Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate

Vendors in real estate are a pet peeve of mine. No Word document is updated more frequently than our vendor list! More often than not, vendors can be the Unnecessary evil in our lives of Realtors! Painters, loan officers, handymen, electricians, roofers, closing attornies, and home inspectors are all the same. They beg to get on your list and ask that you give them a try...and over the years, most turn out mediocre in services, expensive, and yes even unreliable!
 
 Many vendors are like trying to shake a dog off your leg begging for a treat! They want to wine you and dine you...pretty packages show up at the office with bows on them, gift cards to Starbucks, and tickets to ball games cry out a subliminal "Use me, I'm the best!" You finally yield and give them the name of a client, and guess what? They drop the ball! They are asleep at the wheel! They do not deliver the quality of service they promised. In fact they are not even close! Oh there are a variety of reasons that they just won't work out! For the vendors that begged you for a chance to work with you, there is no shortage of excuses. I don't work weekends, I cannot fit you in for the next few weeks, or they don't return calls! As far as their service, or lack of service they are not competitive with their mortgage junk fees that are through the roof, they don't keep appointments or show up late, a clients smelled alcohol on their breath and won't used them, or they throw a fly in the ointment and suggest to your buyer they want to close at another attorney that in their opinion is cheaper, even though they are not!
 
It is the lack of performance of many vendors that can cast a pale shadow on our professional image as Realtors, raise questions about our own abilities, and can tarnish our reputations. I can understand how clients could lose faith in us. It should make us be reluctant to give names out to prospective clients without warning the client! The vendors that we place on our list are very good; however, we make it very clear to the vendors that we are not interested in any form of rebates, or gifts! We do stress that we expect performance and superior results to our clients. If not, they are removed from the list. All we want is service for clients. A satisfied customer is our best source of business referrals.