The real estate agent

Real estate agents cab be a good source of leads.  However, let me tell you about my experiences.  They always start off really good. However, what you become is the last-minute phone call.  They are desperate to close a deal and make a crap load of money so you need to get off your ass and go fix one little thing asap so the customer will close.  Yea, basically you become the little bitch and you know what?  You get very little money, and you don’t even get a thank you.

You will get requests to read inspection reports and asked to spend hours of your time interpreting the reports and compiling written estimates for the agent so he or she can use this estimate to negotiate the price and close the deal.  I got a report onetime on a weekend holiday.  He asked me several times to create an estimate.  He kept stating, I need to close this deal tomorrow.  He never offed to pay me for my time.  It is a freaking holiday weekend.  I wasn’t even in town.  The nerve! These agents can make 20K to 30K to close a deal and they can’t even offer to pay you a few hundred dollars for your time.

Now, some of these are not so bad.  Every now and then you will get a genuine agent who needs you to get a house ready for sale.  We call those "make ready".  It’s usually a two or three-day job with paint, holes in the walls, some minor updates and fixes.  Those turn out to be pretty good.  Then you form a relationship with that agent and you get a few more of those.  Ah, but guess what?  Something goes wrong and it’s not even your fault and then, like a little child that agent turns on you like a junior high girl mad at her junior high soon to be ex-boyfriend.  Then they black list you and never call you back.  Yes, there is no maturity at any age. 

We had an agent that asked us to repair the ceiling in the garage.  There was a roof leak.  Supposedly they got the roof fixed.  We repaired the ceiling.  The new home owner moved it and it rained and the ceiling was again ruined.  So, then we got blamed for never doing the work at all.  I called bullshit and offered to go out to the house to look at the ceiling and the roof for free.  The agent declined and then of course never gave us anymore work.  Whatever.

Another agent was really nice and giving us a lot of work.  Then, she and her seller asked us to do a large make over.  In the end we had a hard time getting paid and the last bill was probably around 10K and we never took any money down.  Again, trying to be nice bit me in the ass.  I had to get a little aggressive seeking payment.  We finally got paid and guess what, the agent never used us again. 

I do have one agent that has given me consistent work for five years now.  She is a saint, an angel, has a big heart, and does a lot of philanthropy work.  I have one more that gives me work every now and then and she is also a really nice person. 

So, just like anything in life, real estate agents are both good and bad.  Pick you battles. Just do good work and be proud of what you do and let the work speak for itself.