本帖最後由 kelrich 於 2010-7-16 00:20 編輯
I ended up not extending the agreement with my friend after 6 months; granted the market is not hot for the past year or so for condos, my unit was the second longest active listing since 2010 and she blew one and only offer (see below). As it was my parents' property, I took a lot heat from my parents. Tofu: I had the same thought initially I hired my friend, she was "green" and she indicated she will commit to all the appointments and will do the best she can to follow up on all the leads. The problem is she doesn't have any resource and requires our support (for one, she got us paying $3K for hiring a staging company to decorate the place - which was a total waste and many realtors can arranged some furniture as props without such hefty investments from sellers ). She doesn't have anyone to support her or even have marketing strategies like websites or ads. I couldn't argue her passion with the job but like what I said, she doesn't have the resources. I am partly blamed for not doing my due diligence to determine whether her personality suits the role or her ability to handle the service (another e.g., we did had an offer come in; after she emailed us an offer around 6pm, we couldn't reach her by phone nor email for the instant 4 hours because she had silenced her phone watching a 4 hour movie). For some "mis-communication" issues, the buyer pull off the offer. Now I just sold the condo but its about 6% less than the previous offer back in Feb as I hired an experienced realtor who I don't know but specialized in that area.
Here is the part that you might ask: "how is your friendship with that realtor after"?
After I told her my family will not renew the listing with her (via email in semi-formal way), she offer a reduction of her commission (I refused as I don't see any advantage of doing this if I can't trust she can sell the place). After we met to have her return the key (she had been delayed the appointment 3 times which one of them due to her party), I had no longer talked to her (nor she is on MSN) for about 3 months. However, as soon as I posted on my MSN that the unit was sold, she started to surface on MSN asking me how I managed to sell it, why my parents are willing to reduce the price further, and she even asked me to provide her any marketing documents from the other realtor so she can "referred" to. In all, this becomes a business opportunity networking. I can't guarantee she will fail in this business down the road nor I won't conduct business with her forever, but the friendship is non-exist the moment she became my realtor and exposed her issues which I still shake my head everytime thinking about it.
This is a good discussion. Started as a topic about hiring a realtor which can be applied to other professional services. Though I probably open eda big can of worms about how catastrophic it can be to conduct business with friends, I do have some experience having friends/relatives for other services with very good results and which I recommended to my friends. |
發表於 2010-7-15 13:45
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