Dear Emmy,
I’m really struggling with real estate agents – my agent and the agent for the buyers. For as much as these people talk on their phones, they don’t seem to know how to return phone calls or communicate.
I’m trying to sell my house, so when my agent tells me someone wants to come look, I clean it up and leave immediately. I’m frustrated, though, when I’ve been driving around, killing time, and I go back to my house and it doesn’t look like anyone has been there. There is no business card on the counter and no one has called me to tell me the appointment was cancelled. I call my agent to find out what’s going on, and he never calls me back.
Finally, when we did receive an offer, anytime my agent needed to find something out from the buyer’s agent, the buyer’s agent was really, really slow to call back. It would take him 4 or 5 days to return a call! There are dates on the contract for a reason!
Is this normal?
Real Estate-ly Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
Unfortunately, this has been a common complaint lately. When the market changed, many common courtesies were set aside as agents scrambled to keep busy.
Now that we have survived the panic from the last few years, we are seeing a return of professionalism. Agents are realizing that the only way to make deals happen is to work with their peers in a collaborative fashion, which includes returning phone calls promptly and leaving business cards at showings.
While we can’t change the past, I would encourage you to speak openly to your agent. Let them know that in order to best represent you, they need to return your calls in a timely manner. Let them know that when they fail to follow through, you question their competency. Your agent should be responsive to this, and hopefully, will change his behavior accordingly.
In real estate, rare is the case where there is “too much” communication – keep the lines open, and it will help the transaction move more smoothly.
Sincerely,
Emmy
What Do You Think? Have you experienced anything like this? How do you handle it, from an agent perspective?
