The nice reward from working in December is that my book of business has blown up. The day after Christmas, it was on. I don’t think anybody went to the after Christmas sales. They called me to buy a house. And God bless every one of them, I am working like a fiend to get everybody a home that fits their needs. I love it!
As is my practice, I set my buyers up with automatic drips from our MLS and give them a listingbook account to play with on their own. No one ever stops there. They go out onto all of those other websites and look their too. Estately, Zillow, Redfin, Movato, ZipRealty, craigslist and who knows what else. Generally it’s a retread of what’s on the MLS, but not always. Here’s what that has yielded this week.
A home that is a short sale in Contra Costa County being listed by a firm in San Bernardino County. I called them on Friday for showing instructions. My business model is to put the clients in the home that fits their needs. Period. It’s Sunday morning, no return call. There is no lockbox on the property, it’s occupied.
So to recap, this agent took the listing in spite of being 300 miles from the subject property and probably having never seen it. They did not put it on the local MLS. Did I mention it was a short sale? How are they doing their clients any favors? More importantly, they are making agents as a whole look bad. They should have taken a referral fee and referred it out.
I just got a request from another client to look at a property that they found on one of those websites. I couldn’t find it in our MLS so I searched the internet and there it was in the San Joaquin County MLS. Some counties dovetail nicely, Contra Costa and San Joaquin don’t. They only overlap out in the Delta where they actually meet. Hundreds of buyers will never know about this house. Here I sit on Sunday morning wondering how I am going to show it to my clients.
Dollars to donuts, the agent doesn’t respond to my email.
Sellers beware. If your agent has a different area code than you do, ask if they belong to the MLS that your home should be listed in. We have six area codes in my area. I belong to the MLS that covers the lion’s share of the area. I partner with another broker who belongs to the other two. If I don’t belong to the MLS where the property should be listed, I co-list with him to assure maximum exposure. We put the appropriate lockbox on the property for the area and we market it appropriately. Maximum exposure equals maximum price.
If the seller is having to short sale, it is paramount that the agent is 100% engaged, that the property has maximum exposure and the agent the prove to the bank that they brought in maximum price. I don’t know how that would occur if the agent failed to put the home on the proper MLS.
If you are thinking about buying or selling, I promise to give you sound advice and honest representation, even if that means I refer you to a colleague. It’s my promise to you.
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