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It never ceases to amaze me that the Homebuyers I have run into lately just do not understand that buying a home is serious business and requires someone assisting them that looks out for there best interests.

We remember in our training that for the longest time until recently on the galactic time line, there waas no such thing as a buyer's agent ; that only the sales agent selling a home existed.  The buyers were on their own. Then laws came up about disclosure and the buyer's agent was born.

I dont think much has changed really...in a buyer's mind.

Lately this is what has happened in my realm:

Had a buyer come through my open house three weeks ago and they wanted to write an offer on another neighboring house I showed them that day.  They were ecstatic that the home was perfect and they even measured where their furniture would go.  THEY ALSO TOLD ME THAT THEIR LISTING AGENT WAS NOT ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE AND SHE DID NOT LIKE HIS "TOO GOOD FOR THEM" ATTITUDE.

At the contract signing they stalled because they she started to think about the tax liability of a property switch despite the fact my research showed that they, because of her age could retain her property tax. They then wanted to rely on the tax position of their listing agent, despite the fact that this agent was not licensed to dispense tax advice ( I am a tax preaparer too with a CTEC license). Some checking determined that the office listing agent would not even have my offer considered (it was 13% off of list price).

In the end they wanted to only work with their agent only 24 hours later.

A week later I found them a property in the same area within their means and these buyers were offended that I was still going out of my way trying to help them,despite they had bad vibes with their listing agent.

More recently a brother/sister were going to buy a duplex to live in together. I had been working with the brother for 5 years on and off.  I met with them on Saturday and wanted them to sign an exclusive representation agreement.  The brother was ok but sister claimed I had not been in touch with her ( I was never able to get the sister on the phone but I could always follow up with the brother.) The sister said she was talking to another Realtor and so they agreed to meet and interview her. 

As of today, brother called me and was shocked that other Realtor said I was not doing my job and subsequently supposedly she was in contract on a home (wonder what "shiny" thing she was told ie "flash a shiny object and they will be attracted"). As it is, the brother is going to work with me to find him his own home.

Homebuyers just dont get it: Many times their home buying success is a product of their own dedication. Not what any one agent finds them...but it is just because they are in the right place at the right time.

They forget that there is alot of diligence and that is why we agents get our 2 or 3 % or whatever...not because we turn keys.

Interesting title isn't it?  Yet ist is not as it seems when you look at at and I will tell you what I really mean.  What I am about to say bleeds into servicing asests as well.

I went to my office meeting yesterday and again there was the usual talk about how we need to rise our standards and do more of everything to increase our business.  One of our top realtors commented how he isin't working anymore with the prospects that seem to take forever to commit to a decision.  He was pretty confident and assurred of himself being a subscriber to the Floyd Wickman approach to things.  That being aside, I am telling you my own business secret and I have said it before.

Tuesday night I had an excellent conversation with a new prospect that wishes to buy some good property in North Whittier.  He listened carefully to my advice and what position he needed to be in for when we look at homes on Saturday.  He volunteered one interesting point:  his realtor experiences.  He said his previous realtor was not very attentive to his needs! He was already impressed that I had taken notes of his goals and reviewed them with him to make sure I understood what he wanted in a home.

A current prospect has told me the same thing:  His previous realtor made him sign a buyer- broker and then was not servicing him and his needs!  He was being showed anything but what he wanted.  I picked up on that right away and made sure his property choices fit his criteria.  I almost repeated history with him but I apologized for not remebering certain details, recovered, and show him a perfect fixer property that set his imagination ablaze with ideas.  We put on offer on it!

Case #3  I was looking at my ancient prospect pipeline yesterday and noticed that an old lead was again looking and expressed interest in a property.  I quickly called him up and  he indicated it was time for hm to buy so HE WANTED TO GET QUALIFIED because I  called him.   I am sure if this prospect was in my collegue's hands, he would have discarded him long ago!

What does this mean?   CUSTOMER SERVICE every day! You never know when a dormant lead will wake up.  Your leads will buy ...sometime in the future.  I can't wait for the day when Floyd Wickman or Mike Ferry will start talking about SERVICE instead of "closing" the deal.  Look all around you.  What is the main theme of business?  How great their service is...21 Century Insurance, Allstate, HR Block, The Home Depot, and Best Buy are just a few that proclaim customer service.

This is what it takes...that is why I work with my loan officer...when I need him, he will answer or call me back asap!  He doesn't give me leads...I get nothing material from him...he gives me service.  Thank you Anthony Elias from PMAC.

Therefore, give me your rejects because I will develop them for a future transaction.  Otherwise give them great service.  When Mr or Ms Asset Manager needs to you to fly at warp speed...don't you think you should do so?  They want SERVICE and reliabilty!  Well, I am now going to give my asset manager in Chicago a service call....because he may need some great customer service,

I guess I have finally figured it out why GMAC had been so "forgiving" about my shortsale, that the negotiator saw fit to keep stalling the auction date. Oh well maybe they are just nice people but the headlines this week say something severe.I really believe some benefits are coming out of this. We all know that the banks were hammered with defaulting property and it got beyond them to start pencil whipping things. I had a couple of friends my self that had loan mods in process and then the bank foreclosed on them. One of them is currently suing Chase.

What I think will happen is this...the fall REO storm may never come, except for Fannie and Freddie because well...they are sinking and have tons of stuff they they need to pay taxpayers with. Finally we can calm down and be realtors, offering our help to people.

The shortsale will be a mainstay for sometime and banks must be more efficient at it. We agents have much to learn about shortsales... pricing property CORRECTLY so the BPO is close to MLS price (two of my shortsales as representing the buyer recently exploded this way. Buyer walked because of too high an asking price). We need to cooperate to get the job done and not be greedy as to how much comission we make. I shop property based on what my client wants...not how much do I make on it. Had an office collegue ask me about my shortsale today and when I told her that we may need to cut into the comission split to pay the jr lien holder that the first afforded only so much to.She quickly told me that she will not work for less than 2.5 % because she has done alot of work with that buyer. Guess customer service does not come into play here because she was not willing to make it necessarily happen for her customer if they turned out they wanted to see it.

As always what we need to do is to offer SERVICE. Make sure the seller cannot qualify for a mod first and then if they appear to qualify, help them get one; list the property in case of failure. Some because of job status, will never qualify but we must outreach to homeowners and comfort them as much as possible and work on the BEST SOLUTION FOR THE HOMEOWNER not our pockets.

REO's will exist and I am convinced that they will always goto the well connected realtors. I have noticed some asset companies give assets entirely to one person : Ocwen/Altisource and Goodman and Dean are good examples of this. Unfortunately, this does not mean they are good at customer service. I saw on a particular website the names of REO brokers that were rated by normal homeowners needing their services and they were not rated favorably at all. Also had another REO agent tell me last week that I "needed to educate my buyer" about how the bank works. Seems like the bank has him by the _______...and I will not say it. I wanted to make slight changes to the addendums as they were very favorable to the sellers and I have a duty to protect my buyers. I told him everything in real estate is negotiable. He would not even explore the points I raised.

Asset companies and banks will continue to need us realtors to guide them. We are the experts in our field and need to be open to ever learning more about our profession. The mistakes made are not going away overnight.

I believe the major banks facing this crisis will be forced to more diligent in the future. Even in my state,California which is non -judicial...the state attorney general called on GMAC to explain their procedures for foreclosure.

Someday I do want to sell REO as well and do a five star job at it that will make an asset manager smile and confident, but lets see here...people still will leave estates (probate) and I do not think divorce is going away (divorce sales)..well I know , I guess I should go help Mr and Mrs Frank Mc Court and maybe Tiger get rid of some of that property.

Talk to you later my friends,

John