"The ones that stay are the ones who are generally best at it in the first place. They are good enough at their jobs to weather the storm.
"
Yup. Agents who work hard at the job do just fine. It's the wannabes who are going to lose out in this buyer's market.
When my wife and I were looking for a house here in Saint Paul, we saw one driving around that looked interesting. I pulled my cell phone and called the broker who had his name on the sign. Answering machine. I left my number and the address of the house.
He never called back. The house was still for sale a month later. I never did figure that one out.
We ended up buying a house we visited at an open house. The realtor there, a young woman, took us seriously when we said we wanted to make an offer on a house that week. The next day, she took us to a bunch of houses, even though she was the listing agent on the house where the open house was. We liked that first house best, so we bought it, and she was great about the whole process.
She worked her butt off to sell us a house. Several other agents ignored us when we told them we were buying a house that week and would be paying for it with cash from the sale of our house in California. They just couldn't be bothered to show us other houses.
Amazing. They deserve to go out of business.
I do mortgages, and it's the same way. I talk to countless people who I can help with a loan quite easily that say their previous "mortgage guy" never calls them back. I guess that leaves more for me!
That's beyong stupid.
When I was running my business, I told my employees that if someone showed up cash-in-hand, they were to drop everything (except another customer with cash in hand) and get on that prospect--and if the money in question exceeded a certain (relatively low) amount, they were to get me out of my office immediately. (One important rule of small business that a lot of small business owners ignore: customers with a substantial amount of money deserve--and should rightfully expect--to do business directly with the owner. It shows respect, and it ensures that potential problems are identified and worked around quickly.)
I never lost a hot prospect for lack of action. Lost a few because a competitor was able to come up with something that met the prospect's needs more cheaply, more rapidly, or both--but not because my team let moss grow under our feet. And later on, I got some of those prospects back in the door when they needed more than their previously contractor could deliver--and they remembered how we'd worked to earn their business the first time out.
You NEVER blow off a customer with money to spend. Carrying a lot of money around is hard work. You try to relieve that customer of the burden of carrying all that money and give him a quality product that meets his needs as fast as you can.
I just cannot fathom what was going on in your case.
"They deserve to go out of business"
Their standards of living will drop to eating rabbits to stay alive in those neighborhoods. >..<
Ain't that the truth!
I had the same problem, only I never bought one. I wanted to do a flip, I could never get one to take me seriously. My son came up with one on his own, no agent involved, He said he was going to use one when he's ready to sell. I told him to go ahead and get one but to put up a sign of his own and do a little advertising on his own.