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Don't sell your friend short just because she's new. If she's bright, and has a good service-oriented personality, she might likely work a lot harder for you than the seasoned agents around. She wants your business and your happy review at the end to get herself established. Give her a chance.
How much is a referral fee? A couple of hundred bucks? Your friend shouldn't have agreed to cut your relative in on this deal without knowing how to make it happen. So the way I see it, it's on her to make good on her promise. After she gets her commission she should write your relative a check for X number of dollars and consider it a lesson in not making promises she can't keep just to get a listing.
I am not a fan of referral fees, but even more important, I am not a fan of broken agreements. For all we know this family member has helped you out, and you did do anything to earn it. That's family. Your neighbor didn't do anything to earn your business, but broke their word before you even signed document one. And you want to entrust them with the largest investment you have? For this reason alone, I would keep looking for another agent.
In real estate, if it's not in writing it doesn't exist. This is because people can't remember what was said 60 days, 30 days or 30 minutes ago. But if you are certain someone is backing out of an oral agreement, one they agreed to, and you are certain they did, then you know what to.
Whether or not someone likes referral fees or thinks they are awful is immaterial. The amount is immaterial. There is only one relevant fact and that is that the friend/agent agreed to pay the relative as a condition of listing the property. That's it....case closed.
A close family member is a real estate agent in another state. We had said we would let them know when we decided to sell our house so they can assist with the sale and get a referral fee. A friend of ours recently became a real estate agent and wanted to work with us and I told them about my family member and the referral. They agreed and said it would not be a problem.
Now we are ready to sell our house and the real estate friend of ours is saying that since my family member didn't refer them there would be no referral. This is coming from their broker they are working for. I haven't signed anything and the agent knew way ahead of time about my family member.
What am I supposed to do? Get a new agent? Not help my family member? I'm about to **** someone off and I don't want to.
I would have a huge issue with your friend, who said they would pay the referral, and now that the time has come has reneged. How can you trust anything they say? Besides, a close family member trumps a friend who just got their license. I would tell my friend I had a deal with my relative first so I need to call them to find me a different agent.
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Moderator - Diabetes and Kentucky (including Lexington & Louisville)
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