As I sit here on a Sunday morning, eating a few pistacio nuts and enjoying the sounds of my waterfall from my pool and the boats going by on the canal right now I think back of when I started in this business in 2001. So many great things have happened to me since then. I was successful immediately upon entering the business. I know now that was just because like my companies before, I would run this like all those companies. My main focus in business has always been help my customers the best I can and I will get paid. Don't worry about the cash because it will always be there if you do the right thing. In this business, more than any I have ever owned (all 14 of them), this theory rings true.
I didn't think this cheery about the business when I started. I sold my first house in the first 30 days I was in the business. In fact, I still call that couple mom and dad and they still call me son. No, they weren't my real parents, but that's just the relationship that I build with all my customers. My second customer didn't turn out that way. Of course I hadn't had a bad experience yet (accept for starting on sept 10, 2001, we all know what happened the next day). I had a pretty loyal customer I had been taking around showing waterfront properties. There was a specific house that came on the market that I knew would be perfect. Unfortunately he had left my cell phone at his house, it was a Sunday, so he just called the listing agent. He told the listing Agent he was working with me and you all know what the Agent said..."no problem, we all work as a team in this business and I will certainly let Mitch know and we will take care of him". They certainly did. They called me after they had a contract and informed me that he was now their customer and if I continued to call him they would file a grievance against me. If I knew then what I know now it would have ended differently. I had been in the business for less than 2 months and I had been screwed already. Wow, I thought. Is this the type of people I am going to work with for the rest of my life. I had turned down $250k a year jobs for this! I was appalled! I went home to my girlfriend, now my wife and told her what happened. I told her I was going to accept one of the job offers I had received to run a major radio stations Internet Marketing program (yes, I have been doing Internet marketing a long time!). Her words, which were probably the best thing she has ever said to me, were: "If you quit now, every person you had a chance to help has a chance of being screwed by another Realtor". Those word stuck with me and changed the course of my life.
One of the things I teach when I'm teaching other Brokerages about Internet Marketing, Sales, Lead Capture and Lead Conversion through The eHomes Realty Network is my mirror assessment tool. I have been doing this for years. Several times per week I will stand in front of my mirror and ask myself, while looking deep in my eyes, some questions such as; have I been a good person this week? Have I worked as hard as possible this week? Have I tried to help as many people as possible this week? You may or may not know, it's impossible to lie to yourself when looking in the mirror. If you have a chance, try it. You might actually scare yourself. We all have issues, but when looking in your eyes through the mirror you can confront them. For me it was a life changing event when I started doing this. I live every day the best that I can because I'm terrified of myself. I know I'm going to have to answer to myself in the mirror and I really don't want to be a bad person. Therefore I'm not. Try it, it's very cool.
So what can we do about getting these, what I call, Evil Realtors out of our business. Their only goal is to make money at anyones expense. They will screw the good Realtor, the customer, the general public just to make a buck. Many of these Realtors are the highest paid Realtors in our areas. We have one locally who thinks he is king. He get every million dollar listing because of his ability to pursuade. If only he used it for good and not evil. He has even been stripped of his Southerby's Franchise yet people are still falling for bull crap games. I had tried to file a grievance against him in the past, but I was told by FAR that it's not our job to protect the public and since I'm not involved in the transaction, I could not do anything. What type of system do we have when we really can't police ourselves? Sure, he ever does anything remotely unethical to me or my Agents I will take him down. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately we don't do business with him so it will never happen.
So I'm back to my question and I want your help. I think we have enough brains here on Active Rain to figure out how to deal with these Agents. Personally I think it's up to us to file a grievance every single chance you get. Unfortunately even a successful grievance is not released to the public so the Realtor keeps going. I talked to a Broker once who told me with a laugh; "I have had 5 grievances filed against me but I'm able to talk myself out of them. They will never get me!" True quote. I almost puked and told her I hope I'm the one that get's to nail you at some point. I'm still waiting!
Ok, I think I've said enough to get my point across. I'll await your responses to see what you all think. Hopefully we will come up with something helpful that will let us, the Good Realtor overcome the Evil Realtor. It's the old good verse evil scenario and if the good doesn't win, I wonder what will happen to our business. I'm going back to the pool to enjoy the rest of my pistachios while watching the manatees play in the water...it certainly is a great business.
