Think twice before hiring friends as your realtor realtor, hiring, Think, twice

kelrich

Seems alot of LYK-ers are starting to hit the stage of their life to buy (or even sell) a property. At the same time, you will find there is always someone around you who are licensed realtors soliciting you for the business.

It might sound trivial but alot of us (including myself) often favor choosing realtors because of the friendship rather than competency. This is a huge risk because:

1) In many cases, they are inexperenced so they try to build up their portfolio by secure business from friends and families. This is not suggesting they are not going to get a job done, but an inexperienced professional often poses greater risk of not able to get the job done effectively and your business will be part of his/her learning curve.

2) The relationship between friends/business partners can be confusing. As a client, you might find it odd to bring up any concerns related to the realtor/friend's performance. As a realtor, he/she might hestitate to give you fair assessments, or on the other extreme, he/she might be taking the working relation too casual and at time abuse the friendship to cut themselves slacks. (personal experience: I was selling a family condo in downtown and the realtor took advantage of the "free" parking for non-work related activities).

In BC, if you are buyer, you are not paying the commission; if you are a seller, you are paying the commission which you are paying pretty much at industry standard rates. One can argue friends might give you more "discounts" or "rebate" of their commissions, there are lots of qualified realtors who are willing to give you such discounts. Moreover, if your place is not selling or getting a fair return, what's good to pay lower commissions? I am not saying all your friend realtors are not capable of getting a job done, but often we are blind sighted to select a realtor because of the connection and in the end, we are paying the price - I learned a painful lesson on this.

Arlui

I agree...I think it is for most things though (not just for selling houses). Be very careful to go into any business relationships with your friends. Unless you can both be professional in the business without affecting your friendship, it is never a good idea...

Better to work together in a business relationship first, then become good friends....

kelrich

That I agree too... I brought this up because I notice alot of topics about buying / selling homes now and I had pretty interesting (but painful experience) in this. I am not intended to throw my friend/realtor's name here but juts want to share the thoughts

chowB

Oh i feel sorry for your case la... . but sorry to say, they're not your good friends in the first place anyway! if they don't try to protect you (as their "friend") but take your advantage. Not only talking about real estates thing but in general la. They may cheat you on many other things too. To my pov and experience, insurance friends are even worse tim.

samsung

totally agreed! I got some c9 friends getting the licence because they are too mo liu and think they can save some commission if their family wants to buy or sell properties, I won't even consider any of them... even from their outlook or the way they talk, you know they are not professional at all, this drives me think getting such a licence is very easy, everyone can get it... can anyone proof this?

daimo

well, not that I'm buying real estates ...

but all of my friends who became life insurance agents are no longer my friends.

Arlui

haha that bad? do they really try to sell to you all the time?

kelrich

In fairness to my friend/realtor, the person did have the ambition to sell my property at the best price but did not have the experience and the personality. She was committed to the appointments but also she was relatively immature and get distracted. While she might be successful in the future, she is making mistakes at the price of her clients.

Its always a bugger when you are seeking for service (whether realty, insurance, etc)... there are always someone around you challenging you why you are not using their service. For some services, the work is pretty standard so there would be much consequence or room for anyone to screw up. However, things like realty (biggest investment for most of us), or health related... don't feel bad if you are not seeking friends' services.

Catpiano

well, not that I'm buying real estates ...

but all of my friends who became life insurance agents a ...
daimo 發表於 2010-7-15 11:02

    Lots of my friends are life insurance agents .. not too bad for those here, but in HK ...

Well ..  we have insurance already, so .. not that bad la..

chowB

I think dealing with friends is different to business la. i have lots of 'friends', some of them are just eat and drink friends, some are closer, some are good listeners to share deeper things and so on. I only deal with people who are responsible when talking about business. Even they might be fresh, if they're responsible they might carry out good result. But some (or many) "experienced professionals" are bad, because they're "experienced" and know how to cheat and lie in a more "professional" way! Haha......... Experience, professionalism, and responsibility and honestly won't necessary stay together la! LoL