So, while I’ve been writing on our own Team Reba blog for about a year now, I was writing on a site called Rain City Guide much earlier. In a post back in February of 2007 I covered the topic of agents versus attorneys but with a focus on why it makes sense and covers the best interests (typically) for clients to have the capabilities of both of these professions at their disposal in a real estate transaction.
The article was in response to Russ Cofano’s comments on a post on RCG, but I can’t link it here because he no longer writes for the blog now that he works for a real estate company as their legal counsel and RCG has deleted all of his posts. I’m guessing said competing firm made this a requirement of his employment.
Anyhow, a different attorney at RCG has been pretty clear about his feelings on the subject of agents versus attorneys in his own version of a slam on my own industry. He’s been doing it for some time with yet another post here that discusses how buyers can negotiate commission fees from sellers, although there is little discussion that commission agreements are between agents and sellers – not the public. The selling office commission (SOC) that is noted on every NWMLS listing for agents is not a public fee but a fee advertised among cooperating brokerages via the membership within the MLS. But, he keeps on hitting the same topic over and over again. Guess it’s time to get out the boxing gloves….
I wonder sometimes if he’s just hard up for business or if he can’t think of more interesting information to write about. My guess is that for every time he writes an article on not using an agent to buy a home he gets 5 new clients. Maybe with all the link backs to the RCG site he’ll come by and comment.
I don’t mind a guy running his own business because I do the same thing. To me it doesn’t seem necessary to make it an “us vs. them” mentality. What I find a little sad is that rather than developing a good rapport with agents to perhaps build a relationship like I have with my real estate attorney he ends up alienating an entire industry. With regard to building a business plan, I could imagine where agent relationships could be developed into excellent repeat business that could sustain his practice more easily or as a secondary income stream to his direct business. But, alas, such is not the case currently. I’ll stick with my sources over at Garvey Schubert Barer (Rick Baroway, Lori Salzarulo, Tim Burkart and others), Chris Benis of Harrison, Benis & Spence, and Doug Tingvall – the people I use most frequently for client needs.
