Why should certain duties and obligations only apply to you, and not to them as well ? If you failed to act in a given circumstance, under-performed, or committed an "Error & Omission" that could get you in deep trouble or jeopardize your license, there would be consequences and ramifications, wouldn't there be ? Yes, of course there would. So why then are our "clients" or customers held to no bi-lateral accountability or responsibilities ? Why do they do the things they do and play the games they play with us. Why you ask ? Because we allow them to and give them every opportunity to, that's why?
Imagine if when you went to go pump gas for your car, you could just drive off without paying and there would be no consequences or ramifications for that. Imagine if you could walk into any bar or restaurant and order up like there was no tomorrow; steak, lobster, Dom Pérignon or Moët et Chandon champagne, caviar; all the finest -- then just walk out after you've consumed the meal.
Because of "drive-offs" or "walk-outs" gas stations require you to pay-before-you-pump or if a bartender did not recognize you as a regular patron they'd ask to "swipe your card" and the normal consumer wouldn't think twice about that, raise a fuss or walk away. I wish I could be the real estate bar tender with a buyer and say, "let me swipe your card please" -- but why do we as an industry allow people to walk-out or "drive-off" on us all the time with no consequences or ramifications? Because we allow them to; that's why !
(update 10/2012: actually thanks to emerging technologies this IS possible now for sole proprietors or independent contractors to take credit card payments directly without the need for establishing a commercial account with MasterCard~Visa~Amex)
Should the buyer be going behind your back and contacting the listing agent or owner directly to be shown a property or writing a contract on it, or engaging in any other activity which undermines your ability as an agent to represent them ? Should they in the first place disclose to you and furnish to you necessary information to determine or reasonably establish their ability to purchase the type of property contemplated ? Should the buyer exercise due diligence, and also be working exclusively with the agent; or be running multiple agents around concurrently without disclosing that to the others, and have the attitude that who ever shows me the right house first will get to write the contract ? (this goes to the heart of that "hire a taxi driver and locksmith for the day" thing I've talked about in a previous rant, uhm i mean blog 8-).
Furthermore, what happens if their life situation materially and significantly changes during the course of your [implied] agency agreement with them? They loose there job, illness or death in the family, decide not sell the house because they just met that person of their dreams who's moving in, cannot buy the house because they just found out the wife or domestic partner is "expecting" and need to stay put where they are -- all the real life things that can and do happen which are no fault or beyond the control of the agent.
After substantively working with a "client" such as this, should they be allowed to just walk out on us without having to pay SOMETHING for our professional services, time, advice and counsel, and out-of-pocket expenses incurred on their behalf and for their benefit ?? They walk away with something; valuable knowledge and information about the market and about real estate in general; what are we left with ?
What if you were at a restaurant and ordered that big meal I described above and said, "oh... i just got an unexpected phone call and cannot finish the meal or those drinks I just ordered (which were already "served up" to you or which you partially or totally consumed) ... so see ya later... buh-bye, I am out of here [without paying]" ??
I am not saying that EVERY buyer or client is like this and would like to think that by and large most would be ethical or do the right thing (like paying the tab or the gas before driving off); but I cannot think of any other business or industry that lets the consumer just walk out without paying like real estate does. The only one that I can think of would be a lawyer taking a case on a contingency basis on a personal injury type of case; but the person is RECEIVING money in this case and not spending it like in real estate so the incentive to stick with the agent or representative who will be getting you money rather than helping you spend it is a completely different dynamic.
I hope to see one day Realtors band together with greater solidarity over this issue and help STOP making it easy or facilitating the consumer of our professional services with just walking out on us and leaving us stuck with the bill. There's probably not one Realtor out there who hasn't got burned, so you KNOW what I am talking about here....
Until that day happens, I've got my "what-ifs" covered in my own personal Buyer Agency Agreement contract. As I said in a previous blog post, your broker won't really care because he/she was not the one who got burned, and the NAR forms offer no protection for the agent.
So, instead of Realtors descending upon Capitol Hill this past week to lobby Congress about some other issue, they should have all been descending in droves upon their local or National board to get things changed and have the Association, who we pay good hard earned money to, be even more supportive of us. They already are extremely supportive of us by the way, and the National Association of Realtors does an outstanding job overall; but this is just one area where I think they could take a much harder and stronger stand on for us...
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