Recently someone contacted me regarding a rental that I had available. They were moving to the area and wanted to rent before buying. This person had some geographic restrictions because of their job and had other criteria that made their options fairly limited. Unfortunately my rental option went away because the home went under contract for sale. I offered suggestions and help for other places they may want to look and they continued doing their own search.
Within a few hours of this transpiring I received an email from an agent asking me if one of my other listings for sale would do a rental. It was in the same neighborhood as the other house. So who do you think this agent was asking for? The same person, of course. I asked my seller client if they would consider renting, which I was certain they would not, and they said “no.” I was tempted to email the agent and say “Sorry, if I thought [insert name here] could have rented this house, I would have suggested it to them myself…” but just went with “No thank you, they want to sell, not rent.” No luck for this other agent hoping to assist the person either.
This is the way the market is now. Agents are trying to do whatever they can to get clients. A renter now may be a buyer in a year. I have this person’s contact info and so do at least 3 other agents, as far as I can tell. Now that person is going to have to put up with 4 agents contacting them at various points for a year. What will each of us do to distinguish ourselves from the others so that they pick us? My playbook involves low annoyance, high impact strategies. We’ll see how it goes.
It will be a battle to the finish…
Good morning!
I guess what we are witnessing is human nature down to its core. When things get really really bad, and people get really really desperate, their true nature comes right out.
I hope that as my friend, I pray you are honest enough to let me know when I am being a douchebag. Not to be circular in logic, but, that’s why you are my friend and not somebody else.