every day occurrence here.
Kay Van Kampen, CDPE, Broker, Springfield Missouri Real Estate (RE/MAX Solutions) Totally.
Richard Iarossi, Crofton MD Real Estate, Annapolis MD Real Estate (Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.) I totally agree!
Spokane Washington Real Estate - Ross Quintana 509-362-1966 (Team Quintana Real Estate - Keller Williams Realty Lic#3015) I totally agree! They are working a full time job at something else.
Mary Strang ~ Viroqua, WI Real Estate (RE/MAX Hill Country) The sad thing is they are not working hard enough to persue a sale even if I were paying a fortune in commission!
Hmm, not good for the consumer! This should be mandatory to protect the consumer and to protect our already tarnished image to the public! WOAH. It happens less in Northern Virginia, but I am noticing the same thing happen out here in California.
I remember one agent once asked me whether she could have her client look at listings on my web site.
Huntington Beach Real Estate Blog - Felix Hung, Exit Beach Cities Realty (Exit Beach Cities Realty) I think it happens in many markets as agents become more and more desperate. It is a sad sign of the times.
GITA BANTWAL, REALTOR BUCKS COUNTY, PA HOMES (ReMax Centre Realtors) Agents like this should not refer to themselves as agents at all. They are wannabees!
Jim,
I often wonder how one can stay in business if this is the way they treat their clients.
Richard Weeks, REALTOR®, Broker Associate, GRI, ePRO, eAgent (Bill Griffin Real Estate)...the scary thing is they do.
This is happening wy too often in So Cal too. I think at some point there needs to be a lowers commission standard that should be followed for license holders that are "minimum agents!".
Tina Maraj Fullerton Realtor (RE/MAX North Orange County) Well they are doing nothing to earn their side of the commission so I have to agree! I feel they are not entitled to anything!
Jim, It does make you wonder doesn't it. I just love agents who are too busy to do their own work and expect other agents to do it for them. I think I would have told the one who wanted you to take pictures and walk their clients through the school because they were too busy, that I would be happy to take their client for them but they had best not expect a referral.
I cringe when Ihear from certain "agents" who happen to practice real estate as an afterthought. My favorite(?) is the guy who is a house painter by day, but turns-into Mr. Realtor in the evenings and on weekends. I've dealt with him twice and on both occasions, he "pawned-off" some of his duties on me because, "he's just sooooo busy on a big paint-job". I really feel bad for his clients, who aren't receiving the kind of service they deserve.
Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI (Aspen Properties, Inc. in Pinetop, AZ.) Sometimes I tell them I would love to help them, but ask "Are you OK with your agents not getting paid?" "WHAT!!???"
Tom Boos (Sine & Monaghan GMAC Real Estate) I feel the clients are getting just what they deserve!