Of course we’re still friends. I hope so, otherwise I’ll have only my invisible friends left — and they’re so tempermental. (It’s not so much the voices I mind as the headaches and the lost weekends).

Lucrative? I don’t know about that. It’s actually more lucrative when I fail and drive around. So if I wanted to make a boat-load of money, I could go out and do something I don’t want to do, and to an extent, I do!

Sorry, I didn’t mean that to be a shot across the bow. I just finally had an idea for a post that wasn’t an MLS statistic, so I wanted to give credit where due.

Cheers,

John

Let’s strengthen the point here. This is all about proper disclosure. Are listing agents under the Wal Mart model (I actually think the “H&R Block” is more appropriate) properly disclosing who will be doing the bulk of the work when they take the listing? Does the client know and understand that they will be working primarily with a less experienced subordinate? We have been on the buyer side facing this biz model several times and have been extremely frustrated when we can’t get a call back from the listing agent (even when we were preparing to submit an offer). In one instance we had to deal exclusively with an unlicensed assistant. The agent just didn’t have time to deal with us. I guess he was too busy handing off deals to other subordinates. Even in negotiations of the sale price, request for repairs and other issues, the listing agent was missing in action. Is this the service that was represented to the seller? Maybe in some cases, but I doubt it in many others. Why? Because we have been hired too many times by sellers who have had a previous experience with this model and were extremely pis#@d with the service and the results. At least at H&R Block, the client knows what they are getting. I sleep better at night knowing that although I may do fewer transactions, my clients know I’ve busted my butt on their behalf. I’ll take the potential of repeat business and future referrals over the need to pump near term sales units any time.

Wow! What a coincidence, you know someone ELSE moving to IN??!! That description couldn’t have possibly been of me! I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!!

I think we’re talking about something quite different here. Actually, I wish I had listings coming out my ears to hand off to subordinates — most of my business involves buyers, so I’m actually working now to tweak some offers in the hope of changing that.

As for who the buyers get referred to, in my case it’s as likely to be someone with more experience than me as it is someone with less. My best stint in real estate so far has been working with someone twenty years ahead of me.

[...] As Doug points out, referral fees can be paid out to relocation companies, on-line lead generation sources, and other agents. Keeping in mind that I have both received and paid referral fees, it is not a practice of which I generally approve. There are agents who have business models built almost entirely on the practice (or aspire to the same), and I do not find the role of the interloper a noble one. [...]

[...] I was interested to learn today that Kris Berg has upgraded my status from Walmart to Interloper. This is Kris’s response to a failed business venture of mine, Oakland-Homes-For-Sale.com, which was an attempt to earn referrals for leads generated from an out of area web site that I developed. [...]

Read your bloodhood blog. Glad to know I’m not the only one that clutters up my life with “POST ITS”.