Do You Have to Tell a Sacramento Real Estate Agent She’s Not Hired?

This Sacramento real estate agent focuses on her own business. I don’t spend time worrying about my competitors in Sacramento (i.e. other real estate agents) because they’re gonna do whatever they’re gonna do, and whatever that may be doesn’t really concern me. So, sometimes, it’s a bit astonishing if a seller tells me that I have a won a competing situation in which I did not know I was actively competing. It’s not really any of my business if a seller is talking to other real estate agents before they hire me, just as long as the seller hires me. I usually don’t even ask.

When a seller calls to discuss selling her home or wants me to pop by for an estimate of value, I presume the seller is interested in selling her home. Hey, guess what? I’m in the business of selling homes. How lucky is that? I go over, help sellers figure out what price to list at, and then I list the home for sale, bring an offer, and I sell it. Last month I had a very upset agent call and ask why I listed a home she had worked on for half a year. Well, first, the seller didn’t tell me anything about that and, second, that’s what I do for a living. Maybe the seller thought it was OK to call a bunch of agents and pick the agent’s brains or that no agent would want to list the seller’s home, but that would mean the guy was insane.

If a seller calls this real estate agent and is planning to sell, it’s my job to do it. When one of my sellers from last week called to say she was ready for me to put her home on the market, she mentioned that she had specifically chosen me among several other agents in Sacramento County and Placer County. She wanted to know what she should say to the agents she did not hire. How should she break the news to them that she hired a different Sacramento real estate agent or should she break the news at all?

Yes, I believe so. I let her know that the professional way for an agent to respond when informed that the seller selected somebody else is for the agent to say, “Thank you for telling me; you have chosen a good agent.” Because that’s what I would say if the tables were reversed. Doesn’t mean I would be happy about it, but I’d accept it because what else can you do? Being in sales means sometimes you’re rejected. Sellers have all kinds of reasons why they choose an agent.