You'd Better Have Thick Skin If You Want To Be a Realtor
There will be times throughout your entire career when people you consider friends and/or neighbors will use another agent to buy or sell a home. You might even have sold their home to them and they used another agent to sell it.
One of the main ways this can happen is the friend/neighbor doesn't even known you're an agent. It's happened with our new agents and they were sick about it. They told me they knew their friend would have called them if they'd realized they were agents. Your first priority as a new agent is to get the word out you have your license and keep reinforcing that.
There will also be friends and neighbors who know you're a new agent but are nervous about your inexperience. Their home is probably their biggest asset and they have reservations about trusting the sale to a new agent. They go the safe route and select an experienced agent. Although it's disappointing, you can't really fault them for that.
Chances are someone right now is building a relationship with the same people you consider friends, neighbors, and future clients. Remember, no-one owes you their business. For the ones that slip away, it's not worth losing a friendship over. It's just the nature of the business.
Working With Other Agents
It's easy to be well liked and popular with other agents when you aren't a threat to their business. But once you start establishing yourself and they start losing deals to you, things might change.
There will be agents who try to diminish you to anyone who will listen. That's certainly happened to me. Never in the way of ethics, of course, but they'll mention "how tough I am to work with".
Everyone wants to be liked, and I do too, but my job is to protect my client's interests, period. I love a smooth transaction as much as the next person, but if I have to "stiffen my back" with another agent, I will.
Early in my career it bothered me when I heard what some agents were saying about me. I often found out through my clients. Now, it's like water off a duck's back. I just keep my head high, never downtalk another agent in public, and keep motoring along.
Agents Who Will Try to Steamroll You
When you're new, you'll likely hear something like "I've been in the business for 20 years" and so and so. The agent is trying to establish dominance for negotiation purposes.
So how do they know you're a new agent? They can tell by your license number. I never even thought of it until a top agent in our office told me a year or so ago that's one of the first things they look at when starting to enter negotiations with another agent.
If you need help, go to someone in your office who has more experience in dealing with agents who try to bulldog you in the negotiations. But stand your ground for your client. You are there to protect your client's interests.
When I first started out in residential, no-one had ever heard of me. I was a one man shop working out of my home without a company name behind me. There were a couple of agents who tried to "bull dog" me but I wouldn't let them.
Never Diminish Your Competition
When you're on a listing appointment and the name of another agent comes up, make it a point to be complimentary of them or just say you don't know them that well. Don't send out any signals about how you really feel about them because they'll be watching. There are several reasons why.
It's unprofessional
By not badmouthing the other agent will probably elevate you in the eyes of the sellers.
The seller could very well be in cahoots with the other agent trying to find out what you're saying about them. I know for sure that's happened to me.
Even if you hear through the grapevine another agent is trashing you, don't get down to their level. Rise above it.