Agents “Payback for Greedy Builders” is Bunk!

Builder’s incentives to agents. I’ve blogged about it here. And yes, it irritates the crap out of me that builders slammed agents a year ago and now bend over backwards to kiss our chisled behinds.

BUT when I see a statement like this in an article, it pisses me off to no end:

“Some agents are avoiding new subdivisions unless clients ask to see homes there. They say it’s payback for greedy builders who raised prices with impunity and slashed commissions.”

The problem with this quote is it’s true. SOME agents do avoid new subdivisions. SOME agents even talk their clients out of looking in certain areas just because they hold a grudge against a builder.

This, oh avid reader, is a load of baloney. It’s hooey, it’s horsehocky, it’s bunk.

SOME agents apparently forget how to do their job. Not only do we have a legal fiduciary responsibility to our clients, we are supposed to help our buyer clients find a home that meets THEIR needs, not ours! We are not in any postion to exercise “payback for greedy builders”, especially not at our clients expense.

It’s the same thing as refusing to show buyers homes with lower co-brokes than “standard” (whatever the heck that means). That’s just plain wrong. And why do some sellers feel compelled to throw in a “buyer’s agent bonus” when they list their home? No buyer’s agent should be more motivated to sell a home with a bonus over one without.

But SOME agents do!

SOME agents should be ashamed of themselves. It’s bozos like this that give the entire lot of agents a bad name.

“Greedy builders”? What about greedy agents?

If you let your clients needs motivate you to help them find a home, the commission checks will follow. It’s called customer service.

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This article in today’s Arizona Republic is what inspired this blog entry:

Once spurned real estate agents now wooed by builders

Or read it here…

Once spurned real estate agents now wooed by builders

PHOENIX — During the height of the region’s real estate boom a year ago, homebuilders were cutting real estate agent commissions, paying flat fees or even none at all to maximize profits.

What a difference a year makes.

Now, builders are spending big money and heaping on the hospitality to get agents to push their developments. Agents are invited to sip wine and munch on hors d’oeuvres in Buckeye, hobnobbing with developers to live music in Chandler and cashing fat commission checks.

Last year’s stingy payouts angered a lot of agents who believed builders were abusing the long-standing relationship between those who sell homes and those who build them.

Now they’re the ones in the driver’s seat as builders go overboard to catch real estate agents’ eye. And it’s not just parties: Builders are offering commissions of 4 to 5 percent for selling houses fast. The typical commission is 3 percent.

“I’ve been in the business over 23 years, and I haven’t seen these kinds of commission incentives,” said Margie O’Campo de Castillo of Arizona Dream Realty in Phoenix. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff out there right now.”

But builders may feel the sting of their past actions no matter what they try.

Some agents are avoiding new subdivisions unless clients ask to see homes there. They say it’s payback for greedy builders who raised prices with impunity and slashed commissions.

“It’s not a good feeling to feel like you are expendable,” said Brett Barry of Realty Executives in the northeast Valley. “We don’t get a lot of respect anyway, and the builder community, at that time, didn’t show us any respect. They said, ‘We really don’t need you.’ Maybe the builders don’t feel they are in a crisis, but right now they need every buyer they can get.”

Agents say slumping sales and cancellations are prompting builders to try to win them over as the number of unsold “spec” houses across the Valley skyrockets.

There are now 50 percent more empty new homes in the region as there were nine months ago, according to real estate analysis firm Metrostudy.

Builders now say agents create buzz for a new project. Jacque Petroulakis, spokeswoman for Pulte Homes, said her company has a new newsletter that is e-mailed to agents and is continuing special events for agents.

“Realtors are a renewed focus for many builders,” Petroulakis said.

Scottsdale-based DMB Associates recently overhauled its agent-relations program. The company recently hosted an event for agents at its Verrado community in Buckeye, hoping to give agents tours of two new neighborhoods and show off Verrado’s new wine-and-pizza restaurant.

Ryan Peterson, marketing manager for DMB at Verrado, said the update wasn’t prompted by agent discontent.

“It’s not a reaction to that,” he said. “It’s a reaction to `Are we providing what they need?’ We haven’t heard of any problems.”

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