If You Don’t Like My Service, Please Fire Me On The Spot
April 24th, 2008 Lake Martin, Real Estate Tips, Seller Tips John
Why do some real estate agents insist on holding their sellers to the last day of a listing contract? I don’t know if my market on Lake Martin is different, but I don’t see the point in guilt tripping a seller into staying with me if they are unhappy or decide not to sell.
Obviously, I am in the business to sell Lake Martin real estate. I don’t go into a listing intending not to sell it, not to give bad service. But I find that in talking to some sellers, they are leery of signing a listing contract for fear that they will be held in slavery by an agent. Once they figure out that they can fire me anytime they want, it makes them feel better about the agreement. I only want them as clients if they’re happy with how hard I am working for them.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I found myself telling this to the owners of these new listings. I 
assured them that if they wanted out of the listing agreement at any time, for whatever reason, that’s OK with me. They wouldn’t owe me a dime. I even wrote it into the listing agreement to let them know that I meant it. It was surprising to most of them.
Coincidentally, I saw a great post on the same subject by Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate guy. I agree with his take 100%. It is a real advantage to own your own small brokerage. I can make rules like this for myself. I don’t have to wade through some big corporate bureaucracy. I make the policies, and can work with clients to suit their needs, not according to the whims of Big Brother.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:26 am
My sentiments exactly! I had actually explained this to a client of mine last week. They were moaning about how I had them sign a 1 year agreement even though we had discussed the urgency of the sale. I explained to them that if they were unhappy with my services they could leave and they interjected “but what about our contract?”. I reiterated that I wouldn’t hold them to any agreement if they were truly unhappy with any services I was offering, but that I couldn’t control the market and I wrote a year agreement so I wouldn’t have to keep hassling them to sign a new listing agreement. A week later and the lot is under contract and they were glad that they stayed with me.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:05 am
I agree Daniel - Alabama State law says we have to have some sort of end date for the listing agreement - and it makes folks feel better if they know they can change their mind. A lot of times here on Lake Martin it is because they decide not to sell at all. Maybe it’s the same case in McClellanville.