(00:00) [Music] Welcome to Deerwood Realty YouTube channel. I'm John Schink, founder and managing broker of Deerwood Realty in St. Louis, Missouri. So, I don't know how to say this, you know, I'm a real estate agent, been a real estate agent for quite some time now, and there's a lot of hate. People don't like real estate agents, and I get it because I'm in the business, and it's like there are reasons why people don't like you, and usually, it's because of something you've done. So, I wanted to go over something that happened to me over the last two weeks now and just have fun with this and see how wonderful real estate agents can be. I got to pull up my outline because I don't want to screw this up in the order that it needs to go in. So, let's just start off by saying, you know, like they say, "One bad apple spoils the whole damn bunch." Well, man, there are some agents that just suck, right? And I mean, I deal with everyone, and there are agents I'll never talk to again, you know, if I don't have to. I remember good deals and bad deals and things of that nature, but man, what happened to me over the last two weeks, it's just been on my mind. I don't know really how to deal with it other than to put it out on video.

(02:01) So, you know, I've always looked at my job as trying to help people, right? Help people buy homes, help people sell homes. That's it. It's what I do. And I take that personally, like I want people to have a good experience when they work with me. It's very important to me. I can't control all aspects of the deal, but at least from a communication standpoint, from an empathy standpoint, like helping you through the deal, I will do that. So, I got a call from one of my friends, and he said, "Hey, I'd like you to list my parents' house." I'm happy to list your house, I said. So, there's me, my friend, and then there's a neighbor. The house is unoccupied, and my friend is like, "I'd like to list it as soon as possible, you know, and get it on the market." It's a dated home. He got it appraised, and the number that he got it appraised for seemed a little high to me based on the other comps that I saw in the area. I went out one afternoon and went through all the houses that were currently for sale and kind of made an estimate that I thought the number was kind of high on the appraisal. So, I told him, "I think this number's high," and we're close enough that I can get away with just being honest. He said, "I appreciate that, thanks."

(03:55) Next day, he gives me a call and says, "Hey, man, the neighbor, the neighbor next door, has a brother-in-law, and he wants to buy the house." I said, "Well, that's great." And he said, "Here's the number that they're offering me." I said, "Hey, man, just go ahead and do it." So, when I did that, it's with the understanding that I'm not getting a commission because I didn't list the property, I didn't bring the buyer to the property, and that's just the way it is. Now, is it disappointing? Yes. I would like to have a commission, right? I would like to feed my family. Does it happen that you work and you don't get a commission? Yes, often. It's not something new. And again, my friend's having success or having found a lucky situation to his benefit, like good for him. I can genuinely be happy for my friend who has found a buyer who wants to pay more than what we were going to list it for anyway and go from there. So, you know, he says, "Can you help me through the deal?" I said, "I can't help you through the deal because I'm not in it." I mean, I'd like to, but I'm not in the deal. But he was like, "I understand," because I have liability with the brokerage. I don't want to get sued. So, he said, "No, I totally understand."

(05:07) So, the neighbor says, "Here, they gave the neighbor a number." So, this is a verbal offer, gave him a number, no inspections, so an as-is property. It didn't mean that they couldn't get inspections; it just meant that the seller was not paying for any inspections. It was no municipal inspections; it didn't have to have occupancy, and the buyer was paying their lawyer like about $2,000, they said, to write up the paperwork and be done with it. Okay, good deal for my seller. My seller agreed verbally, "Sure, this is fine, everything's great." So, you know, this is a wonderful deal, right? You've got the neighbor's brother-in-law wants to move into the house, right? You've got an agreed verbal offer, sellers have, because, you know, he's got this house out of his hair. He doesn't have to deal with it, and everybody's just waiting for the lawyer to bring in the paperwork and be done with this. Right? So, I mean, at that point, everything's going well.

(06:23) About a week later, I get a call from the seller. He says, "You'll never guess what's going on." I said, "Well, what's going on?" He goes, "Well, the brother-in-law just sent over an offer from an agent." I said, "Really?" He's like, "Yeah, this agent just showed up out of nowhere and said that we have to negotiate with him." I was like, "What? What kind of negotiations are there? You already agreed to this deal. Everything's done." He said, "Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought." And so then he starts telling me about the details. He says, "They want a municipal inspection. They want other inspections," which was fine, except for there was never going to be any repairs. It was an as-is home. And in the showing agreement, the agent has placed a 7% commission paid by the seller for the home. I said, "Wow, really?" I said, "I didn't think you were going to have to pay any commission at all." He said, "I didn't agree to pay a commission." He said, "They just slipped it in, this agreed to show 7%." I said, "What is he doing for 7%?" Now, I'm a real estate broker, okay? What is this guy doing? At this point, I'm just blown away. You have to be a really scummy person to think that you deserve 7% of a commission to represent the buyer only in a deal that was already done, and now you've come in and inserted yourself in the middle of it.

(07:55) So, my seller, who's not my seller but he's my friend, he said, "I'm not signing this. I'm not agreeing to this. You're nuts." And I said, "You know, hey, the brother-in-law probably wants to buy the house, you know, try and work something out." I'm not saying screw over the real estate agent either. I mean, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. But this 7% thing, if the buyer agent, if the buyer wants to pay the buyer agent 7% to represent him, that's totally fine, but the seller is not paying a dime. So then, the buyer's agent, on behalf of the buyer, never contacted the seller. He was having the brother-in-law contact the seller. So, for even that 7%, he's not even doing anything, and he's telling the buyer that he's required to use him as his agent. I don't even know if they have a buyer's agency agreement in place, an active one, but it just seems a little shady that this guy shows up out of nowhere, pops down, he wants 7% on a sale that he didn't even have to show the house, he didn't even have to find the house.

(08:55) Anyway, my seller said, "We're out," and the guy said, "Well, let's see how that works out, you know, if you can't sell the house." He's like, "Well, I'll just never sell it to you." So, what's happened here? An agent inserted himself in a deal, clearly not to help anyone because now the deal's dead. He didn't advocate for his client; he didn't advocate for anyone. All he did was come in and charge a huge fee to do nothing and then didn't even get that right, managed to blow the deal up. So, you know, when people say, "I hate real estate agents," it's because of this type of stuff. It's because of this. If there's anything I could do or say, or I mean, we have classes on ethics, we talk about all kinds of stuff, and it doesn't seem to resonate with certain people. It's just like they're just jerks. So, I just wanted to put that forward that, you know, I understand why people think that way, but I would also say, look, we're not all jerks. We're not all terrible people. There are just these types of people in our business, but there are these kinds of people everywhere.

(10:58) But anyway, I mean, I've been sitting on this story for like a week. I didn't know how to bring it to you. Hopefully, I brought it to you in a way that was compelling, somewhat interesting. Let me know in the comments if you've had a bad deal with a real estate agent. I kind of enjoy hearing about things because I don't want to screw over my clients like that. That's not who I am. But I really love hearing how it happens so that I know not to do it or so I can kind of figure out a way to avoid that happening in mine. If this video takes off, I'll give you more stories about the decade or longer I've been in the business, so we can all have fun and learn from everyone's mistakes. With that, I'm going to head on out. Look, thank you for watching, thank you for listening, and I'll catch you on the next one.