Selling Condos in South Florida: Things Professional Agents Should Know

By 10 commentsInternal Blog, Rants and Raves

Mini-rant. I sell primarily condos and am primarily a listing agent. When I am the listing agent I find it frustrating that most agents who bring buyers to my listings are, basically, clueless.

Let’s start from the setting up of the appointment:

  • Agent: Where do I park? Kevin: Ummm, valet.
  • Agent: Is this direct oceanfront? Kevin: It says in the MLS description.
  • Agent: Does the building allow pets? Kevin: Per the MLS description under “Pets,” your question is already answered
  • Agent: Is the owner negotiable? Kevin: Put in an offer and see.
  • Agent: Are there any special assessments? Kevin: You could easily find that out by calling the condo association
  • Agent: What’s the phone number for the condo association? Kevin: Ummm….Google it, I’m NOT 411.

So, the point I’m trying to make is, if you have a buyer for a condominium do YOUR work before showing your clients condos. Asking the listing agent EVERYTHING is not doing YOUR job. Before I take a client out, I do ALL the homework MYSELF in an effort to NEVER utter the most HEINOUS words to ever come out of a agent’s mouth: “I DON’T KNOW.” The moment an agent says “I don’t know,” the buyer-client probably thinks to him/herself; “well, why am I paying this person?”

Oh, and one other piece of AMAZING advice: READ the MLS description and all the fields. If the listing agent hasn’t filled it out correctly and completely, you have the right to politely bring it to their attention.

It’s really not all that hard.

10 comments on “Selling Condos in South Florida: Things Professional Agents Should Know”

  1. Abiud Montes Reply

    Hello Kevin this is Abi & Lina from the Las Olas Office. It was a pleasure meeting several weeks back.
    I would like to ask you a question? This week we had some clients in town that looked at 20 properties.
    They finally made the deccesion to make an offer on one they saw early during the week. We called the listing agent that night at 6 PM and they did not answer our call. Well we figured they might be busy.
    The next day the same thing, no answer. We called at 9 AM then 12 Noon, and 3 PM. All the while our clients where calling us wanting to see the property. I called the agents office and not only where they rude but said she was not in. I told them to have the agent call me or Lina so we can get this deal done. At this time we are bit upset but calm. When we called from the house phone the agent answered the phone. Mid way during the phone call she hangs up. (She said later the call drop but she never called us back)
    I am really upset now. So we try back and no answer.
    I use a friends phone and then I get a hold of the @#$!*@% agent and finally, we set up an appointment. Well my question is has this ever happened to you?
    If it did, how did you deal with it or how did you avoid it?

    Thanks,

    Mini Rant
    OK OK
    Big Rant

  2. Ines Garcia Reply

    I agree with everything other than the special assesments. If you are showing units in 10 buildings it would be nice to avoid the step of looking for 10 property management offices and leaving 25 messages to find out information the listing agent should have at hand. The Buyer’s agent should call the association before presenting an offer but before showings too???????

  3. Carlos Ruiz de Quevedo, AIA Reply

    Kevin,

    I come from the school of the customer is always right and I see the agents who bring buyers to my listings as my customers. So I believe that if I want to sell my inventory I have to make it as easy as possible for everyone… particularly the buyer’s agent. Even if he/she sounds like a dud, I have to make him/her think that they are great and they should sell my listing.

    I figure that everyone who calls me is at least as busy as me, but I have a personal interest — I want them to sell my listing. On the other hand, the buyer’s agent can show and sell any other property but mine.

    So I try to be as curteous as possible to every agent who calls me. I also believe I need to be the expert about my listing and I need to spoon-feed all the information to everyone who calls.

    My objective is simple – I want them to push my listing instead of the competition. Since I am now focusing more on buyers rather than listings (for obvious reasons), I can see both sides. I learned a long time ago, that I could be right and still lose – I guess I learned that by being married 36 years 🙂

  4. Norbert Machado Reply

    Kevin, I am more in tune with Carlos Ruiz’ comments. I know that there are Realtors out there that may not be as up to date on the market as we would like them to be, however, if they have clients interested in our listings, I think it is our responsibility to make it easy for them to bring their clients to us. As listers who already know the particulars of a condo building, a special unit, a home, etc. we need to think of providing every opportunity for our listings to be sold. In this market, particularly, I would go out of my way to be helpful. Though I am not in sales, as a manager I deal with both easy going and difficult Associates but I have to serve them both the same way…no man is an island, entire of itself…

  5. Kevin Tomlinson Reply

    Ines,
    Yes, I ALWAYS call. Do you know why? Because many times the listing associate has incorrect information–then you both look mildly incompetent.

  7. Kevin Tomlinson Reply

    Norby

    I always go out of my way to be helpful.

    Words like: “However” are ulitmately excuses for not knowing your product or NOT caring enough about your client or your reputation to do the proper homework if you are showing in an area/building that you don’t know.

    Carlos-
    Actually, I love when a agent doesn’t know the building like I do. I always feel some agents buyer-client is my NEXT seller-client.

    It’s logical for them to want to list with me because I am the expert. I have demonstrated my expertise in front of them. So if you want to risk the listing agent looking like the expert, take a few short cuts by thinking the “listing agent should know.”

    That’s the difference between and the standard I set for myself and what other brokers feel that they can get away with.

    Tough, but true.

  8. Carlos Ruiz de Quevedo, AIA Reply

    Kevin,

    We all have our own style that works for us. Here is how I would handle the same call:

    Agent: Where do I park? Carlos: It is valet – come in one car and ask for Jose, I arranged for him to let you park for 15 minutes while you show my property.

    Agent: Is this direct oceanfront? Carlos: Yes… do you need additional pictures of the views to show your customer?

    Agent: Does the building allow pets? Kevin: Yes… this is a pet friendly building or no they don’t allow pets.

    Agent: Is the owner negotiable? Carlos: Yes, my customer is committed to selling and will consider all offers.

    Agent: Are there any special assessments? Carlos: Yes, it is $X.xx or NO.

    Agent: What’s the phone number for the condo association? Carlos: The phone number is XXX. Call Mary and tell her Carlos referred you to her.

    That approach goes a long way to create good will and bring back that same agent with other potential buyers. When I sold my first business I learned that the business had its book value. The value of the good will on the other hand can be worth several times the book value.

  9. Kevin Tomlinson Reply

    Carlos
    While I know the value of good-will more than anybody, answering those questions day after day year after year gets old.

    Another interesting thing to note: I’ve never heard from most of those agents EVER again. Could it be that they never made the commitment needed to become a true professional. I know I’m still here.

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