At some point in your career, no matter how hard you try, you’re going to get burned by a client. I don’t think it’s possible for any successful agent to navigate an entire career in this business without getting bit in the ass at least once. Unfortunately, that “principles of real estate” class agents take to get their license can’t possibly cover the infinite impossibilities that may occur between an agent and their client.
In order to help agents bridge that gap, I’ve put together a list of ideas and actions that agents can take in order to try and prevent customers from burning you as an agent:
Get a Buyer Agency Agreement BEFORE You Start Showing Houses-
If you can’t get a buyer agency agreement signed by your buyer, then you probably shouldn’t be working with them. Clients love the fact that you can send them listings, show them houses, suggest how to craft offers, etc. When it comes time to write a contract, however, you might be in trouble. Nothing is stopping that client from having Curly, their wise-guy Cousin/Agent, write that offer for them. You’re out of luck, but Curly thanks you for making his job so easy!
Call The Buyer’s Lender Immediately-
Your client, Debbie Dummy, already had a pre-qualification letter in hand before calling you! She just failed to mention that the letter was written in 1995. Too bad she’s filed for bankruptcy twice and run up $75,000 on her credit cards since then. That qualification isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, but if you had called the lender at the start, you could have saved yourself a lot of time and money!
EXPLAIN The Contract!-
Lazy Larry hates reading contracts, especially since they’re far less interesting than the latest copy of NASCAR magazine. It’s a shame, because if he HAD read the contract, he’d know that settlement was scheduled the same time he’s heading down to Daytona for the big race. Suddenly you’re stuck with a contract that can’t close while Larry is sunning his beer gut on the top of an RV in the infield, and them there cars is runnin’ so loud he can’t here that phone ringin’ in his britches!
Keep A Calendar-
Ricky Realtor had a great rookie year. He closed 12 transactions in his first year, but suddenly he’s juggling tons of clients simultaneously and he can’t even remember all of the appointments he made. If he kept a running calendar, he would know he’s got 3 different clients scheduled for Friday at 3pm, but alas, 2 of his clients are destined for disappointment (and probably a new agent). Planning big while starting small is important. It’s easy to manage 2-3 clients at a time without a calendar, but when business grows, you’ve got to be ready to handle it if you expect your clients to keep calling.
Do A Preliminary Title Search-
Lizzie the Liar listed her house and is about to go to settlement. That is, she THOUGHT she was about to go to settlement. The title company just found out that VISA put a $130,000 lein on the home, and the IRS did the same for an additional $200,000. Too bad Lizze didn’t mention that to you when you listed the home. Add that to the outstanding mortgage debt and the HOA fees that haven’t been paid since 1987, and you’ve got a house you can’t even sell. If you had just ordered a prelim title search when you listed the property, you could have saved yourself a lot of aggravation.
Give Yourself Extra Time-
Hapless Harry has gotten himself in trouble again. His clients are buying their first home, and when he helped them write the contract, he put in a settlement date that was only 2 weeks away. It’s a bummer that the loan won’t be out of underwriting by then, because the bank is going to charge $150/day for each day they don’t close. Harry should have given his clients more time to get the deal done, because guess who they blame for this mess? Turn’s out that Harry’s last name was, in fact, Mudd.
