It’s Not a License to be Repulsive… When Agents Cross the Line

Posted on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 by Mitch Canton

Those of you who know me remember the personal debate anguish I went through when I was evaluating the professional options in the real estate industry. Like lots of folks, I had an unfavorable perception of many in the industry. In fact, I am definitely not alone as the results of this Harris Interactive Poll of professions shows. (Hint: Agents don’t rank very well). But I really liked helping people with what was likely their largest personal investment. And there was a real, palpable sense of accomplishment in bringing buyers and sellers together to accomplish mutual goals. However, there was that pesky Washington Real Estate law that prohibits an individual from earning compensation without being duly licensed, which provided, shall we call them, challenges to doing things any other way.

Now mind you, I did have choices. I could a) do all the real estate activity I wanted, helping tons of folks along the way, for free, or b) get licensed, become a Realtor and actually keep my wife and three kids clothed and fed and all those other basic things that for some reason I felt an obligation. So, Realtor license it was.

Fast forward to the present. After seven years and helping hundreds of people (those are called transaction sides by some in the business), I understand that I made the right choice (the “work for free” part was really unappealing), BUT I still have to deal with that negative stereotype that unfortunately many licensees perpetuate.

Example “A” for the Prosecution is this unbelievable “marketing strategy” employed by one agent in Florida.

This from TMZ.com via the TheRealEstateBloggers:

TMZ got an unbelievable pitch from a big-time Florida Realtor, and here it is, verbatim - “I have a FABULOUS piece of property for sale DIRECTLY across from Tiger Woods new property on Jupiter Island (Being built) When a tabloid pays JLO $6mil for photos of her first born, I would think that $4mil for a fabulous piece of property for unlimited photo opts of Tiger would be quite valuable!”

Ugh. Now look, my sellers know that I will likely do more for them in my efforts than any other real estate broker in town… but I would simply call “no mas” on this one. I realize that it is a competitive world out there, both for sellers and for agents, but c’mon, a guys gotta be able to sleep at night.

Please know, I have come to find that there ARE - really - loads of great people out there in this profession, (if you don’t believe me, scroll through my Blogroll someday). But unfortunately it comes back to the old adage that one (or many) bad apples can spoil the bunch. All I can do is continue to pursue my goal of changing people’s perception one person at a time.

Filed under: Real Estate, Selling | Tagged: , , , ,

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2 Responses to “It’s Not a License to be Repulsive… When Agents Cross the Line”

  1. Jay Thompson, on March 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm Said:

    Oh good grief. Do the photos have a banner across them that say “Buy this Home! Spy on Tiger!”.

    And some wonder why our profession has image issues.

    Thanks for the linkage! I’m honored to be included. You can clearly add yourself to that list Mitch.

  2. Mitch Canton, on March 6th, 2008 at 9:18 pm Said:

    Hey Jay,

    Thanks for stopping by. As more of the “problem” folks (like this agent) exit this business, the better off full-time professional agents - and more importantly all consumers - will be.

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