If you have ever had a bad experience with a service and thought “I could do a better job than that” then we are on the same page.
Now, I’m going back about 25 years, so stay with me. Yes, the market has changed and times are different but the basics remain the same. Good service is still good service and with all the tools we have today there is no excuse for lacklustre performance.
Back in 1998 before I was a Realtor® (Licenced in 2013), we were purchasing our first home in Niagara. My wife and I were first-time buyers and only knew how excited we were, not the details of home purchasing. We relied heavily on the experts, or so we thought. After finding an agent, one that we knew, we were off to start our search. The one thing that we actually did correctly, without any advice, was mortgage approval. A solid commitment, not a pre-qualification. So we are off to the races.
After explaining our budget to our agent he started to book some showings. All is normal so far. After a few nice homes, we started to notice that all were at the very top of our budget. We didn’t feel comfortable maxing out our financing and wondered if there was a reason why we never found anything cheaper. It’s not like we had grand delusions of what we could afford. Nor did we expect some stunning home for our modest budget ($200k). It just seemed like our Realtor® wasn’t paying attention to us and lacked the communication skills to actually understand what we wanted. Listening skills!
After some time, we found a new construction that fit the bill. Very nice home and well within our budget. Why didn’t he introduce us to this opportunity? It was within our desired area and budget. Of course, we reach out but started to have a hard time getting hold of him on the phone. We felt a bit of pushback from both our realtor® and the builder’s realtor®. Seems they didn’t want to share in the sale. Maybe the commission was less because of a new build? I don’t know for sure but we did not get that fuzzy feeling when dealing with either of them.
The sale is completed and we move in.
A few years later our family is growing and we would like to upgrade our home. Something a bit larger and with more family space. Of course, we call our previous realtor® since we didn’t know anyone else. I call him and get the listing info started. We didn’t negotiate the commission price as we trusted he would get the job done without incident. The downward spiral starts here…
Let me list the issues:
- no communication without a lot of calling!
- no feedback on our showings
- no open houses (we felt they were important)
- at the first sign of trouble, a price reduction was recommended; several times to the point of being annoying. No stats or explanation is given for the suggestion.
- still a lack in communication…..
- We did not feel that we were important to him. The sale was more important, his paycheck.
In the end, we did sell our home but we did not feel like it was a victory at all. In fact, we felt a bit mislead. Needless to say, no referrals were ever given to our friends/family for either of our realtor experiences. In my mind, I thought there must be a better experience out there for a real estate deal. It’s a lot of money and realtors® seem to be paid very well.
“I can do this much better.” I thought.
Is it too hard for sales professionals, of all industries, to follow a high standard of ethics and a duty of care? Most of these things are common sense. Communication, Delivering value, Organizing and Planning. I mean this isn’t rocket science right?
Fast forward through 2 career changes to reach my goal of becoming a realtor® in 2013. Now I think back to all the things that pissed me off about my first real estate experience and vow to never make those mistakes, with you. There are 1000’s of realtors® to choose from. Take your time and make sure you receive the value you expect! It’s your money and a lot of it. And, it’s about respect for you and your family. Helping you navigate the real estate world is not something to be taken lightly. Any realtor® that comes across to you as way too relaxed about your goals is probably not the realtor® for you.
If you are going to work with a realtor® it just might be the most important decision you will make. Even more than the actual real estate transaction. Choose wisely.
