Archive for June, 2009
It's a very tough thing to turn down business. But as a mentor of mine once said after listening to me bitch about a client; "You CHOOSE your clients Bubba". What I'm trying to say is that while it's very easy to get caught up with a client who seems to be sending you a ton of business, is that it's equally as easy to get "taken" by that very same client. You have to be EXTREMELY mindful of the "give and take" role that both you AND the client should have in your business relationship. While it always seems that you, as the broker, are held to strict deadlines, the unscrupulous client seems to just "get to things" whenever he or she "gets around to it".
Often an new REO assignment comes in the form of an email with an address and asks you to "check occupancy". A good practice is to reference the tax records for the subject property BEFORE you perform your initial inspection. Every once in a while you'll find that an address has been "changed" or that a property is actually a group of properties (such as a quad or duplex).
When you begin handling hundreds of properties at once you'll very quickly understand the value of controlling unnecessary phone calls and emails. Look, this business is just like any other. You can't leave your clients "hanging" and not expect to get nasty emails or urgent phone calls that totally screw up your frame of mind and disrupt your flow. If you are anything like me at all you know how bad a threatening email from an AM can set you off. When this happens in my business you BETTER hide your butt in a closet if you are the guy who caused it.
This one is so easy guys that I cannot even believe how prevalent this problem is here in GA. I don't know how it is in other states, but here we have TWO MLS systems. One is much more popular in suburbia and Metro Atlanta, the other, while it does cover the suburbs and metro area, is much less widely used by agents to locate properties. The problem is that the more popular MLS charges brokers a "transaction fee" when a property sells. Now this is no big deal until you are selling a REALLY cheap property, like an REO. So what do many brokers do?
