Downtown San Diego Condos: "Where's The Deal?" she rudely said

An interesting phenomena has been occurring over the last several months with some buyers.  Since real estate is a commission based business, most people know the real estate agent gets paid at the closing of the transaction.  Again, many people understand that the seller pays the commission and it is usually split between the listing agent and the selling agent.  Most buyers don't care because all they want is the best "deal" they can find irregardless of commissions.

 

However, there is a certain percentage of buyers who seem to think if they negotiate with the listing broker directly they will get a better deal because the listing agent will "cut" their commission and somehow be grateful they are getting both sides of the transaction.  In a normal and stable marketplace, this thought process might have worked.  However, in today's marketplace with lenders either selling foreclosed units or short sales, it is a self-defeating thought process.  Buyers that think like this, in my own personal experience, also think they are smarter than the realtor, than their doctor, than their lawyer, etc.  These sorts of people resent a realtor's commission. 

Banks work on formulas and the net bottomline is what they look at no matter what.  The lender automatically builds in a realtor's fee.  Whether or not the realtor "discounts" the commission, the lender sticks on the price they want.  Banks are very inflexible, or so has been our experience.  In fact, if the loan is owned by FNMAE, the commission is set and is not negotiable to the lender.  Commissions may be negotiable with realtors, but in the reo and short sale scenario, the realtors have no control over the commission.  The bank controls all the fees.  Any buyer who thinks they are going to get a discount will only be disappointed, and based on the attitudes of some of these buyers, mad. 

Normally my blogs are about the area or the process of buying or selling.  Rarely do I venture into areas about people's attitudes, but our experience this morning was just too interesting to pass up.  We had a prospective buyer who called regarding a downtown San Diego condo unit.  We spoke with her yesterday and at no time did she ask if we were the listing agent.  When we met her for the showing this morning she was more than hostile because we were not the listing agent.  In fact she was downright rude.  When we run across people like this, we always wonder what went wrong in their life to create such hostility.  You never know.  We immediately gave her the listing agent's name and number and contacted him when we returned to the office.  Clients like this do not match our clientele and we would rather let an unhappy person go somewhere else.

Real estate is a business.  In fact, it is a methodical business, but the process of buying or selling creates stress and every one handles stress differently.  I have always had the philosophy that stress shows the true character of people.  In our case this morning, stress showed us a less than nice person.  It's the nature of the beast as I say.

This is a series of articles by Sharyn and Victoria Crown, Downtown San Diego real estate agents specialzing in San Diego real estate.  Visit us on  our San Diego Crowns Real Estate  Facebook page.  Text SDCROWN to 87778 to search properties on your mobile phone