A year or so ago, a broker who used to encourage her agents to recommend us called to say that she had an issue with one of her rental properties in a neighboring town and asked if Mark could take a look at it. Mark did - at no charge I might add. She wrote a testimonial stating how Mark had saved her thousands by finding the problem. But before the year was out, she stopped recommending us. I wanted to meet with her to find out why, but was told by her assistant that she didn't have time to meet with vendors. Thank you!
Another broker-agent always called us to schedule inspections on behalf of her clients. Last fall she called because she had a leak in her master bedroom and the roofing contractor she'd called couldn't seem to find it. Could Mark take a look at it? Mark went and found the source of the leak. Again, he didn't charge her. We haven't had a referral from her since. Thank you!
But here's the one that really annoys me. Another broker-agent who used to give us referrals sent Mark an email to ask if he could do a pro bono inspection for one of her sellers. I was acquainted with the seller's situation, and Mark agreed to do the inspection at no charge. Because the house had a pier and beam foundation, a pool, and was nearly 80 years old, Mark would have charged a paying customer nearly $1K to inspect that house. She was getting it for free. To top it off, on the scheduled day, she wasn't home. She called back to reschedule a week or so later. She laughed off the fact that she wasn't home on the scheduled day and explained that she'd always been a little "ditzy". Absolutely no appreciation of the fact that not only did Mark not earn any money from her that day, but he didn't earn any from anyone else because she took up the time on his schedule. And then we had the privilege of not earning any money another day when we rescheduled her. We truly didn't mind doing it at no charge - although we're not likely to volunteer to do that again anytime soon. What we did mind was that she told me she was soooo grateful that her agent had found people to make the needed repairs who would wait and get paid out of escrow. Getting paid at escrow was never offered to us as an option. I don't know whether the broker reduced her commission or not. We never heard from her again and that was in January. It's been a busy year in real estate in this part of the world. Can't believe these people haven't had any clients. And I can't believe that neither the client getting the freebie nor the broker who requested it ever bothered to say "Thank you".
Thank you very much.
