Street-Level Impact
Let’s examine what happens when a hot new listing gets taken by one of the big real estate teams in 2019.
What qualifies as a hot listing?
I think we can say that 70% to 80% of listings are priced at full retail or higher, so the rest are either priced attractively or have unique features that propel them into the ‘hot’ category – great location, newer, remodeled, one-story, etc.
First, let’s note that the leaders of the big real estate teams have hired several newby agents to carry the load. The leaders do their best to train and supervise, but once the system is up and running, everyone gets too busy to pay much attention to how the sausage is made.
The lead agent takes the hot new listing, and hands it off to the assistants.
- They start the selling process with the Coming Soon round, which lasts for days or weeks. While the bosses intend this to be a pre-marketing campaign, if a buyer contacts the assistant-squad during the Coming Soon period and wants to buy it….well, then, heck – let’s make a deal. If an outside agent wants to show or sell it, they are told to wait until it’s on the open market.
- If the Coming Soon round is unsuccessful, then the listing goes into the MLS and onto the open market. The quality of the remarks and photos can tell you a lot. If they are brief, it’s another sign that the squad is trying to couch the listing so outsiders might miss it.
- Now the games begin. This happened to me this week. Following the showing instructions, I call and text the agent, but no response. I persist, and finally catch a squad member answering the phone. He says “the occupant needs more notice to show”, even though I had begun my inquiry six hours prior, to which there was no response. He says he’ll get back to me once he can schedule something with the occupant. This goes on for two days, until he finally answers his phone again…..and you know what’s coming. “Oh, we just accepted an offer on that one!”
The team leader insulates himself from the gritty details by not publishing his phone number. For showings, they list a separate phone number in the MLS so they know it’s an agent calling. Then the squad gets just a little too busy to call back those inquiries.
The seller has no clue how the squad’s actions denied him the chance to get more offers – heck, he’s just glad it sold quick. The broker doesn’t supervise that closely and really doesn’t want to know, and the team leader looks the other way, because this was part of the recruiting process to build the squad, and take more vacation.
