Rant or wisdom

Everyday it seems some new app or new site is popping up with a request to endorse or recommend someone. And being the good, little, proactive Realtors we are,(I am)we rush over to join or see what all the buzz is.

After a while it becomes annoying to our friends and past clients.

Hey I love entrepreneur’s, it’s not them or the application in and of itself…we need more entrepreneurs to bring jobs to America and many of the apps are really cool.

My issue is with the “latest and greatest next new thing”… being asked by people I don’t know to recommend them.Not just people you meet in your social sphere, but how many times can you ask your past clients to recommend you? How many different sites can you send the those past clients to?

It’s probably me, but I just can never ask other people in my sphere to recommend me.  Obviously others don’t feel that way. Yes, I am always thrilled to get a recommendation when it comes from the heart and is unsolicited.

Your sphere

Who is your sphere? Well in many cases it is folks we have met online, via blogging or social media. We’ve read their blogs, maybe commented a time or two on them and then voila…we get a request to recommend them or endorse them.

I don’t know you

Do we really know someone we have met in the online world enough to put our name on a recommendation for them? Just because you can write great posts, doesn’t make you are great Realtor. Just because you spend hours on Twitter, doesn’t make you a great Realtor.

Local

Should we recommend agents in our local area? Personally, I say no and haven’t done that even on Linkedin which is the oldest recommending site. At least on LinkedIn we can tell in what capacity we know them. I will recommend local lenders and others I know but not other local Realtors. If they do a good job, I love to recommend people and endorse them.

So who should you recommend?

I prefer to recommend people I have met, know personally or have done business with. After all if we haven’t transacted business with them how do we know if they are good at selling Real Estate? I believe it is important when we put our name behind any recommendation that we know them and not just through their social media updates.

As service providers, we are asked frequently for a plumber, inspector, electrician. I had a situation this past summer where a potential seller asked me for some recommendations for a painter. I sent them three. But, I had not had my house painted in a long time that we haven’t done it ourselves so I got recommendations from other agents and past clients.  It was a disaster as the potential seller had a language barrier and none of the painters showed up. Not good.I felt terrible.

People take those recommendations and endorsements to heart and it builds trust with us. If it turns out not a good experience, it is a black mark on us.

Guilt

When you see a recommendation pop up on your Facebook wall, or a friend asks you for a recommendation how do you feel? Of course, I am happy they thought enough of me to endorse me or recommend me. But, I feel guilty when I just can’t return the favor or respond to their request.

• Am I the only one?
• How do you feel?
• How many times  can you send your past clients to all the sites popping up?

***This post was not directed at anyone or one app in particular,it is just the discussion I am after.***