To the Sacramento Realtor Struggling Over a Buyer Broker Agreement

To the Sacramento real estate agent struggling over a buyer broker agreement with a guy I will call ZT, I’d like to assure you that Elizabeth Weintraub did not violate the Realtor Code of Ethics. Although, you also might want to think twice about working with buyers who call other agents to make disparaging comments about their own agent. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing that despite my repeated attempts to disengage with a random caller recently, he continued to berate your abilities and questioned your practices.

First, I am not working with that particular caller because he is obviously a home buyer. My team members work as exclusive buyer’s agents, and I solely represent sellers. Why did some stranger call me out of the blue? No idea how I got to be so lucky. It was a Wednesday night, busy day with meetings, lockbox retrievals, new listings. Getting ready for dinner and my cellphone rings. See, now I know why so many agents do not answer their phone . . . although the downside is not bad enough to change my practices.

To the agent working with ZT, you may have an interest in the phone conversation that followed. He didn’t give me your name or I would have contacted you privately. Hence, this public blog. The truth is always the best defense.

The odd caller began the conversation by announcing, in a self-important sort of way that has no bearing on anything: I have a random question. This is when I felt like pointing out that perhaps he had mixed me up with the reference desk librarian at the Sacramento Public Library. So, I said, Hey, you have obviously reached random answer place. He did not get this.

Nervous laughter from the other side of the phone. This is when the ZT admitted he was working with an agent. I said: I cannot talk to you about your agent. He continued talking over me; apparently, he doesn’t trust his agent. Which is puzzling, but not my business. More than once ZT said he had bad thoughts about his agent. Why was he calling me? I’m not about to work with him. My caller ID reported his phone number, which ends in **78, came from Redding.

Bear in mind, I was about to sit down to dinner. I was not working with ZT, regardless. He will never become a client. Even if he wanted to fire his agent, which he did not, I would not work with him because I do not work with buyers. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to buy a house in Redding or in Sacramento. But none of that really matters except to the extent this conversation was returning zero financial reward to me. I am a top Sacramento Realtor who consistently seems to rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento. Probably because I focus on business that pays.

The contention in ZT’s life seemed to be the agent working with him expects him to sign some sort of buyer broker agreement. He could understand a listing agreement but he does not know why he should commit to a buyer’s agent. That is a question for his agent, not a random stranger. After repeating myself over and over that I cannot interfere with another agent’s client, because the behavior is against the Realtor Code of Ethics, I could tell my words fell on deaf ears.

During the brief conversation, I explained my real estate practice to ZT. When I sign a listing agreement, it is a guarantee that regardless of who ultimately brings a buyer, I get paid for listing that home. A buyer broker agreement is no different. Buyer’s agents are not public servants. They do not work for free. Buyer’s agents deserve a commitment from a buyer and a promise they will get paid for services rendered.

Evidently, ZT mistakenly believes “all buyer’s agents are competing for his business”, like he was a LendingTree commercial. He said he used to work in sales for Skyslope. So, obviously he would know. Right? I don’t think so.

As the call neared its conclusion, I tried to disengage. ZT said he had one more question to ask. Bully for him. His tax dollars do not support me. This guy was some stranger who plucked my phone number from thin air to interrogate at dinnertime. Eight minutes on this wasted call already.  No, I told him no, I addressed a question; this call is not an all-night marathon. I shouldn’t have even been on the phone that long, but sometimes I am too nice to people. As I reached over to push the hang-up button, he whimpered, “Please, pretty please.”

Click.

That might work on his girlfriend when he can’t get it up, but it doesn’t work on me.

Who would look up a question on WebMD and then track down the author of that article to demand answers? Without a working relationship, a normal consumer would not call a doctor or any other professional, much less a tattoo artist, and demand service. Because that kind of behavior would be disrespectful and pointless. Some people, though, believe the world revolves around themselves.

Case in point. Caught an Uber through Midtown yesterday after dropping my car at Midtown Autoworks for service. I watched a bicyclist on 15th Street suddenly decide to cut across moving traffic on this one-way street. He stuck out his arm in the middle of the block as though to warn traffic to stay away and not hit him as he peddled zigzagging across the street.

I mentioned that self-centered situation to Niko at Midtown Autoworks. This is what some people are like online. The conversation turned to why strangers enjoy spreading hate on the internet. Niko shared that some disgruntled Toyota stranger left a one-star review online because Midtown Autoworks does not work on Toyotas. They work on Porsches and Mercedes.

Don’t you agree that the integrity of online reviews is severely diminished when websites allow bogus reviews from strangers? Those are not reviews. That’s exactly what ZT did, though. Ran over to a website to rant and post a one-star “review.” Attempted to purposely disrupt and hurt my business. Such hateful behavior. Who does that? Because he did not appreciate the free information he received after I allowed him to eat up my time and resented the fact I decided to go. This is what we get trying to help some types of people.

So, if you’re the agent working with ZT, and you’d like to hear more about the conversation, you can call me. However, I also suspect the agent working with ZT would not have requested a buyer broker agreement if she didn’t think she needed it.

And this reminds me, I need to leave a 5-star review for Midtown Autoworks.