My favorite commercials are the ones with the Mayhem Guy from Allstate! In many ways the same principles apply to who you hire for a real estate agent! If you hire someone who will do it for a lower rate or who lacks the experience or the resources to properly see your transaction from the beginning to the end then you could be setting yourself up for . . . . . .
Pandemonium- Here is a story about a transaction gone awry that was relayed to me by a friend who is in the business. The buyer had performed her inspection, sent the repair request to the seller within the 10 day inspection period and then decided she didn't want to buy the property. Within the 5 days required for the seller to respond, the seller agreed to do all of the repairs. The buyer was mistakenly under the impression that since she had decided not to buy the house before the seller had agreed to the repairs she could cancel the transaction. The advice given to the buyer from a brand new agent on his first transaction was “If you cancel, then you will lose your earnest money.” If this was an all cash transaction that would be true but the buyer still has an appraisal contingency and a finance contingency to rely on, so the advice given may or may not be accurate. This is where an experienced agent earns their money. We would have counseled the buyer and determined whether this was a moment of buyer’s remorse or a true changing of the mind of the buyer. Of course, this transaction has now descended into pandemonium! If we were representing the seller, we would have advised that getting out of this transaction as soon as possible may be a better move than waiting 30 more days for the buyer to actually not get their loan rather than trying to secure their small earnest money. It is our job to handle this type of objection and if possible overcome them!
Chaos– It is also our job to protect you from the overzealous agent especially the ones who can only see things from their clients’ perspective. We recently had a potential transaction that went horribly awry. The buyer wrote a very attractive, full price, cash offer on the property! Of course we accepted, although the fact that they didn't even attempt to negotiate raised the slightest of red flags in the back of my mind. It had a very short closing date and would require my seller to both spend some money up front and move very rapidly! The buyer’s agent was insistent that we spend our up front money before their inspection was completed which was contrary to what was required in the contract. The seller and I decided to spend the upfront money because it was something that we would be able to use in any subsequent transaction for up to six months and we HAD to sell the home. To make a long story short, it turns out that the buyer had a legal injunction that prevented them from completing their inspection, filing their earnest money or getting anywhere close to closing. My gut instinct proved correct but this transaction was in chaos for the entire 9 days that it survived through no fault of my seller or me. Fortunately, I had expressed my concern to the seller and we quickly sold the home again. A less experienced or engaged agent would have had the seller’s moved out unnecessarily which would have resulted in pandemonium and chaos!
Havoc-Sometimes the friction and disorder are created simply by the stress and pressure of selling one’s home. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of stress, shelter is one of the basic needs of all people. Moving or selling one’s home in some peoples’ minds, severely threatens this basic need. We have had several transactions, both where we represented the client and were on the other side of the transaction, where the solution to this problem is to use whatever method they use to escape from reality. In other words, some people simply cannot thrive unless they are creating havoc in their lives and those around them. It is our job to make the transaction as smooth as possible and to protect you from these problems from the other side.
Bedlam-Many agents we work with would describe their business practices as bedlam. Many other operate in a constant state of bedlam and chaos and would describe themselves as being perfectly normal! We constantly get slow responses from other agents that indicate how “busy” they are and others that will state in their voice mail that calls will be returned between 10 and 11 and 4 and 5 Monday through Friday. Sounds like a good plan but when you actually look up how many transactions they have done, they are simply not that busy, at least with real estate! We pride our selves in ALWAYS answering the phone if we are able.
While we can’t prevent lightning from striking your home, a pipe flooding your home or you reaching for your cell phone under the seat and having an accident, we can eliminate or minimize the pandemonium, chaos, havoc, bedlam and yes Mayhem from taking over your real estate transaction.