Builders and Real Estate Agents’ Love-Hate Relationship
Builders and real estate agents have a definitive love-hate relationship. I tend to believe this comes from the corporate level down; the agent inside the sales office doesn’t lose anything if a buyer wants to be represented. More often than not, they’re just following company policy.
There’s no question a builder would much rather deal with someone with comparatively minimal experience negotiating real estate purchases. Some builders’ agents will tell you that they “represent” the buyer if no agent’s present. Bull. They still represent the builder first and foremost. At no point - NO POINT - does the best interest of the buyer come into play.
A couple of years ago builders would discourage real estate agents’ participation by refusing to pay a co-broke to the buyers’ agent. Now that they need us again, most will fall all over themselves to pay a commission. As long as the agent is present on the first visit, incidentally.
This has to be one of the most asinine rules out there. In most cases, all the sales agent did to “earn” the business was smile when a buyer walked in the door. And oh, do they smile- right up until they see me holding my business card and asking for a registration form.
Earlier this week I spoke of an agent with Taylor Morrison (nee Taylor Woodrow) who gets it. Maybe I’d have felt differently if a different question were asked. My buyer today is a teacher. She asked the agent at one of Taylor Morrison’s developments in Surprise if there’s an added incentive given to teachers.
Pulte has such an incentive - $5,000 off the purchase price - for teachers, veterans, etc. So does Taylor Morrison. But with a catch.
“There’s no incentive if you have a Realtor,” the agent said. “It’s 3 percent if you don’t have one, but there’s none if you do.”
In other words, come unrepresented and let us do whatever we do and you’ll get the incentive. Choose to bring one of those evil real estate agents with you, and you get nothing.
I said it’s possible I would have received a different answer from Kathy, the sales rep at Taylor Morrison’s Canyon Trails development in Goodyear. Our agent in Surprise today did concede she may be able to get my buyer a smaller incentive. It sounded like supreme effort to pull off.
I’m reasonably certain I could have gotten the discount regardless of my presence. But my hunch is we wouldn’t have had to pull teeth in Canyon Trails but that’s just a guess, based on what we found earlier in the week.
As I told Kathy at the time, “argue with me just a little bit so it looks like I’m doing my job.”
Fortunately (or not) many of the other agents I’ve run across the past week have allowed me to show I’m doing my job over and over again.
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