Commission-Gate and the Sacramento Real Estate Agent

Who knew that selling Sacramento real estate was likely to turn into its own little Commission-Gate? Over my past 40 years in real estate, this was a first for me. Now, we know buyers are a bit desperate vying for certain homes, and agents can be all over the map when trying to help them buy those homes, too. But holy moley, you don’t throw a bag of money at the listing agent, for heaven’s sake. No, I don’t want to see the gold watches pinned inside your coat, button yourself up and get outta here.

Let’s set aside the fact that it’s against the law, probably violates the Code of Ethics, and it breaches an agent’s fiduciary relationship with her seller, and look at what buyers or their agent — hard to say where the idea originated — were coming from. See, Mikey here really wants this house, see. Poor Mikey and his dame, they just wanna buy a house, and they know it’s uncool to be packing heat. They don’t wanna wear no bracelets, much less end up in the stinkin’ meatwagon heading off to the Big House; so, instead, see, they’re just gonna sweeten the deal with moolah.

I can’t believe a buyer’s agent asked this Sacramento real estate agent yesterday to accept a kickback on the commission. She offered 25% of her commission to me as a bonus if I would just get her buyers into that house. What?

Yeah, my jaw is still hanging open. I had to tell her to hang on her to cabbage and just write the best offer that her buyers could write. I’m nobody’s stool pigeon but I’m kinda floored that she had the gall to ask such a thing. Is this Chicago? What’s next? No, I’m not going there because sure as crap somebody will try to do it if I say it. I’m not putting ideas into anybody’s head, not even as a joke.

This market is not bringing out the best in people. Some real estate agents are becoming forgetful. To some, the Code of Ethics is something dark and murky, in their past; they’re too busy crawling over dead bodies to get to that pile of gold. We simply cannot set aside our professionalism because the market is hard or inventory is low. I find this kind of behavior troubling because it reflects poorly on all of us.