I recently received a referral from an out of state Realtor. When she first mentioned the referral, I'm thinking "GREAT!" Then she mentioned the area, and I was like, well, I don't really work all the way over there. That's quite a drive, around 45 minutes to an hour away in good traffic. Over an hour during rush hour or any bad traffic. She mentioned the price range and asked if I would make an exception because of the price range. I agreed.
I spoke with the referral. Turns out the situation was a little different than what the agent had described, but I still decided to work with her. She does have a house to sell where she is, but she said she would entertain two mortgages. I asked her if she would speak with one of my mortgage people to ensure proper education and information on what it takes to have two mortgages. She readily agreed. I passed her his information, and I also gave the mortgage person her information as well, with her permission.
Over the past month or so, she never once contacted the mortgage guy. He left her several messages via phone and email, and nothing. I then received a call yesterday saying she wants an apartment until her house sells. I directed her to a great site online that will help her with an apartment, and show details of floorplans and is great for out of area apartment seekers. I don't do apartments, I do residential real estate. That's what apartment locators are for and there's about 2 apt locator companies on every street corner out here. Very competetive.
I get a call from the referring agent late last night saying that the referral thought I was rude by referring her to a website for apartments when that's not what she wanted. What? She specifically said apartment. The agent further explained she wanted a rental house up to $2500 a month. $2500 a month in the DFW area?? She might as well buy a house and have the double mortgage! I told her exactly how to find the good deals for rentals in our area, which is Craigslist.
The agent apologizes for the miscommunication. However, the agent must not have called the referral back to explain things because I woke up this morning with a rude email from the referral about how she couldn't believe I would direct her to apartments when she wanted houses, and blah blah blah...
I responded back saying that maybe our personalities aren't a match and good luck with her move.
What would you have done? Would you have continued to jump through hoops to please someone who can't be pleased just because it was a referral, and an above average price range? I used to do that, because I know referrals are the blood line of our business, but I also know that I don't need to work with people that don't make an effort to work well with me.
Again, what would you have done?
A relationship with a buyer is a two way street. You can only do so much - they have to do their part as well.
Do the apartment locators offer referral fees? I know in this case it wasn't what she wanted, but if you could still get some $$ from the transaction...
Don't ever count on the other agent to communicate with the referral. As soon as you know there is a problem, contact the referral immediately. This could have saved the nastygram.
There are times when you should FIRE a client and each of us have our own criteria for the termination. I would have had to be there to make my own decision.
Mike, Yes apt locators do referral fees, but the original agent would get that anyway, not me. But she doesn't want an apt, so that's not an option. She wanted to rent for more than what her mortgage would be if she went ahead and bought a house.
Richard, In this situation, I had to count on the other referral because they've had a long term relationship. She sold her the house last year, and it's currently been on the market about 4 months, and she told me she would call her. I couldn't take the other agent out because she was very much involved. She would have been a fireable buyer if I continued to work with her.
Bob, Yes, THANK YOU!! Working in an area that is way out of my target market (though I used to work over there when I chased every lead before becoming established) is just so hard to do. Not only do you have to set aside time to show the house, you're setting aside over 2 hours just for the drive there and back. That's an entire day appt each time she would want to see houses. *arg*
Donna I would have definitely parted ways. I think you did just what needed to be done. No matter what happened and no matter what you did, it probably would not have been satisfactory to her. I haven't been selling real estate for long in Texas, but my broker has always insisted that we should take listings from people that we can work with and who will let us work with them. She does not want us taking a listing just for the sake of having a listing.
I had an instance a couple of weeks ago where my broker actually cancelled a listing agreement with a very difficult seller. No matter what we did or said we could never make them happy. At one point after they had been in our office, laughing and joking and eating candy, they left and called our home office telling them that we were not taking care of their listing like we should. We had done nothing wrong and the home office verified that and told us that they thought the complaint was rather strange anyway. At that moment my broker decided that she didn't want us working with people who would make pointless complaints. We just did not need the listing that badly. So, she called them and asked them to return to our office to sign the termination papers.
We are professionals and if we conduct ourselves as such, we should be treated that way; just as we treat our clients.
I would have assumed that the other agent called their referral and explained the miscommunication as well.
Regardless, I would have done the very same thing. If the confusion and attitude has already started, and you haven't even met, then that's a good indication of things to come.
Hello,
I believe this was a good move on your part. You can not connect with every one and its better to cut the rope early and not waste anyones time.
Donna,
I definitely think you did the right thing. We often go through a lot to keep our higher end clients happy, and then we think to ourselves, what are we doing? what is our time worth? are they really worth more than an average sales price client? (especially one who may treat us more nicely and be more of a pleasure to work with!)
Kudos to you for trying to make it work, but I definitely think you did the right thing.
~Maura Gebhardt
I've learned to trust my initial gut instinct. Every time I do something that I normally wouldn't just because of the price point, it always come back to haunt me. If it's too far to travel for a low priced home, it's going to be too far to travel for any priced home.
Some so called "referrals" you're better off without.
I recently had one from a Realtor whose 'referral' was thinking of selling and moving someday maybe; you know one of 'those'.
He was also considering several parts of the country and had not settled on one yet.
WOW, I leave for a PAYDAY (closing), and come back to so many responses, I was like, Did I get Featured or something? And then I checked and yep, I got me a star!!
Renee, rentals are definitely not worth it unless done in volume. Most don't even give 50% like they use to. We're talking like 25-40% of 1 month's rent. For an average $1200 rental, where you have to show them the same amount of houses as someone BUYING a house, that's less than $500. So not worth it!
Richard, Best Donald impersonation, "You're Fired!"
Vicki, Thanks!
Carolyn, I've done the same thing before. Had a couple of sellers who wanted to sell their houses except they declined showings right and left. I can't sell it if people can't see it, so I informed them they needed to find other representation because it just wasn't worth my time and energy anymore. One took me several months to fire whereas the second one only took me a couple of weeks with the first experience in my frame of mind.
Maria, Thank you. Yes, she seemed like she would have been a little (lot) difficult.
Cynthia, Thank you. I just hate that I might not get anothe referral from her because she's already given me 2 others before. Oh well...
Steven, Thanks!
Rhonda, That's what I have thought as well. I've also though about what I would say to her if she had a change of heart... I'm not sure I would work with her. She was just plain rude and unprofessional.
Laurie, I usually do cut them loose if they don't talk with my (or any other) mortgage person in a timely manner. But, again, being a referral and knowing that she wasn't coming to town for another time, I was giving her time to make the calls... again, oh well...
Rebecca, I so understand what you're saying. The closing I just got back from was just like that, but since it was parents of one of my other clients, I kept gritting my teeth and allowing things to frustrate me because of it being a referral. If they were just someone off the street, I would have fired them a year ago... yes, worked with them for over a year!
Wayne, Thank you!
David, Thank you!
Maura, Yes, the higher end clients seem to be much harder to work, at times, than the average buyer. I had to fire a $500k buyer last summer and my husband thought I was crazy. They drove me crazy and I couldn't take it anymore. The husband even called and we talked for 30 minutes about why he wanted me to continue to work with them, and I just had to stick to my guns and say no... very hard!
Tim, Yes, that makes sense, and I've had those thoughts before too... but I have a hard time saying no, so I said yes. If was a lead from off the street, I would have passed her off for a referral fee.
Jim, Yes, I know one of "those" types... how can someone want to move and not know where? It makes sense if it's within the same area and not sure, but I've had people thinking about Florida and AZ verse North Carolina... aren't all those places so very different? So frustrating!
Shaun, Thank you.
Paula, I wish I could breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, my blood is boiling and it made me so angry... but back to my mantra from yesterday's post, Breathe in, Breathe out, Repeat!
Donna,
I think that some people are just plain impossible and it seems that you did the right thing.
I recently decided to not do business with a client.... was a realtor referral.
This guy was lieing on his loan application and I knew it!!! So I called the referral partner and told her that I was uncomfortable with the deal.
She appreciated the candor. Whether she dropped them too or referred them elsewhere, I don't know. But the key word is 'partnership'. <= not referer and referee(is that a word?).
Regardless of the source.... It is our choice whether to take the referral. Ther referring partner should understand that
Dan, Thanks!
Tom, I can't believe in today's market people are still trying to give false information on loan applications... what a "not so smart person". BTW, Not sure if you recognized the situation, but this was one that I had sent you.
Christy, Thanks!
Klaus, You caught me there at the end. I read the "you should be ashamed of yourself" about 3 times with my jaw dropped, before I continued the sentence... I've tried the mind reading thing many times, and it has never worked... I wish there was a real trick to it!
Well, I see we have all wasted our precious time with "challenged" buyers. Sometmes they may work out, but most of the time we could be doing something more productive. It takes awhile, but we all learn to be discriminating and see a dead end relationship before we waste our resources. Regards all, DavidC
You did the right thing to dump them, but you just didn't do it soon enough. The referring agent should have made it perfectly clear that the buyer wanted to rent first. Then you would have the option of working with them or NOT. Short term rentals are best found through the short term rental services. Folks who want a "house" are not looking for a short term rental. They're probably going to have to take a lease for a year.
Wonder when they were going to tell you about the Lab and the Shepherd and the Cat and perhaps a Ferret.
David, Thank you.
Sharon, Yes, I agree, thank you.
Leigh, No Joke! PLus, that agent has an average price of $500k! Big difference than my area.
Lenn, True, however I spoke with the buyer herself and she even said she wanted to entertain buying and doing two mortgages. I even spoke with her about how a house would need a full 12 month lease if she decided the rent, and that's going to be $30,000 of wasted money if she did that, which made her want to buy a house more instead of rent. The renting thing caught me off guard when I got the call yesterday. I definitely agree that if it's truly short-term, a 3 month lease at an apt makes the most sense. She should just hand that $30k over to me if she doesn't care about throwing it away!
I wrote about this topic earlier in the week. The term of the day is Demon Customers and the trick is to figure out who they are and then fire them as quickly and gently as possible.
http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2007/07/08/the-costs-of-demon-customers/
Sprint just fired their 1,000 worst customers, they all called customer service over 25 times a month. Who is wasting your time?
Tom, That is great that a company like Sprint can cut their losses like that. I had not heard that. Thanks for the information.
David, Thank you.
Hi Donna
I would have done the same thing! As a Real Estate Professional you have to set up some criteria for a prospect to qualify to become a CLIENT. All we have is time and that's irreplaceable.
I think dealing with referrals is very difficult when you find that the referral is not a good fit! I try to let the other agent know right away -- It's good to interview the referral like any other client and see from the beginning whether they have realistic expectations --
LOL, I recognized it....
I promise, I am not bad luck!
Hey
I wrote a very similar post myself. There are definitely times to "fire" your client. Sometimes it's just not worth all that stress for the money. There are more jobs out there that are worthwhile.
Cheers,
Cindy
Donna,
You did the right thing...If she was this much trouble before a transaction, imagine what this person would have been like during a transaction.
When I need to "fire" a client, my response is, "Maybe I am not the right agent for you" It works every time.
Brian Buffini says it is a good thing to release some prospects back into the marketplace and say, "Swim free little fishy. Swim free." Of course, wishing them all the best while you are doing it. If this client was getting that bent out of shape because you wouldn't assist them with something outside of your field of expertise then you are better off without that piece of business.
Some business will suck the life out of your whole business. At least you were smart enough to see it.