Sacramento Buyer’s Agents Send Clients To Open Houses Unaccompanied

When Sacramento buyer’s agents send clients to open houses unaccompanied and they later write an offer, it still stuns me. If clients do not need their agent’s guidance, do they really need their agent? Open houses are heavily visited by buyers without their agent. This happens as regular as clockwork. It is no longer an exception but now more of a rule that agents send their buyers to open houses.

There are of course some agents who actually show up to our open houses with clients. We understand that an agent may be holding an open house and can’t make it to an open house at the same time a client wants to see it. Of course, they could plan to see it after their open house or send another associate to attend with them. At the very least they can go back with the clients a second time to see the property and then write an offer.

We ask unaccompanied buyers at open houses if they are working with an agent. They often reply, yes, we have an agent. Our next question, is your agent meeting you to show this home? A list of excuses is generally blurted out by the buyer as to why the agent isn’t coming. Clearly, they just send clients to open houses. Perhaps the buyers didn’t put much emphasis on the importance of their agent coming with them. — JaCi Wallace

The excerpt below in italics was written by my business partner, Elizabeth Weintraub, seven years ago. It’s titled Sacramento Real Estate Agents: Ramp Up. It is the same core issue today, seven years later. Elizabeth did a great job of conveying how its agents make excuses instead of focusing on solutions to provide top-shelf level service to clients. Enjoy — it is spot on.

Agents complain that they can’t submit offers fast enough so they have to submit without showing. No, they don’t. They just need to get their act together. An agent lamented that he could not show a home yesterday during the time period it was convenient for the tenants to show it. He asked if he could send his buyers over to the home without an agent escort. No, he can’t.

But I heard that some buyers were wandering around the home by themselves. Just because we’re in the middle of a home-buying frenzy in Sacramento does not mean it’s OK to set aside Standards of Practice. If anything, we, as Sacramento real estate agents, need to ramp up our professionalism to ensure quality service to our clients. — Elizabeth Weintraub

If you want to hire a professional buyer’s agent that shows you property, provides insight and expertise, call Weintraub and Wallace Realtors, with RE/MAX Gold. We don’t send clients to open houses and shirk our duties. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.

— JaCi Wallace