[...] I subscribe to the San Diego Home Blog to read Kris Berg’s great down to earth, from the heart blog postings. Fortunately Kris does most of the writing, but occasionally her husband Steve chimes in with his thoughts. Today he took the opportunity to share his experience with an unethical agent at an open house: Today, Tuesday, is our usual Broker Open House day in Scripps Ranch, where agents get the opportunity to see the newly listed homes for the past week. One was a townhome listed by a so-called discount broker (we call them “Sell-4-Less” since they usually do). As I walked in, before I could even set my business card down,  the agent said (and this is a direct quote), “It’s priced too high. The price will come down. You know sellers!”. Well, I thought I did, anyway. Generally, the sellers we work with would not appreciate their agents telling other agents that the list price is too high and would be dropping. Even if it IS too high, it is pretty dumb to say it, not to mention unethical. Maybe this is another reason that discount brokerages are going the way of the Dodo bird. Amazing… [...]

Blue Collar Agents called me out on this post and they were correct. I stereotyped an entire segment of our industry due to this one agent (and other, not so great , direct experiences I have had with discount agents). However, this should not implicate all discount agents. I am humbled to apologizing to those discount agents who are actually good and decent, wherever they are. Good call out by Blue Collar. Keeping me on my toes. Thanks!

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness and willingness to reconsider your position. We at Blue Collar Agents truly appreciate agents like you who are willing to address true problems and not simply stereotype discounters. Your response to Franz’s post says great things about your character.

Well Done -

Trevor Smith
Founder: Blue Collar Agents

Steve, thanks for the response and consider yourself forgiven I’m sorry you’ve had bad experiences with discounters in your area, and I can understand the tendency to generalize after a few bad experiences.

Personally, my experience with discounters has been quite positive. The ones I know well enough to judge are all professionals in the true sense of the word and I can’t imagine any of them acting as your open house agent did. That said, I agree with you completely that there are bad agents out there from all kinds of companies, discounters no exception.

Sincerely,
Franz
Blue Collar Agents

As a buyer this is what I want my agent to say…

the agent said (and this is a direct quote), “It’s priced too high. The price will come down. You know sellers!”.

Isn’t this the exact opposite of a sellers agent telling a seller to hold out for a higher price?

People know there’s “blood in the water” the time for being nice is over. Buyers don’t need to write please sell to me letters anymore. Either you take the number they’re offering or you roll the dice that another will come along before the market goes down too much.

[...] In my daily RSS readings, I came across two posts from the Bergs, San Diego real estate bloggers extraodinaire. The first, by Steve, recalled a comment from another agent who essentially betrayed his client. The second was an admonishment by Kris regarding Steve’s choice of the term “discount broker.” She also reminded all of us that such conduct is not restricted to any one segment of the agent population. [...]

if the price is too high then it is too high. whether the seller’s agent says it or whether the buyer side says it, does it really make a difference? as a seller’s agent, did he really want less commission from stating “the price is too high?” fact is agents that are successful in getting the sellers to lower their unreasonable prices are doing them a big favor in this market as you simply do not want to chase the market down.

Steve, you’re out there everyday, you seen how many properties are listed, expired, listed again. you seen how many reduced listings are out there, many of them with multiple reduced prices. and you know what, you can probably pick a few properties where had the reduced price been the asking price 2 months ago, the seller would have had a sale. am I right? I bet you can think of a couple of examples right now off the top of your head.

I’m going to try and take up for the discounter on this one.

In all fairness, the sellers probably chose the discounter because they thought they would net more money… and since ultimately the price is set by the seller, the agent was just trying to let you know that the price was not their idea… but that of the seller.

In a weird sort of way… he/she might not have been betraying his/her client at all. If you, as a previewing agent, know that you won’t have to fight both the listing agent AND the seller… you might be more likely to bring a buyer – and perhaps an offer.

Just a thought…

Doug and Jack,

I think you both have good points. I think Steve’s issue (again, I speak “Steve”) is that the seller most likely didn’t know what his fiduciary was up to. While sending the overpriced message may have been in the client’s ultimate best interest, would the client really have approved? When we agree to represent someone, and this involves setting a pricing strategy, it should be more of a “working together” approach, not one where the agent works in an unchecked vacuum because he “knows what is best” for his unenlightened client.

I’m glad someone in the room had the balls to state the obvious. If these discount brokers are really that in tuned to the market they just gained a huge amount of respect from me.

[...] I subscribe to the San Diego Home Blog to read Kris Berg’s great down to earth, from the heart blog postings. Fortunately Kris does most of the writing, but occasionally her husband Steve chimes in with his thoughts. Today he took the opportunity to share his experience with an unethical agent at an open house: Today, Tuesday, is our usual Broker Open House day in Scripps Ranch, where agents get the opportunity to see the newly listed homes for the past week. One was a townhome listed by a so-called discount broker (we call them “Sell-4-Less” since they usually do). As I walked in, before I could even set my business card down,  the agent said (and this is a direct quote), “It’s priced too high. The price will come down. You know sellers!”. Well, I thought I did, anyway. Generally, the sellers we work with would not appreciate their agents telling other agents that the list price is too high and would be dropping. Even if it IS too high, it is pretty dumb to say it, not to mention unethical. Maybe this is another reason that discount brokerages are going the way of the Dodo bird. Amazing… [...]

I think discount brokers and full price brokers are all the same. Some are good (2%) and the rest should go back to selling shoes. There is no reason it should cost 6% to sell your house unless you are reading at a 3rd grade level and lazy as a sloth. I have sold 2 homes myself and we all know the title co. does all the work. All you need is a FULL mls listing, a good flyer and nice photos! That’s it!!