The other day I was showing houses to some new clients when the boyfriend asked me, “Do you follow real estate rules?  I immediately responded, “Of course I follow the rules!”  Then I asked him, “What do you mean?”  He started to explain that he knew a friend, who knew a friend that went into a vacant home and made repairs on the home before he took ownership of it.

Deerwood Realty Will Always Follow Real Estate Rules

When I started Deerwood Realty, I wanted it to be a place where people could go where they didn’t have to worry about the sharks I saw continually working in other offices.  There were things that real estate agents would do all the time that absolutely drove me nuts, but I really wasn’t in a position to make change.  After all, maybe your real estate agent should be doing something else.  Some of the things that real estate agents did weren’t against the rules but just weren’t professional.  I knew that to affect change, I was going to have to go out on my own.  This was quite a gamble, but there were two things that I was banking on.

  1. I’d been in real estate long enough to spot tricks when they came up.
  2. Clients would appreciate working with a real estate brokerage in a straight forward and direct way and tell their family and friends.

Was I right?  Well, we get a lot of referrals from friends and family.  I would say right now our business runs about 80% by referral.  Still, we are a small real estate brokerage by most standards.  As for spotting tricks, we usually work in such a way as to avoid them all together.  As an example, we don’t show houses to buyers who don’t already have some form of funding in place.  This avoids the trap of putting together a deal and having it fall apart before the close.

Real Estate Rules Designed To Protect

Sure, there are rules that I disagree with, but I understand why they are in place: To protect the general public that doesn’t spend every day in the real estate market.  These rules aren’t designed to be a hindrance; rather, they can really keep you out of legal troubles.  As a real estate broker in St. Louis, the last thing I want to do is deal with lawyers (at least the ones who aren’t my clients).

Why Should You Care If Your Real Estate Agent Follows The Rules?

At the end of the day, when you are looking for an agent, why in the world would you want to work with someone who is skirting the rules?  Do you really think that they aren’t going to follow the rules for everyone else but manage to be straight with you?  That’s not how it works, from experience.

I might lose these new clients that asked me about the rules.  I’ve found that people often get what they are looking for out of life, and sometimes people are looking for something that I’m not going to be involved with at Deerwood Realty.  If I do lose them, best of luck to them in their new home search.

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