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.
Mitch, since the internet is so powerful and clients depend on it to search out "white hat" Realtors one suggestion is to let them know how your past customers feel about your services. I looked at your testomonials on your page and I have found that many of my leads have come from them. Use the space and let your past clients do some work for you. I understand your frustration and have sat on several of these hearings and I must say it makes a difference when you get involved in your local board and work on putting teeth in ethics. Ethics is the backbone of our business and it is our obligation to make sure that our code of ethics are inforced. Keep me posted and good luck. If you ever need help in South Florida give me a ring.
I care, but you waste a lot of negative energy by trying to turn other people in. (even if they deserve it). They will just lie their way out of it. Focus on being the best realtor yourself and soon you will be the winner... I know this is hard to do.. since I have the same issues as you, but you will be a happier person if you do.
I think you are so right. We have to have new standards to deal with people like the ones you have described. Do we really want to be looked at like a group that is money hungry and not concerned about our clients welfare? It is frustrating that there is no policing in the field. All this talk about ethics and are we ethical as a group? All we can do is be the best we can and hope that consumers see us as individulas.
I don't really know what the answer is.
Mitch, fortunately for me in the 3 1/2 yrs that I've been in Real Estate I've had mostly good experiences with other agents. I've had a few bad ones to with the "evil" ones, the ones that are all about making the $$$ and nothing else but at least I didn't have to deal with that with my 2nd client. I probably would have packed it in at that point. I give you credit (or perhaps your wife!) for sticking with it. Let's face facts, we're all here to make a living. But I have to do it by providing great customer service and being honest with my clients and fellow agents. Perhaps that's comes from my previous life as a small business owner or, more likely from the values instilled in me from my parents. I just don't understand the win at all costs mentality. I'd rather win by hard work, honesty, and integrity. Much more satisfying.
good post..I have been in trhe business for many years and I have seen it all...you are right- some agents will just walk right over you-thinking they know it all- thank god, they have assistants who do all the work for them.
My favorite line I hear from the Evil Agent is "I've been doing this for 20 years, don't tell me how to do it!". I love that!
Jim - I have had a ton of great experiences with so many excellent "good" Agents. I wish they were all like those Agents. In this market I have seen so many more Agents that I thought were good, go over to the dark side. I can't tell you how many of my customers call us and let us know that even though they tell other Agents they work with us, the other Agent tells them how bad we are and how good they are. It happens almost daily. Is that scary? I even had one Agent, probably one of the sleaziest in our area, personally knock on the door of every one of my listings (at the time I had 8 or so) and tell them that I wasn't a good Realtor and that they should work with her. I confronted her and let her know how I felt. Unfortunatley at the time I was working 80 hours per week or more and time got away from me. Shame on me for not taking her down. My customers even gave me letters stating what she did. That's the problem I think. Most of us are just to busy taking care of our customers and working hard and ethically to deal with the evil ones!
Jerri - I do believe if we could get enough people onboard we could actually make a change. However, I don't know if getting Agents on board to the volume we would need is doable. In the meantime its up to us to keep smiling and helping our customers. Eventually, I hope, the evil Agents will get their own.
Judy - Yes you are right. In reality, I don't spend barely any time thinking about the Evil ones. I spend all of my time right now helping my Agents be the best they can be and then through my Network, The eHomes Realty Network, helping Agents around the country become successful. I don't really have any time to spend on the bad guys. It's one of my goals though. I plan on making changes at some point...probably once my Network is built and I have the power of 5,000 or more Agents. We will then have a large voice and you can believe me I'm going to use it!
Even though I may be venting here, I am always positive and choose not to be angry each day. However, when I hear people say that Realtors and Used Car Salesman are the same....no offense to car salesman, it makes me cringe. What could be a celebrated industry, we are in an industry that people look down upon. I hate that!
Mitch, I do not have an answer, for some reason these agents get away with murder all the time. Sometimes we are in a really weird position. if you work for the buyer or the seller, out goal is to do the best job for them and sometimes we can not go after the other agents because we might ruin a deal for our principal. I hate it, but There is only so much we can do.
I say let Karma handle your business for you here and use your energy for positive means.
Hey Rebecca! I'm a big believer in Karma, but after 7 years of watching the same people profit from being Evil is tough. However, it doesn't occupy my great mission in life of helping people enjoy the American Dream and teaching Agents the secrets to success! I live by the adage that if I help enough people in both my Real Estate life and my teaching life at The Network, that good things will happen...and they do!
Mitch, I believe the consumer needs to educated. They need to know what questions to ask when hiring an agent. But unfortunately, until the consumer starts shopping by ability instead of cost this will not happen. This doesn't mean that folks that may charge less are also not very good at what they do it just means that the consumer has their priorities wrong.
Bryant - Yes, however the good marketers can bull*&^* their way through the consumer. Actually, most of the ones I am talking about locally are not discounters. They charge to dollar which I wouldn't have a problem with if they produced top dollar results for their customers. With that said, my favorite customer is an educated customer. I teach all Agents how important it is to educate your customers which not only educate them, but it will create loyalty from their customers. Education is the best medicine!