This January marks Inman’s fifth annual Agent Appreciation Month, which culminates at Inman Connect New York in a celebration of agents at the end of January. Plus, we’re rolling out the coveted Inman Power Player Awards, as well as the New York Power Brokers and MLS Innovators awards.
Pulse is a recurring column where we ask for readers’ takes on varying topics in a weekly survey and report back with our findings.
Unfortunately, not all real estate agents are created equal. Some have an eye for detail and a rock-solid work ethic that make them a pleasure to work with, either as a client or as a colleague. Others seem to play loosey-goosey with the rules and never return a phone call or text.
We asked you to tell us about the worst experience you’ve had with an agent, and you didn’t hold back. Was it someone who was helping you buy a house? Someone at your first brokerage? Someone at your current brokerage? Is it someone in your market who’s always tough to sit across from during negotiations or closings? Here are your stories:
- This is my 40th year in real estate, and as sales manager, I’ve had more than my fair share of challenged agents. One, in particular, questioned all authority. I’ll call her Negative Nelly. One day at our 50-person sales meeting, she sat center of the back row of the meeting and decided to start stretching in her chair. Within minutes, I noticed that she had lifted both her legs up over and behind her ears; that was a sight for sore eyes,
- Honestly, where do I begin? Do you mean the worst agent I dealt with today? The best piece of information/advice I received when I started in real estate was “The worst part of being in real estate is the other agents” and that has proven to be true more times than should in any industry. In our market, there are so many lazy agents who don’t show their own listings; you are required to try 30 different rusted lock boxes in front of a building and then figure out what rusted key goes where. But the biggest issue I have with other agents is ethics. If another agent is being unethical, it’s nearly impossible to prove, and honestly you kind of just have to take it because invariably, they will be the seller’s agent on a home your future client absolutely loves and you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize it. Spoiler alert: Ethics training doesn’t make agents more ethical. It just shows that they can complete a one-hour course every two years.
- An agent representing a lot I had listed for a dentist brought an offer so incomplete that the seller got mad at me, thinking it was my doing somehow. I explained I was legally bound to present all offers, and another agent had written this one. Once he understood that, he became happy with me again and asked what he should do. I explained his options, including rejecting it, or countering it, and cleaning it up in that process. He chose to counter it, which effectively caused the buyer’s agent to fill in the blanks of the original offer. She was a very lazy agent. Another agent representing a buyer of one of my listings called to question the cooperating broker’s commission that was published in the MLS. He said he was sure I was not splitting 50/50 and would make sure I would never be paid more than 2.5 percent as a buyer’s agent in this town again. I got advice from our legal hotline and wrote an illuminating email to him explaining the consequences of his threats should he act on them and that I would turn him in to the state real estate association if he ever acted that way towards me again. I sent it on the day escrow closed and he showed up in my office shortly thereafter with an apology, a hug and an expensive bottle of whiskey.
- When I had maybe three or four years under my belt I worked in a brokerage with 40-60 agents (which was big in our town). I was still learning the ropes, but was doing very well selling 15-20 homes a year, sitting duty and cold calling. There was a husband-wife team at our brokerage who had been in the business for a very long time. The wife was as nice as she could be. Then there was her husband. He was a giant man, intimidating (or so he thought) and he would yell at her in their closed-door office, but everyone heard it. He was abusive in my opinion. I regularly called on For Sale by Owner listings. I got an appointment with a seller to interview with them on a Tuesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. (I remember the day and time from 20 years ago) I get there and the owner has contacted several agents to come by and assess the house. One agent brought a sign! As the owners and I were talking, in walks the husband agent earlier mentioned. He looks at me and says in front of the owners, “You’d better hurry up and get out of here. I’ve been referred by Z****.” We were all taken aback by his demand. Somehow I finished chatting with the owners and left. The next day at the office, this husband agent (who was probably 6’8″ tall, 350 lbs) approached me in the hallway at the office, told me, “It’s my listing, and you better not call them,” and he brushed by me to hit me/knock me over. Yes, he touched me. I did go to my broker and the owner of the company. Not a whole lot happened. They were “top producers,” but they sure were worried that I would press assault charges. Someone must have talked to him because he did stay away from me, but every chance he got to stare or intimidate or make crude remarks, he did. That inspired me to always beat him on the sales board, which I did.
What did we miss? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
