Some time ago I was getting ready to celebrate my younger son’s birthday when I receive a call.  The call is from a buyer responding to an ad I had placed about a property I had for sale.  The buyer sounded very interested in the property and she asked if I could show it that day.  I mentioned that the next day would be a bit better but she said that her work schedule made viewing during the week very difficult.

I then thought of how I would explain to my seller that I let a potential buyer get away.  It shouldn’t take too long to show the house, so I had my husband start the party without me and I went to show the house.

The buyer arrived on time and was very excited about the house.  She and her husband looked through it and I asked if I could set her up with another agent in the office (I prefer not to do dual agency).  She countered that she already had an agent – a well known agency in the area that charges for showing houses.  She wanted to talk it over with her husband and decide whether to place an offer.

I came home quite furious, as I had essentially missed a good portion of my son’s birthday party at the insisting of a buyer who basically was just too cheap to pay either an agent’s commission or the fee to view the house.

I pondered that night how to prevent this in the future.  One thought I had was refusing to show to buyers from my ads – ask their agents to show them the property.  However, this wasn’t very appealing as I may lose a potential buyer.  Certainly my sellers wouldn’t like that.

I then pondered changing the commission on the property so agencies that do not show the house only receive 1% commission.  I have seen this on a number of properties and it is one of the pitfalls for buyers that use agencies that don’t show houses.  However, if the agency warns them about this in advance (which if they are reputable they should do) then that would almost surely prevent an offer.

The answer turned out to be quite easy and I’m sure most of you already know the solution.  After speaking with other agents in the office my initial conversation should have gone like this.

Buyer: I would like to see this house.

Me: Great! Let’s meet in my office tomorrow at ___ so we can get you preapproved and I can introduce you to an agent in my office!

Buyer: Actually, I already have an agent.  They are ____

Me: Oh, you know ____ does show properties.  You will need to arrange a showing with them.

I certainly plan to do this in the future, and I hope all other agents do the same so that certain agencies stop asking us to do the work that they are getting paid for.