In our real estate business, it is very common to pass vendor trades along to the clients. For example, if you are a loan officer, you may pass along a real estate agent's name to your client, or if you are a professional stager, you could pass along your painter's name to your client. All these are done very often in our business.
Here's a thought:
When you refer a client to a trade vendor, be it a loan officer, a real estate agent, a stager, or a home inspector - and especially if you are a part of the transaction, that person is OUR client. He/ she is NOT my client or your client. Again, this is OUR client.
Your "referral" for the trade you referred to is not just an assigned task. For example: If you were a lender and have a pre-qualified buyer, you give your client's name to your trusted Realtor, this person becomes "OUR" client. You did not call the realtor up just to ask him/ her to find your client a house. Period. When things go rocky on the transaction, and it might, you cannot call the Realtor up and start chewing the other person out simply because the transaction is not as smooth sailing as you hoped to be. You probably didn't know from head to toe in the transaction.
To make matters worse, what if you were 3,000 miles away from the Realtor and your/ our client. But you know nothing about how things are done in the area, don't understand much about the nature of the real estate transaction in the area. Who are you to say that the Realtor whom you think you "assigned" your client to did not do his/ her best to represent the client's best interest on what he/she likes the best based on a budget guideline?
Yes, this is what happened to me recently. When I picked up the phone, I heard this person barking at the end of the line. Wow.
Of course, the words he chose to use are words I cannot repeat to myself or my husband. But it has definitely hurt me and made me feel un-worthy of how far I've come along in this transaction - fighting hoops after hoops. This incident has hurt me deeply because I've never ever treated anyone that I think would not did not like the way I represent him/ her. If it makes things better, my client apologized on this loan officer's behalf for acting so unprofessionally. (He didn't care about using this guy in the first place, but I had professionally explained to him how I was connected to him - the client and he agreed to get this lender from faraway land into the transaction). If you know me by now, and if you start to shout at the end of the line, I would just let you do it because I see no reason having 2 people scream at each other. I do not participate in heated arguments that do not that a desired outcome.
If I wanted to be nasty, I could say, "Where the heck were YOU when we wrote our contract, but you didn't return our calls for 2 weeks until after the Option period, then you said we cannot close in time? Well, maybe because you disappeared 2 weeks during our initial offer and had things got started then, maybe we didn't need to extend the closing date?"
or
I could say, "Maybe if your partner read the contract from the beginning, you wouldn't just find out that it needed this done or that done 2 weeks before closing and tell me what you need from me to get things going"
Yes, I didn't say all these to him because I see that there is no point now - days to closing - if we do.
There was no point in that conversation - if he wanted to talk about the past. We are in the final days of closing. I know myself much better than that. There's no day I go to bed not knowing I've done my best taking care of every client I best know how. I know that. But I still cant imagine someone who knows nothing about me yell at me about our client's intelligence for selecting a not-so-easy property to qualify and I didn't do my job in steering him AWAY from the property.
I know this much. I wont ever do business with this guy. I want no part of his stupid referral business if he thinks I'm inefficient. I want to earn an income for my family, but I can choose who to receive business from. Certainly not him. I still cant help but to feel hurt. I'm very sensitive - that's my personality. I'm very sensitive to my clients' needs and many of them dont need to tell my a whole lot and I know what's going on. At the same time, this sensitivity can also fire back at me.
Obviously, I want no part of this transaction. This has been dealing with real estate attorneys and you know how they always write amended clauses to scare people away, including my vendor trades whom I worked so hard on putting my good name out there that they will be paid at closing. Threats about giving the property back to the bank. All these - the lender doesn't know the severity of. Gosh. I've lost so much sleep in this transaction - on top of hearing words my Mama wouldn't allow me to say.
So, the next time you refer business to someone else, it isn't just your client, it becomes OUR Client. If we have to go through hoops to get things done, we'll go through it together. And wake up, there is no smooth sailing transactions these days. You want this close just as much as everyone else in the transaction. No finger-pointing allowed - if it doesn't get ALL towards the closing table.
I do hope my rant and my hurt can teach someone something today. That's the only reason I'm sharing this. Before you say something to someone, put yourself in the receiving end. Some people are more sensitive than others and you may throw this person's schedule off by saying something hurtful and non-productive.
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I proudly serve and sell real estate in the greater Frisco TX Homes real estate market. If you are thinking about purchasing or selling your homes in Frisco, Plano, Dallas, McKinney, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas M-Streets, Dallas White Rock Lake area and other surrounding areas and more importantly, want to work with a local area expert, contact me at your earliest convenience.
It is a competitive market, hence it is important that you choose to work with the realtor who knows these communities like none other. I employ a systematic market approach in selling your home - an intentionally unique proposal that most real estate agents do not use. If you care to be on your way to a successful closing, contact me immediately to see how different my proposition will be.
Contact:
Loreena Yeo
Realtor®/ Broker of 3:16 team REALTY
(214) 783-2210
loreena@loreenayeo.com
Copyright © 2009 by Loreena Yeo (3:16 team REALTY).
