Call me an idealist. I’ll give you a second, make sure you say it loud enough I can hear you…
Okay, the economy sucks. Intel just laid off about one thousand people who work about a mile away from me. Here’s your first real estate hook: they probably won’t be buying a new house any time soon. I feel for these people. My dad went through the same thing several years ago. Moving on…
I had lunch today at a local restaurant. The food was better than expected, the price was right, the environment was clean. The server, however, was slow and forgetful. Was it a bad experience? Not in the I’m-one-of-a-thousand-Intel-employees-just-laid-off kind of ways and I very quickly got over it. Will I write a negative review on Yelp? Will I tell all of my friends not to go there? No, I left a baseline tip and told the server and manager why the tip was below my typical percentage.
Loyalty, Our Economy, The Industry
I see REALTORs who have worked with an escrow officer, lender or even brokerages for-EVER suddenly go elsewhere due to fairly pathetic courting behavior. I take you out to lunch, so you ditch your lender of 15 years. I help you design a post card, so you leave your escrow officer of 20 years. I help you figure out how to use Outlook, you switch brokerages. Huh?
Beyond the customers I work with, I have plenty of friends who are REALTORs and have heard many times the “Can you believe so-and-so didn’t use me to sell their house?! They’ve known me for 10 years and know I’m a REALTOR!” Many REALTORs I encounter make sure to include the wonderful “Oh, by the way, I’m never too busy for your referrals” in every correspondance I see. So apparently loyalty is expected. Shouldn’t it be both ways?
Idealism
Again, maybe I’m just being an idealist. I have a REALTOR in Portland who will handle all future transactions I can foresee. Heck, I have a team of REALTORs across the country that I have met and trust and, should the need arise, will handle transactions for me as well. If another REALTOR comes along with a cheaper rate or the promise of a ride in their Prius, will I ditch my current person? Heck no.
I have a lender who gets to handle my next transaction because she has been so great at not being pushy and just being helpful. I have an escrow officer that I will use as long as she’s in the business. I have a web site that I will want to make sure every home I sell is listed on. I have formed personal relationships with these people. They have convinced me that they will honestly look out for my best interests and they have my business as long as I know that. They want my referrals, I want to know they’re doing everything they can to do their best job for me too. And that level of trust can only be built on loyalty.
Any other idealists in the crowd?
