When is enough enough? Realtors work in the service industry - does that working environment mean we have to accept abuse from the public for their interpretation of our services provided?
Is there ever an appropriate time for us to stand up to the public for our rights as realtors? For clarity let me give a general example.
A seller lists her property with one of our realtors. The process is clear and true to form. As an aside, this particular seller has a bit of history to go along with their listing. It seems that the seller was able to have her property listing cancelled from a previous broker. I suspect that the seller wore the other brokerage down.
This seller wants me to cancel the listing one of my realtors now has on her property. For no particular reason other than the seller was able to do it before. The seller is pulling out everything to convince me how evil my realtor and company is for not cancelling the listing, when in fact we have done everything to uphold our end of the contract. I suspect the seller wants to either sell it herself from a contact generated from our work, or the seller wants to carry on her actions with another victim real estate company. The abuse levelled at our firm and realtor is creative and unfounded.
My dilemma. Do I cancel the listing and just move on, or do I take a stand ? Of course I do not want to clutter my life with people who are abusive, but for the life of me I have had enough of people like this thinking they can waste the time of our realtors.
I told this seller that I would respectfully suspend the listing, since I was told that she didn't have any intention of selling the property - but that was not enough for her. Red flags all around with that insistence.
What will likely happen is that this seller will file a consumer complaint with the Real Estate Council of Ontario and I will be called to task to explain my actions.
Moving away from problems is most often the right thing to do, but in this case - I believe enough is enough and a stand must be made.
It sounds like your offer to suspend the listing is meeting her needs - if her intention is to pull off the market and not relist. If she is not satisfied with this, I suspect her true intentions haven't been expressed.
Goodluck Ken!
Posted by: Geoffrey Grace | March 18, 2011 at 07:59 PM
If there's no emotional price to be paid, I'm with you Ken. Detachment makes this possible.
Posted by: Duncan Fremlin | March 18, 2011 at 08:22 PM
Ken,I agree with you to hold your stand! We do get abuse from sellers and buyers especially now that there has been activity through the competition bureau regarding our commissions. We need to stand up for ourselves = if we are not the reason for the listing to be cancelled and we are doing our job to get the listing sold then it shouldn't be cancelled. However, if they make it so difficult for us and distract us from our momentum and work then is it really worth it in the long run? A tough dilemma!
Posted by: Gail Cornacchia | March 19, 2011 at 12:00 AM
Stand tough Ken, We cannot always give in, your agents appreciate it. Paul
Posted by: Paul Etherington | March 20, 2011 at 02:27 PM