Half Of Real Estate Is About Who You Know...But What About The Brokers You Would Rather Not Know?

Being in the real estate biz, I've learned that doing business is about half of what you know and half of who you know.  And even more so, sometimes avoiding the ones you know.  I mean, every real estate agent should be up-to-speed on how to do their jobs, knowing the contracts, laws and regulations (not that this is always the case though). But we should also know our fellow realtors.  Building relationships means that when you come to me to buy or sell, I have other people I can turn to, to help get the other side of that deal done. But there are also other realtors that some realtors won't turn to.  And you, as a consumer, may not be aware of this. Accepting an offer has more to do with than just the price on the paper a lot of times. There are some realtors that are very difficult to work with, and when word spreads about this, you would see that those people may bring in offers, but their offers may not be taken seriously because of the broker who is working on them. And it's one thing to be a hard-nosed realtor, someone who really fights for their clients, but it's a whole other thing to just be a bad business person.  Sometimes realtors won't even respond to those broker's offers because they've already had bad experiences with them.  And if you are selling a house, and you get one of these offers in, I would be frank with you and let you know my experiences with that bad broker and why accepting an offer from them could be risky and even costly.  But if you are out looking to buy, how do you know if your broker has that type of reputation that could keep you from getting your home? And same goes for selling as well...what if your thinking about hiring someone who has a poor reputation?  This could really impact the sale of your house because a lot of realtors won't even bring their clients to houses for sale by bad brokers.  Well, first off, I won't sign anything with a broker when you are looking to buy until you get to know them a bit and get a good feeling. Hopefully in just a couple of weeks, you could get a good sense of their professionalism and over-all personality.  Are they returning your calls or emails in a timely manner? Are they answering your questions well or are they answering questions before you even have them? And here is the last clue as to whether or not your realtor is someone that has a not-so-great reputation: ask a couple other realtors.  While we are not allowed to speak poorly of our fellow brokers, if you ask me about someone I know, as my mother said, if I don't have anything nice to say, I just might not say anything at all.