I recently read a Real Estate blog post about a terrible Buyer's Agent that lost a deal and it made me think of a similar situation I had.
In this experience, I was a buyer's agent. I wrote an offer for a willing and able buyer on a Sunday evening. The buyer was very anxious and needed a place immediately. I absolutely love motivated buyers. I left several messages that evening with the listing agent. The following morning, I did the same. My client had already called me 4 times by 1 pm the following day and I pleaded to give me till 5 pm to receive a response from the other agent. I spoke to the agent's broker and the office had no idea where the agent is, though, they think that the agent is on vacation. I asked who may be taking care of the agent's business, unfortunately, the listing agent did not tell anyone from the office who that may be.
2 pm came and the buyer was furious! The buyer actually fired me, thought I wasn't doing my job in contacting the other agent. I gave the buyer a few minutes to calm down, called them back later, and we were back on the road looking for another home. Thank goodness, the buyer was easy, we found another home and that deal was sweeter than pie.
How many listing agents are there who go MIA (Missing in Action) during the holidays? I worked this Christmas and New Year's weeks and I would say I was extremely busy. I had several buyer appointments including one listing appointment. A comment I received was from a seller who wanted to terminate their agent and was looking for another one. They said that I was the only one who responded within one hour from their call, while they are still waiting for responses from calls they made from a week ago! I asked the seller what was important to them as far as their listing agent, they said good communication. I asked them how often their listing agent called them, they responded, 'only when they called him'. Two internet inquiries I received during the holidays commented the same thing. They were inquiring about a listing they saw on one of the websites I advertise, I responded within minutes from receiving their email. They have not heard back from other inquiries they placed days ago.
If you are a seller, is communication important to you? You need to ask your agent how soon will they return calls and how often you expect to hear from them. If you were the seller and you found out that you could have had a deal going while the agent was away, how would that make you feel? I have several listings and I assure each of my clients that they will receive an email from me weekly and receive feedbacks as soon as I get them from the showing agents. On New Year's Eve, I actually wrote and entered on the MLS 2 listings. While everyone was planning their parties, or getting ready for one, I was working!
You could learn the easy way or the hard way. Now tell me, knowing that you could always reach me and count on me, how about that listing appointment?
