In My Opinion
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Things a Realtor® Really Shouldn’t Do
By Gary Taylor, CRB, GRI, CDPE, Summa Real Estate Associates
I received a call today from a friend who owns her own small real estate office. She discussed
with me the dilemma one of her Realtors® is in. A listing was taken and put into the MLS.
Within a few days, the home had seven offers and the seller picked one that was substantially
over the list price. The buyer proceeded to have a home inspection and submitted a repair list
to the seller. The “repair” list included a total tear off and replacement of the roof which was
not mentioned in the home inspection, and a couple of other items of repair that also were not
suggested in the inspection. While I fully understand that – as a buyer’s agent – I must have
loyalty to and represent my buyer to the utmost, this kind of behavior by the buyer would
cause me to not represent him. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that the buyer didn’t
come up with this scam, the buyer’s agent did. There is a principal called “dealing in good
faith” and that, at least in my mind, does not mean making an offer way over asking price on an
“as is” home and then asking for $20,000 in “repairs” after the other offerees have
disappeared.
I am hearing many complaints about listing agents who receive multiple offers on a listing and
the buyer’s agents find out via a “pending” status on RMLS that their buyer’s offer was not
accepted. Worse yet, the buyer sees the pending status first! The excuse I have heard more
than once for this inconsiderate behavior is that the listing agent is too busy to respond. Too
busy to thank a fellow agent who spent probably several hours working, trying to sell your
listing and pay into your daughter’s college fund? Without those offers you are back in 2010
with a listing that is gathering dust and not offers. It can’t take more than a few minutes to
email the buyer’s agents and thank them while informing them that their buyer did not get the
home.
Last week, I taught a Law and Rule Required Course class for about 25 of our agents and today I
emailed each of them a credit hour certificate along with an outline of the class and a “thank
you” for attending. It took about an hour. This was an hour well spent.
To counter the above rant, I saw a Facebook post today about a listing agent who had 17 offers
on a listing and took the time to personally call each buyers agent to let them know that their
offer was not accepted. Well, that is actually incorrect. The agent called all but one buyer’s
agents to let them know their offer was not accepted. There was one call to the agent who had
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the “winning” offer! Kudos to this listing agent and others who exhibit the same common
courtesy!
A close cousin to the above is the agent who doesn’t take phone calls or answer emails. I had
one tell me that they get 30 or 40 emails a day and can’t answer all of them. Well, I never
respond to my Victoria Secret emails, either. As a side note, necessity is the mother of
invention. I learned how to display pictures in my Outlook email when Victoria started sending
me her advertising. I probably receive 50 or 60 emails a day and answer any that are business
related except for the emails that want to send me referrals to my zip code for $39.00 per
month.
I am aware of one situation where several agents submitted escalation clauses along with their
offers. One of them apparently was quite upset and threatened to “report” the listing agent
when the listing agent refused to follow the directions in the escalation clause and just sent out
a request for highest and best offers from all the offerees. Report what? That is just silly to
think that the buyer’s agent can dictate to the seller how they are to respond to an offer. By
the way, I am not a big fan of escalation clauses, especially the ones that say they will pay
$1,000 more than the highest offer up to, let’s say, $300,000. Now, I am pretty sure that very
few buyers are savvy enough to think up an escalation clause all by themselves. So, my astute
conclusion is that the buyer’s agent has convinced the buyer that disclosing right up front in the
first offer the highest price the buyer is willing to pay is an excellent strategy. If this is such a
great strategy how come the State of Oregon discourages disclosed limited agents from doing
just that?
I continue to see advertising all over the place by agents who do not disclose their license status
(broker or principal broker) or their company name. There is a ton of it on Facebook. A
Facebook notice to your friends that you have a new listing at 3255 NW Luxury Lane for
$325,000 is advertising. I really could care less what my competitors do in this regard, but, as a
principal broker who is trying to teach my agents the right way to do it, it is hard to explain that
I am not just a total jerk for asking them to comply with the advertising rules when “everybody”
else is not. I really am not a jerk. I am just trying to have myself and my agents follow the rules
of the Real Estate Agency.
Speaking of rules, the antitrust laws are alive and well. Some real estate agents apparently feel
that the antitrust laws are meant for other people to follow. A recent Facebook post received
literally hundreds of comments from real estate agents. The post was information about a
large retailer who had in the past had a program that gave discounts to Realtors® and their
clients. The company announced they are suspending the program and have now associated
with a real estate company and will begin a program of rebates of commissions to buyers who
use them, or in other words, have a different business model than many other brokers. The
large majority of the comments on this post mentioned “boycotting” the major retailer for this
practice. I might mention that this subject is now the main focus of a Facebook group that
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apparently was formed to support the boycott. My name was on the list of people who
belonged to the Facebook group. I did not sign up for the group. My only comment was that
any group of real estate brokers who, as a group, discuss boycotting a company, are flying in
the face of the force of the United States Department of Justice and could face penalties far
beyond what they can even imagine. I also mentioned that, while I pay attention to what my
competitors do, I don’t focus on destroying them, but rather on making my own business the
best it can be. I also said I was quitting the group.
The response to my post was overwhelming. I was condemned as an uninformed idiot who had
no business posting my objection to the boycott. After all, it was not a boycott, it was just a
group of people who were supporting each other in not doing business with this retailer – in
other words, a boycott. “I can choose to shop where I want!!!!” was one remark. I totally
agree, but you cannot discuss that decision in a group of real estate agents and try to convince
them to also not do business with that retailer. It violates antitrust law. Don’t get emotionally
suckered into discussions that could ultimately do nothing but harm your business.
So much for my rant. Let’s all be friends and treat each other with the respect that we truly
deserve!
As always, these are just my opinions. Sometimes I am right!
Gary Taylor, CRB, GRI, is a Principal Broker with Summa Real Estate Associates. He is a Past
Chairman of the Regional Multiple Listing Service. He was awarded the PMAR Realtor® of the
Year for 2007, the Million Dollar Club’s “Managing Broker of the Year” for 2006, the Oregon CRB
of the Year in 1996, and WCR Member of the Year in 2001. He was also a Notary Public in 1974.
He can be reached at [email protected].
PMAR eNews; May 2016