(Excuse the distracted talking. I was watching for my clients.)
Over the years I have heard agents brag that they never show more than 10 homes to a client. I always sat in disbelief that they would think like this. In my nine years in real estate it has never occurred to me to do that not even when times were lean.
A few of the agents have said that they are so good at getting from the client what they want that it is easy. I understand that. In my first 6 months in real estate I had a buyer from the east coast tell me what they want and they flew out, looked at four gorgeous condos, and picked the one I thought they would. But oftentimes if you look at the criteria you had when you began the process to what was finally bought it is often quite different.
What most of them have said is that they will cut the buyers loose after 10 or 12 showings, or worse pressure them. Anyone who knows me or read much of what I have wrote knows that I see real estate as a service industry not a sales industry. These aren’t TVs and cars we’re selling. It seems that if an agent is pressuring someone to buy a home after a certain amount then it is about the agent, his time, his paycheck, and nothing to do with the client.
But I know there are agents out there saying, “But we gotta get paid.” True and in that vein who is more memorable, the agent that showed someone 10 homes or the one that showed 20, 30,50, or 70? A first-time home buyer was referred to my a previous client who was a first-time buyer. The referral said, “We came to you because we were told you were patient with newbies.” A fine compliment indeed.
