Should you fire your agent when he sets boundaries?

By Joel Persinger
YourRealEstateDude.com

For as long as I can remember, and I started in the real estate business almost 20 years ago, consumers have felt that real estate agents should be available at a moment’s notice, 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. This unfortunate and unrealistic expectation was actually propagated by real estate people. In fact, when I started in the business, my broker at the time admonished me on this very subject just five minutes after I joined his office. “Joel,” he said, “If you’re going to survive in this business, you must make certain that you are always available to your clients at any time of day.” I thought he was insane! But, he was the broker and I was new. So, I made myself available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It almost killed me.

19 years and at least a thousand gray hairs later, I am the broker and I am routinely caught admonishing my agents NOT to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Those thumping sounds you hear are all the old school brokers crashing to the carpet having fainted from shock after readying this article. Many of the old school folks believe that a real estate agent must be available to jump every time a client blinks in their direction. Consequently, consumers expect what the agents have been foolish enough to deliver: constant availability.

Not long ago, I ran into an agent who told me that he NEVER turned off his cell phone. Furthermore, he proudly announced that he answered it even if his clients called in the middle of the night. “I had a customer call me at 1AM the other day,” he said, “and I picked it right up.” When I questioned the wisdom of such a policy, his wife, who was also a real estate agent, began to lament the fact that her husband would never consent to going on vacation unless the vacation spot had good cell coverage.” Now, I ask you; would you live like that?

I have an agent who recently joined my office and I quickly found that he suffered from the same backwards point of view. He allowed his clients to control his schedule to the point that he didn’t have a life outside of real estate. I urged him to set some boundaries by establishing business hours during the week, take at least one day off every week and meet with clients in the evenings or on weekends only by prior appointment. No sooner had he begun to follow my advice then one of his clients began to complain. The end result was that the client fired him and started working with another agent who promised to be available 24/7.

I submit to you that anyone who wishes to achieve a level of professionalism in any industry must possess knowledge, patience, honesty, integrity, strength of character and discipline. The practice of real estate is no different. Therefore, if the agent you work with does not have one of these basic qualities, such as the discipline to manage his own schedule, then he may not be the best person to work on your transaction. Likewise, if your agent has let you run him ragged and is now in the process of growing in his character by establishing disciplined boundaries in his business, firing him could be a grave mistake. You might be firing a newly established professional in order to hire an amateur. An agent who is organized and disciplined about his schedule is an agent who will likely be organized and disciplined in his approach to providing for your needs. To me, that sounds like a winning strategy.