Please tell me agents in SE MN understand the difference between NorthStar’s well regulated “coming soon” program (where no showings are allowed until the home is on the market for all buyers) and a broker having an “Exclusive Buyer Program” where only that broker’s clients see their coming soon listings for 2 weeks prior to any other buyers, right?  (Agents who understand the industry call this a “bait program”)

To be clear, not only would someone running a program like that be harming buyers that aren’t signed with them because they have to wait 2 weeks (and likely miss the opportunity to offer altogether because the broker often sells the home to their own buyers before it’s made available to the public), you’re likely harming your seller because more buyers seeing a home logically means more money for the house.  Many people can be sold on the idea of something if you’re a good salesperson.  That doesn’t mean what they’re being sold on is in their best interest.  To be a fly on the wall in those dining rooms would have been interesting, that’s for sure.

I’m not jealous, nor have I ever been jealous of anyone in my industry (I simply don’t care about comparing myself to anyone).  I have opposed certain practices based on their impact on the public that we serve.  I have opposed false advertising (like billboards being removed due to false information).  I have opposed any type of marketing that requires fine print to say the promise in the advertisement might not be accurate or come to fruition.  I have opposed working as a broker without having an active license to do so.  

I don’t miss someone in our industry that charged more and paid others doing the same job less.  I don’t miss someone that justified that behavior by saying that they do “most of the work” so that makes them worth more.  I don’t apply half truths about a few individuals to everyone in my industry to justify greed.  I don’t make former clients sign NDAs.  I don’t require those that breach a Buyer Rep agreement to post fake positive messages about me on social media to save themselves from me suing them.

There is a difference between using your gifts to further yourself at the expense of others and using your gifts to lift others up.  The day our industry becomes less about service and more about progression towards padding our pockets is the same day we become irrelevant.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that doesn’t make anything I’ve said here less true.

🙂