Listen to Episode 10: Chicken Massacre
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Today we are chatting about how NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED inspired by Ali’s story about chicken feathers all over her friend’s yard (good news, they weren’t dead just severely injured)!
🎙 Agents Unfiltered is a podcast with the goal of connecting and building community between realtors nationwide. Get ready for some relatable and relevant information about “The Do’s, the Don’ts & the What The Fuck’s of Real Estate.”
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
We are helpers in this industry, but sometimes it is too much and we can get ourselves into trouble including financial or legal issues.
Sometimes with clients that have issues that went crazy at the end, I am scared to ask for a review because I don’t know if it tainted their experience. Like if the lender messed up are they blaming it on me and will they write a bad review? But sometimes they realize how much we did for them in that experience and it ends up being the best reviews. Or if the buyer walks into the house and it is a mess is that on us as the realtor to hire a cleaner or is it on the seller? Do you drop your commission some and pay for the cleaner? I feel like those clients will never be happy anyways. They will always try to get more and more from you. They feel entitled to a value for everything and nothing you do will change that because it is their mentality.
I had one client come to me in an unique situation where the parties come together and I wasn’t the listing or selling agent, but was just trying to help and take a reduced commission and some things happened and a year later we are still trying to figure everything out. At this point I am basically paying. Which is fine, I agreed to it, but I learned from this so I don’t get stuck in that position again.
So many of us are yes, men in this industry and we end up with nothing left to give for ourselves not just money wise but mentally.
Why realtors get sued?
The main reason realtors get sued is when they are doing things outside of commission. A lot of times we are trying to help out and we end up getting into really murky waters. Here are the main reasons real estate agents get sued:
- Failure to disclose a property defect (if we know of defects on the property as the sellers agent we HAVE to share that)
- Breach of duty (confidential information being shared) – dual agency can be such a tricky situation if you know info on each side it is hard to represent each side well
- Representing clients in an unfamiliar territory (our whole territory is very similar, but if we went to the West side of the state with different ordinances it would be wrong) – it could be easy to get into trouble with this one especially as our Spokane area expands and we want to help to take it off the client’s plate but if we do something wrong it could be a massive issue
- Giving legal advice – tell your client (or other realtor) call an accountant or lawyer
- Misleading clients (make sure you have your savings account set up so you’re not doing things you shouldn’t to close a deal) Or thinking you can have cows on the property just to find out once the purchase has gone through that you can’t. Or you think the house comes with a garage and then right before closing you find out the garage is the neighbors…
- Failing to keep client’s data staff – we have access to check numbers etc. and need to protect that. One way we do so is having a secure email
- Failing to recommend inspections – it may put the client ahead but you need to tell them you don’t necessarily recommend it
- Negligence – avoiding to do something, like getting an inspection but pretending you didn’t get receive it or the seller says something to you and you fail to disclose it to your buyers
- Bodily injury – like if a handrail falls when someone is going up the stairs because you forgot to disclose that. Another thing to make sure is that snow is shoveled.
So many of these things we are just trying to help and then it ends up hurting us in the end. It is so stressful when any of these happens or when an ethics claim gets filed against you, even if it isn’t legit. It causes a lot of mental and emotional exhaustion so just avoid it all together even if that means not helping a client like you would like.
Another thing is if our buyers request repairs make sure you have the receipt to show it was done!
Anxious people make the best realtors because they make sure they get everything done for their clients. They are very conscientious and are ready for any scenario. Cassie being the anxious one. Think about how stressed you get though! Yeah maybe I would rather not be anxious like Ali and Danielle.
Live, learn, avoid getting sued. New motto.
Thanks for listening and see you next week!
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