Making mistakes and letting down the people who depend on us is tough. It can be embarrassing and, of course, it never feels good to fail. But this is life: mistakes happen, and all we can do is learn from those mistakes and move on.
Which brings me to this issue: we’ve compiled 50 ways (yes, 50! Go ahead and count them!) agents fail their clients. Some are common complaints Chicago Agent has heard about the industry, such as not returning other agents’ calls or e-mails promptly (their clients want to see your client’s home and possibly buy it!) and agreeing with how a potential client wants to price their home, even though you disagree entirely, just to get the listing. Some seem obvious, like making sure a client is pre-approved or using more than one good photo in the MLS (a shocking 38 percent of agents only use one photo with their listings!), but you’d be surprised how often each of these things happens while handling clients or during a deal.
So to help you better yourselves as agents, prevent future clients from being let down and not get the full benefits from your business, we put together this “50 Ways Agents Fail Their Clients” issue so you can read them all…and then NOT do them. We asked a few agents their opinions to help provide further insight on how to avoid the 50 major mistakes in our cover story on page 14. Hopefully, this reverse how-to issue can help agents improve their skills further – even if you’re not guilty of doing any of our 50 “fails,” it can’t hurt to be mindful of things that could hurt your clients and possible referrals for future business. And I want to reiterate that without making mistakes, no one would have anything to really learn from. Agents should “fail” from time to time – failing is the only way people learn. Some agents just need to start working on that “learning from our mistakes” part.
On another note, voting is now open for our Agents’ Choice awards, coming up soon. Go to chicago.staging312.com/agent-choice-awards/ to vote. Remember, you can vote as many times as you like, so spread the word!
Great intro to the article Stephanie. I think you adequately covered the biggest offenders. My complaint would be a lack of knowledge. As a first time buyer I would want a professional who could guide me through the process and answer all of my detailed questions. Oh and PATIENCE!