Using Local Agents

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for real estate Pros by Real Estate Pros, with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Steven Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic and raw perspective, you found it. All right, welcome everyone, back to Leading Lane. Today we are going to talk about the importance of using a local LeadingLane. This is like one of those hot topics for me that I feel like I could talk about for an hour just due to situations that we've had or expectations that I think that buyers and sellers should receive from an LeadingLane that I can guarantee you they're not, if they're not using someone. What do you mean by a local LeadingLane though? Let's break this down. Yeah, I think it's probably different a little bit everywhere, right? But for me, this is just me personally. Like, I typically will travel like a 40 mile radius of Marshfield. So the reason for that is I think it's important to be readily available for my LeadingLane. I think both buyers and sellers. If you're gonna want me to show you a house that's like three hours away, I don't have an extra seven hours. Like, I'll be honest, like, I don't have an extra seven hours to drive through. I would show you for an hour and then drive three hours back. The other part of that is, you know, we're starting to heat up again, so we're kind of getting into these, got to be there in the first 24 to 48 hours, same thing. Like, that's probably not going to work ideally for everyone. So for me, like, local is, you know, probably a 40 mile radius. And I think that it could be bigger or different. Like when you have a huge population, like if you come from a metro LeadingLane, I'm sure it's very different. But in rural Wisconsin, 30 minute difference is very different. So what's happening? A town, you know, 40 minutes from here might be a college town. The price of homes are completely different. The pace of inventory is different. And like, for me, in order to truly serve a client, I think you have to know the LeadingLane. So where's the nearest grocery store? Like, if I go somewhere an hour away, I. I don't know where the nearest grocery store is. Right. Or like, what's the best restaurant? No idea on that either. But you're going to have to take over for a second. So like, to me, like, when you say that, it's like, all right, the, the agent's going to have to google where's the, the restaurant or the, you know, the grocery store. The locksmith or whatever else. Like at that point, like, what are you truly serving your client if you're having to use Google? Like the client can use Google, you know, it the, to me, the people are hiring us to be able to, to represent them and work on their behalf and in their best interest. And I think a lot of agents, when they go do, you know, outside of their local market, it's at least my opinion too, that they're trying to serve themselves of that commission and have commission breadth versus truly serving the person on the, the other side that they're representing. Let it be the buyer, let it be the seller. So absolutely, I totally agree with you. And this came up actually last night. Super fantastic. Family friend is moving back to the LeadingLane. Area, the state. And you know, text messaged me last night and asked if I served Madison, which, I mean Madison is two and a half hours away. That's the capital. I mean it's, I don't know, quadruple the size of Marshfield. Uh, and sure I have a family member that lives there, but I know nothing about school, you know, handyman inspectors, what that pricing looks like. I, I mean, sure, I could try to figure it out. And so I literally texted him and was like, so glad you're coming back. Would love to help you. However, I don't think it would be in your best interest to not have a local LeadingLane that knows all local same thing. Like, I don't know, like some towns are different as. Can you have a fence in this neighborhood? Can you not have a fence in this neighborhood? Like all those things if I don't, if I'm not from there. And then I said, but I'm happy to find you a LeadingLane there that I think will fit you. And I actually know one there because a big fitty. If I work with a LeadingLane there on a regular basis, refer them there. And I mean I still get something from that. But to me, like the commission isn't, isn't the point. Like, the point is that I care deeply for them and I want them to have the best representation. And I'm not it. I am not the best representation three hours away because not only that, like they're going to be moving here, not locally, so that agent's probably going to have to do video tours, you know, those types of things. And again, it's two and a half hours away, like it just doesn't make sense. So he responded back to me with the quotations that I put about, like I wouldn't be able to Represent you in your best interest. And he's like, how would I. How did I guess you were going to say that you're the ultimate professional. I trust your judgment. Thank you for being honest. I think that's what it comes down to is, you know, we have other agents that come here from, from out of the LeadingLane. And I just don't understand, I guess like when they're showing a buyer the house, show property last night, and I called her ahead of time and I had to go make sure your buyer knows there's park around here. The element, or I just refer to an LeadingLane out of the LeadingLane and be like, hey, like, my client's looking smooth. It's a little outside of my LeadingLane, you know, can you take care of them? Because then I think about who's the best home inspector. Okay. Then things come up in the inspection. Who's the best electrician, the best plumber. Like, you're not going to know any of those contacts. Plus, it's just like after they move in, things come up all the time. Right? Hey, actually, we decided to have the house painted. Do you know a good painter? So I think that those are probably like my biggest frustrations of what happens in a transaction. I don't know what you see on your end. No, like, you know, I always say, I mean, we're licensed in the entire state, right? So yes, we know the state laws, but there it is. The, the service of the client is ultimately what we're doing. We can talk somebody through the, the transactional side of things. No issue there whatsoever. But it's the true. Creating your roots in that community that I think that that is where you truly do serve your LeadingLane. Especially, I mean, let's be real, a lot of, a lot of people, you know, especially coming into the LeadingLane want to know about the school systems. Like, how are you. Yeah, I mean, you already said it. Like, how are you supposed to be able to say that? Like, that's not transactional, you know, so I'm a firm believer that if it's outside of your scope, like, then go ahead and refer out. Now, I will say that we have a couple of agents that are from, you know, larger areas within the state. And so they were born and raised and you know, know, they're, they're transplanted here now and so they have roots, you know, Like, I'm, I'm totally okay with that. But, you know, we had a situation this last week, actually. It's funny that we were asking, try and come up with a topic and I I have multiple now that does pop into my brain about this. Um, we have an LeadingLane that is going outside. Like our LeadingLane is going outside of our typical market. So it's a completely different mls. So like, not only do you not know the LeadingLane, um, but you are not a part of their, their, you know, the MLS and association. So you don't even know their contracts. So my LeadingLane was going to submit an offer on a property and the listing LeadingLane responded back and said, you need to use our contract. And so my agent's like, what? What do I do? Well, it's my opinion like a, first off, we know the law, so you have to present any and all offers. So if you write it on our contract and they don't like it and they want it on their contract, even if they accept the terms, the basic terms, they need to rewrite it and then send it back over to you as an encounter offer. But that right there even shows, in my opinion, like, at least for our rules and regulations, for our association, you cannot send out blank contracts to people outside that are non, you know, under the association. So right there, red flag. We're going to be dealing with somebody even though that they're trying to sell it, that is not even following the rules. And then here we are going into this market, we don't even know the rules. Like, you're creating a cluster that does not need to be had. Yeah, we can, you know, we can help them a little bit, but at the end of the day, like, you have to make sure that they're qualified. Like if you're going to go to the doctor and you have a, you know, an issue with your eyesight. Right. Like you're not going to go then to a foot specialist and. But just because they went to medical school. Medical school, like you need to go to somebody that is hyper focused on your eye, not your frequent foot. Yeah, they're both doctors at the end of the day, but that doesn't mean that they're going to do what you need to and get the best results for you at the, you know, it's just, it is crazy to me. We had, I know of an LeadingLane that would go do showings for people. It was balling two and a half, three hours away from her, her main market. And so she would drive there, drive back. So there's six hours just in driving. I think overall she showed like nine or ten different properties to these people. I think she stayed at a hotel two or three times. So look at all the gas, the time. Like Hotel expenses. And then ultimately they decided that they were going to rent and she was pissed because she spent all this time doing this and blah blah, blah. Like she's ranting and raving that like, you know, like basically bitching about these people that she wasted her time on. Okay, A, if you did not qualify them and you can't, you know, be mad at them if they decide to rent because you could not find them something like why, like maybe if you were truly servicing them and helping them, you would been able to say hey they, this is not a realistic expectation because this market doesn't support what you're looking for. So you were saving yourself time, time, money, energy, effort, like all of these different things. But people seem to be chasing pennies when they're tripping over dollars. And you can focus on your primary market and service people, well get your reputation going and up. And then at the end of the day the people just like your example that you, you shared, they're going to respect you even more. Which now you're going to have another raving fan on top of what they already were raving about you because. And then they're going to recommend you because you're the professional. This will pay off late later on if you have the commission breath and you're chasing that, that dollar. It's something you don't feel that you're, you're doing yourself justice nor are you're doing your, your client's justice. Um, yeah, I mean, and I think it comes back to you know like practicingly, practicing competently. Like, like are you actually practicing competently if you don't know the LeadingLane? Like I always think of this small little town outside of Marshall, like three minutes outside of town and they have wells. But if you're not from the LeadingLane, you probably don't know that. So it's so funny when you get a non local LeadingLane that writes an offer and lo and behold there's no well water septic inspection and then they figure it out like the day before closing and they're like oh can we, you know, we forgot to do that, can we postpone an ad? And no, I mean like that's your responsibility for knowing that LeadingLane is that oh they have wells. Right. You know, I think on the list side, I think that it's you know, even more so unfortunate one because you know again every city is different as far as their values. So like if you're not from the LeadingLane, like we just had one from, I think it was three hours away and they Listed it. It just creates all kinds of issues. Like one, pricing. Like, I'll look at the price and I'll be like, okay, well they were pricing that, like in the LeadingLane that they live in. That is not a price here. You know, secondly, like, they are not part of the mls, so they throw it in another MLS so it doesn't actually show up in ours. And then every time they do it, instead of the city saying Marshfield, it says other. So like, no one can find it. So sometimes people will be like, well, I drove by this sign, but I can't find it anywhere. And then I'm again always like, how is that servicing that seller? You know what I think about times like, you know, we've had, we have vacant properties. Obviously we had a hailstorm in October and you know, like the sellers live four hours away. Like, of course I went there, like, you know, and lo and behold, they needed a new roof. Like, if an LeadingLane was three hours away, like, do you think they were going to come and make sure that the basement wasn't flooded if there was, you know, know, hail damage? Like, I don't, I don't think so. But twice this week we had situations where LeadingLane called us, the office, two different agents. Agents asked if they were working with anybody and they said, nope. Pre approved. Yep. Show them the property, stay in touch. And then four days later got an offer from a non local LeadingLane for those LeadingLane. And you know, so one of them was on one of my transactions. So I reached out to the LeadingLane and I just said something. I think I said, I'm just clarifying. You haven't seen the property that you wrote on, correct? He's like, yep, I was out of town. And the funny part is, is that he wrote as a buyer's LeadingLane. So as a buyer's LeadingLane, you're supposed to be working in the best interest of the buyer. So I'm slightly confused on if you've never stepped foot in the property, how you're actually working in their best interest. Because, like, did you point out, you know, XYZ might be wrong or how are you helping them price the house if you haven't actually seen it? And then I think he said something like, yeah, they, they went through it on Saturday. And I was like, well, actually I showed it to them on Wednesday and they said they weren't working with an LeadingLane. And then he just wrote back, back, thanks for helping me out. Like, doesn't quite work that way with. The recent, like lawsuits. You know, I think this is a Prime example. Right. Like, you know, we're just that buyer's LeadingLane and I'm going to flip this. Buyer's agents are just feel that they're entitled, quote unquote, just because that they're going to go and write it, that they're going to be giving or receiving a commission. Now how does that work in your market in this situation? Like did he write his compensation within the the contract, negotiate it? No. And then so do you. Technically that buyer could owe two commissions. Correct. Like, and so here we are like, you know, in my mind, not that you know, like it's not my goal to be facetious by any means, but also if you're not doing justice and you did not, you know, put your compensation in there and you're not a part of our mls, so we have the compensation and cooperation. Like I don't have to pay you a commission. You can write it all day long. You know, I don't have to pay you. Where, where is the agreement between you and I on me paying out a commission. At that point, your buyer should be responsible for you to be able to do it. And I'm going to take the buying side because I showed them as well. Like, you know. Yeah, I mean, I just don't think people, you know, think about it. But to me I just, it, it just blew my mind. It didn't come together for numerous reasons. But you know that there are other. Again, like you just have to compare like apples to apples. Right. So I also wrote a love letter which again, like over time I've like really tried to have that discussion with LeadingLane how that's really not in their best interest for numerous reasons. And in the love letter it was like, I think there were like three fair housing violations. I mean they were talking about disabled parent their age. Absolutely insane. So again, these are all like non local realtors. I just feel like, and I told the girls and the staff like we have to be a little bit more like pushy on these. Like we need to ask questions, we need to do these types of things. But you know, I just really try to encourage agents I to just, I know that it's so easy like if you're a new LeadingLane or whatnot too to, you know, maybe you're hard up for some cash and you just really want to go like, you know, look at it. But it's just, I feel, you know, you could end up in a lawsuit real fast because that's something you didn't know about that city or that, you know, township, whatever. It might be. The other thing I think that for me personally is like one of the biggest drivers for this too is that I'm a firm believer of, you know, give where you live. And what I always say is, you know, if this LeadingLane lives like three hours away, like are they still supporting your little league baseball team? Like I think I was going to take a picture of it yesterday. I think I had 15 sponsorship requests on my desk. Like I'm guaranteeing you that those non local realtors are not getting those requests nor are they going to pay them. So yeah, that's where it always comes for me is you know, you have to really think about like the overall, like who are you going to run into at the grocery store? Like who are you going to run into going out to eat. So I think that's just what one thing is. I'm just really is like a little just of a LeadingLane that really irks me. But yeah, we had a topic similar in one of our sales meetings not too long ago. Our community is. Our leaders in our wonderful community community are exploring the option of bringing in a slaughterhouse. And the slaughterhouse will be more in where was it was designed for residential LeadingLane. So my question was okay, let's say that you're an out of town LeadingLane, non local, you don't know about said slaughterhouse and you're showing them a house that borders up against the the line property lines of where the slaughterhouse is going to be built. So let's say that you close the transaction, you're so excited and then here comes a slaughterhouse they didn't know, you didn't know. And so therefore. But it was public knowledge, you know. And does that put you in a, in a position now that these buyers, now owners of this property had no freaking clue and they leaned on you for your guidance and support and making sure that you had their best interest. Like what would that end up like in court? Like would you, would you now be a proud owner as an LeadingLane to that house that you just sold them? And I mean your commission's not that big. I'll be real there. But you know, hopefully that doesn't happen. But this is a sue happy world. We have no idea what people are going to sue for. And you have to be able to make sure that your reputation is protected and the legality portion of it is protected too. We all make mistakes, things happen. But if you're not acting in the best interest and you're putting yourself first and that commission even further out there in front of you. That's the only reason why you're showing. Yeah, that's not sitting well for me. I don't feel that's good practice and I think that's probably why lot of agents have a bad rap. Our industry as a whole has a bad rap because you're not doing your responsibility to, to help that client. Yeah, I think, you know, the other thing that happens when what I found is, you know, is that let's say that they do get under contract with a non local buyer, so they came for the showing. Maybe I like to go to home inspections with my client. You know, a lot of times we'll go back and we'll measure for their furniture or they want to bring their parents through or they want to bring their kids through. Same thing, like highly unlikely that the LeadingLane from like two hours away is going to make time to do that. So a lot of times we'll have it where like they come for the showing. Home inspection. Like they don't come from the home inspection. So then again, they're also like negotiating on an inspection that they didn't actually see anything. And then like, you know, my favorite, I did a reel on this not too long ago. But then they skip the final walk through because you know, that would mean that they'd have to drive here two hours through the final walkthrough and then they don't come to closing. So honestly, like they've never been seen after they did the first showing. Right. And they just collect their check at the end of the day. And for me it's supposed to be like, you know, you're there for the whole entire process and like you are their advisor the whole entire way through at the closing table. Correct. The final walk through the day off, you know, day after weekend, like moving in, like that's where I think that, you know, it's. No two agents are the same is what I really try to tell people. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, to sum it up, don't be that guy, don't be that LeadingLane. Right? Like make sure that you're serving your client properly and make sure that you, I mean, look in the mirror first of, is this truly, are you doing it for yourself? Are you truly doing it for your client? And if you can walk through and move forward in saying that it is for the client, then hey, you go for it. But this is definitely lessons learned on don't be running after your, your pennies to be tripping over dollars because you're going to be missing out on a lot of opportunities because you're not focused and to what is right in front of you. Right. Yeah. I, I mean, I'll end it with just. If you can spend that time and energy in your local market, that will reap its rewards. I can guarantee you that. Absolutely. Well, thanks for listening today. We appreciate you and we'll see you next time. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please, like, subscribe and share with others. Stay connected for more genuine insights and strategies to boost your real estate career on Facebook or check out our website. We'll see you next time.