I read an article this morning written by a first-time home buyer about her journey in finding a Realtor, shopping and closing on her first purchase during the COVID pandemic. Her perspective and opinion made me think a little about how much we as Realtors take for granted in our never-ending quest to find clients, and how the client can perceive our industry as a whole.
In the article, the new homeowner described how she found her Realtor “the old fashioned way” – by posting on Facebook and community online network NextDoor asking for Realtors to connect with her. She says 6 Realtors commented, offering their services.
This buyer then responded to those Realtors with a 61-question “interview”, and asked them all to complete it. The results she received from this request was interesting.
Two Realtors flat out told her they were too good for her lengthy questions. She said “three of the agents at least took a crack at answering some of the questions, two of them fairly thoroughly.” She eventually chose one and seems to be very happy with the service she received.
The biggest takeaway I got from her perspective is that some people are detail-oriented, careful decision makers, and look for what seems to be *A LOT* of information before they feel comfortable making a decision. These kinds of people may need repetitive reassurance with the same information multiple times before they are confident in the information.
These may not be the ideal clients for some Realtors.
And that’s ok.
What we as Realtors shouldn’t be doing in response is mocking the client for their own personality traits. The biggest message this buyer put in her very public review is that Realtors scoffed at her needs in her hunt for a good Realtor. Not only did she see that (and shared it with her rather large sphere), but anyone that saw her posts in those networks also saw the mocking responses by Realtors. Thankfully, she found a good one, but that should be all she had to report in this process. Nobody should have given her a reason to suggest that Realtors are derogatory if a clients needs don’t suit their needs.
While I’m all for choosing your clients carefully, it’s more important now than ever before to ensure the image of Realtors overall is heightened in professionalism, compassion and understanding.
Remember what your mother said. If you don’t have anything nice to say…
Have a positive day!
