Learning how to work with other agents, and how to maintain a level of professionalism, is one of those skills that seems to be harder to find lately. Today, let's break down how to interact with others in the field, and why its so important that you do
Reading, watching or listening to the news is something many Americans have started to avoid.
From a lack of driving etiquette to letting profanity fly in front of children and habitually showing up late, we’ve turned into obnoxious boors.
Surprisingly, manners and consideration also seem to be disappearing from the business world. This includes not paying attention when someone is speaking, forgetting people’s names and allowing ourselves to be distracted by our phones.
Is decorum still important to people? The answer is reflected in a response to a 2018 UPI survey:
79 percent of respondents wish that Americans prioritized manners as they did in previous generations.
Real estate agents abhor the “rude” label they’ve been forced to wear because of the bad apples in the business. But you don’t have to be a bad apple to be guilty of some of the behaviors that make consumers as well as other agents cringe.
We spoke with agents from across the country to learn their pet-peeves when it comes to what is and isn’t appropriate behavior when dealing with both clients and agents.
When we asked them to tell us how some agents behave toward one another, we heard horror stories.
Yes, your fiduciary duties are to your buyer or seller. But you also have a duty, of sorts, to extend consideration to the other agent’s client.
Take the multiple offer situation, for instance. There’s a lot of that happening right now and tons of buyer’s agents are pulling their hair out over the lack of consideration extended to their client when his or her offer isn’t accepted.
It takes 20 seconds to dash off a text or email to the buyer’s agent, letting her know that her client’s offer wasn’t accepted. “It’s a decided lack of professionalism” one agent said about listing agents who fail to extend this basic courtesy.
“Think of the anxious buyer,” she added.
Send this text or email or make the phone call before you update the property’s status in the MLS. It’s not fair or courteous to other agents to have to learn the bad news from anything or anyone other than the listing agent.
There are still homeowners who want all showings scheduled through their agents. In fact, we’ve heard it has become more common because of the pandemic.
If you, as listing agent, include listing instructions that demand the buyer’s agent call you for an appointment to see the home, answer the da#$ phone when agents call.
If that’s not possible, at least extend the common courtesy of returning the calls within a reasonable amount of time. If you’re super busy, have someone else answer and take care of the scheduling.
Remember, you’re breaching your fiduciary duty to your client to do all you can to sell his or her home by not making it easy to show the home.
You are also frustrating other agents—agents you may deal with in the future.
Protect your reputation and be professional.
Then, there’s the rude buyer’s agent who makes an appointment to show the home and then ghosts the seller.
If you’ve ever sold a home of your own you understand how difficult it is for families, especially, to keep the home in showing condition.
Many of them run around like crazy, tidying up the home in anticipation of a showing. When you don’t show up, or don’t call to reschedule or cancel the appointment, you become one of those agents. The bad apples that make the rest look bad.
One issue we heard about from several agents is that there is almost a complete lack of feedback on showings.
If buyers’ agents don’t offer feedback, which is the courteous thing to do, it’s the listing agent’s job to solicit it. At one time, it was routine for listing agents to call buyers’ agents for the feedback they knew their client would ask for. So, don’t blame other agents when you have no feedback for your seller.
Then there are the agents who claim to be “too busy” to check their email. One agent we spoke with was in the middle of a deal with a listing agent. She asked the listing agent if he’d received her email and he responded that he only checks his email once a week.
Yes, really.
It’s 2020, cupcake, check your email more than once a week. But that’s not the only email blunder we’ve seen from agents – here are 5 more that most agents make.
Whether dealing with other agents, your clients or someone else’s, it all boils down to being considerate, respectful and polite, no matter how busy you are.
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