Buyer agent-eye view: hearing the hysteria
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to answer the phone:
ME: "4 Buyers Real Estate!"
HE: “I’d like to speak to an agent.”
ME: “You are.” [Not a question. A statement]
HE: “Charming… I called you, why should I tell you my name first? ... HELLO!”
ME: [a little dead air] “You are speaking to an agent. This is Rona Fischman, how can I help you?”
HE: “I’m [undecipherable] and I have made 12 offers and I don’t want to get stuck with a real estate agent"
...Then I heard his tale of woe in the current market. He has been jumping at bidding wars, making offers, inspecting bad properties, and having transactions fall through. (He was involved with the sellers who backed out after accepting his offer.) He wants an agent to find him unlisted properties (“you know wink-wink-nudge-nudge” says he.) He wants to pay me for the properties I find for him, but he also wants to find places on his own with no obligation to me. Can I do this?
Yeah, I can. But I don’t want to.
I explained to him that all agents have some links to some properties that aren’t yet listed. By mutual agreement, MLS agents share on the MLS. If a property comes on the MLS, it is open to all. If a property doesn’t get to the MLS, it often is to the disadvantage of the sellers. Good seller’s agents don’t do that unless the seller has a specific reason to do it that way.
I also told him what my office does to find properties that are not on the MLS. We have a few tricks (and they do not depend solely on nudge-nudge-wink-wink.) I explained one in broad strokes and he immediately got off the phone.
I felt dirty. I felt used. I share a lot of what I do with you here at Boston.com. But, I have a few tricks up my sleeve which I reserve for my clients. This caller took my general outline and, I’m sure, thinks he can use it without me. He’s so smart. I’m a dumb Realtor…OK…then I got up, got a drink of water and got a grip. This is not personal. This poor guy has been really beaten up in the market this past year. He is at wit's end. He thinks he’ll never get a house through MLS. He just wants to buy. Yet, although he talked to me like I have nothing to offer him, he also was calling around because he needs help. I hope he finds and agent to help him actually buy a property. I hope that agent isn’t me, unless he can make an offer on some manners first.
Are you at wit’s end? Is this market getting you down? Do you think you’ll never find a house if you have to depend on MLS-listed properties? Are you looking for the agent who has some secret cache of houses for sale?
And most importantly: Can you ask for help without being rude?
