To all the agents in the house,
Joann Perito runs her own brokerage and the five-star review – on Zillow, RateMyAgent, and so forth – is crucial to both her professional pride and attracting future clients.
So, she was thrown when one client gave her less than the sought-after five stars. Perito, owner of Colorado Home Realty in Littleton, Colorado, called to ask what went wrong.
"He was very happy with me," Perito said. "But not the lender as she was not as communicative as he would have liked."
There was one more problem. "The roofer had dragged his feet in getting the roof in," Perito said.
Agents, a couple of weeks ago I asked if you had a "guy," by which I meant a mortgage lender or title insurer that you consistently refer clients toward. But it's becoming apparent that some of you have a small army of different referrals.
Perito, for example, has cycled through different loan officers and insurers that she collaborates with, but also plumbers, painters, and radon mitigation specialists.
"My HVAC guy, he rocks like no other," Perito said. "He does it to save the buyers money, and fix issues, not sell a new furnace. It can help a transaction when buyers are already sticker shocked."
Listing agents have their own referral roster.
"The expectation is that before ever go on the market, we prepare the listing by providing a hauler, home inspector, pest inspector, roof inspector, house cleaner, window cleaner, carpet cleaner, handyman, and stager," emailed Janelle Fault, a RE/MAX agent in Danville, California.
And perhaps the most expensive roles, Fault added, are snaring the right photographer and videographer.
I'm curious about what the power dynamics are in this array of referral-based economic transactions. Perito suggested that her network is working on "my watch," but also is cognizant that the client will likely blame her if, say, a roofer falls short.
It does seem like a double-edged sword. If an agent told me, "Oh, don't bother looking up a roofer, I can take care of it," I'd probably think, "Wow, what a powerful, well-connected person." But then if the roofer messed up, it probably would color the entire agent experience, instead of being chalked up to a single roofer having a bad day.
Agents, how big is your referral network and how reliant are you on it? How important is it to have the right person, and for what tasks might you not have a referral?
Finally, to really zoom out, this whole economic world seems like something I could have learned about in my college intro to anthropology class: A system of referrals and earned trust between multiple parties. Might attempts by brokerages and even mortgage companies like Rocket and Better to streamline and automate the home sale process replace these venerable referral networks?
Please email me your thoughts at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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