Email Elizabethtop producer agents
Because Real Estate Agents are Suckers and Low Hanging Fruit
Just ask Top100RealEstateAgents.com how much they think real estate agents are suckers. Because that group has got it figured out. Although, you can’t give them all of the credit. They simply borrowed ideas that worked well for other companies that collect statistics on top producers. I should clarify that a top producer doesn’t necessarily mean what you might think it means. You may think a top producer is cream of the crop, an agent who sells more than anybody else. But it depends on whose definition you lean.
If you lean on the definition of the Sacramento Association of Realtors Masters Club Members, those are people who have sold a minimum of 8 homes a year that total $5 million or more in sales volume. So basically closing one $625K house every 45 days. Eight sales a year can qualify an agent for Master’s Club. Once they suck you into membership in Master’s Club, an agent pays for a plaque or stickers or both. But that’s not the worst part.
That’s peanuts.
Not the worst part by far.
The worst part is when all the leeches come out of woodwork. By leeches I mean companies that profit by putting together their OWN lists of so-called top producers. This is why real estate agents are suckers. Because they can so easily be taken advantage of. If an agent wants to be recognized as a member of Master’s Club, then all of these news organizations and media publications expect the right to publish that name, but only in exchange for payment from the Sacramento Realtor.
They see this as win-win. I see it as since my name doesn’t get included unless I pay, well, that makes it extortion. I do pay for a couple of publications simply because I know my clients do not understand how this works. People in Sacramento still read the Sacramento Bee. They might wonder why my name is not included on a list it should be on. This is an irritation. But I refuse to pay every publication and I do draw the line.
Now the Sac Bee has decided it can make more money by getting agents to pay to be promoted as a Master’s Club member at different times of the year. Like over the 4th of July when nobody is reading the paper. Or, on Thanksgiving, LOL. I wish this would please, just stop. I say no. I won’t do it.
I also draw the line at real estate agent scams like Five Star Professionals, which seems like a big hoax to me. Top Broker Agent and Top Agent magazines are another example. They pretend you are a top agent and make you pay big bucks in exchange for publishing your air-brushed glam photo on the cover. Also, Real Trends has stopped bombarding me with spam to buy plaques, thank goodness.
But yesterday, I received a new example of how real estate agents are suckers. Some of those other real estate agent scam victims seem to work at Lyon Real Estate. I wonder, do they know they are being suckered or don’t they care? This is a new thing that supposedly ranks the Top 100 real estate agents, but only in certain areas. This company wants me to pay them $350.00 to “accept my award” of being named to that list.
On top of this, when I searched for a Sacramento agent on their website, the search for Sacramento turned up no results. Even if Sacramento agents were listed, I wouldn’t pay for this alleged privilege. On the home page, you can view the top 100 agents, of which there are only 57, LOL. Since I already rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento, why would I want to be included in a top 100 list that only includes agents who pay for it? You’ve gotta ask Top100RealEstateAgents.com, how stupid do they think real estate agents are in Sacramento? I guess the answer is very.
Is it true that real estate agents are suckers? I have a dead ex-husband, a seminar hustler from Orange County, who firmly believed all real estate agents are suckers. He made a lot of money from agents.
Agents are always looking for innovative ways to promote themselves. But when the promotion companies that supposedly honor your achievements also demand payment to be recognized, you’ve gotta stop dead in your tracks. You should question this crap. Why is true that real estate agents are suckers? This stuff will persist as long there are real estate agent suckers to fund it. Here is the real kicker, those lists are not easily found by consumers. So, agents pay for zero return, zero branding.
Of course, there is also the possibility that some agents recognize the hoax and do not care. I imagine many “award” companies count on this attitude as well. They are no different, really, than the porn ransom email scam. Those crooks also attempt to extort money and give you nothing in return.
This is why I print my sales production directly from MLS and show it as proof to prospective clients. There is so much jaw-flapping going on in this industry, such puffery, it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth. Everybody wants to be a top agent. Few really are.
Are Double-Ending Listing Agents Bad News for Sacramento Sellers?
Double ending listing agents tend to cost the seller money.
Double-ending listing agents have been around since I started in the business in the early 1970s. They are still in the business today. Whether they will survive the real estate shake-up in the future, like 10 to 15 years from now, is doubtful. The reason I think they’ll eventually vanish is because they are a bad idea to start with. Time will only make them worse. I also believe sellers are becoming more sophisticated. They are wising up.
Although, at least in Sacramento, double-ending listing agents happens fewer times than one might think. It’s just not all that common.
There are unscrupulous double-ending listing agents who do everything in their power, generally at their seller’s detriment, to ensure they will get both sides of the commission. They do it so innocently that most sellers never even know what’s going on.
When I look at a listing and see the following things, it’s fairly obvious to me the listing agent is trying to double-end the transaction. For example, there are almost no photographs. No photographs means buyers will call the listing agent to get more information, and then the listing agent can represent them. Or, the listing will not allow a buyer’s agent to call the seller for showings. The listing will state: call listing agent. Then the listing agent will not answer the phone when Coldwell Banker lights up. Or the agent will only return voicemail from buyers. Or, the agent makes showings very difficult, like only between 3 and 4 PM on a Thursday.
If you think this isn’t going on in Sacramento real estate, I’ve got some swamp land in Florida to sell you.
Naive sellers might think they are getting a good deal if their double-ending listing agents also represents the buyer. Even if I ask: if you were suing your husband for divorce and demanding alimony, would you use your husband’s lawyer? If your son was on trial for murder, would you hire the prosecuting lawyer as your own? Dual agency is not a good idea.
Some double-ending listing agents offer a discount, too, when they take both sides of the commission. Are sellers getting a break or are they getting taken to the cleaners? The smart sellers reject this notion of dual agency. They figure out that hiring a top-notch listing agent who only represents their interests is the way to go, and instead of making money, they lose money by hiring a discount agent intent on double ending.
When you see a big price drop or a home that sold for a lot less than the list price, often it’s the transaction in which the agent represented both the buyer and seller.
That’s why buyers call me all the time and beg me to work with them. They expect me to throw my sellers under the bus when my intentions are the opposite. I intend to maximize my seller’s profit, not reduce it for my own personal gain. To do otherwise is dishonest. To expect me to be dishonest is insulting.
There is a reason discount agents don’t get paid the same as others. You take top listing agents whose average sales ratio might be 103%, meaning they sell their listings for 3% more than list price, and all of that hogwash about double-ending saving money goes right out the window. Double-ending listing agents tend to cost money. But it’s every seller’s right to choose lousy service and bad representation if that’s what they want. It’s a free country.
