Dilemma of having friend/relatives as realtors! Confused?!

Do you feel blindfolded by your realtor friend?

Buying a home where your family can live happily ever after and which meets your basic needs is something that every homebuyer dreams of. In buying a home a homebuyer is assisted, for no cost, by a professional in real estate industry.  The homebuyer feels confident that his agent will provide him with the most professional service and ensure the followings:

1. Understand their needs
2. Subject home is as per their needs and wants
3. The price is right and the offered price is a fair market value
4. Home has potential to appreciate in near future
5. The demographics suit them
6. The appliances and home systems are in good order

Sometimes, a homebuyer loses the right of free expression and end up buying a home under undue influence of his/her friend or relative who happened to be a real estate agent. In certain communities the fear of turning away their friends and relatives is so strong that either the buyers backout of buying a home because they had 3-4 relatives/friends who are realtors or they end up annoying a few of them at the cost of their own freedom of choice and expression. A sense of being blindfolded.

What to do?

Actually the decision is all upon you. Over the period of my real estate practice, I got the following responses from some of the people I interviewed:

For those who go with their friends/relatives:

1. Our friend/relative understands us well. We are comfortable with him
2. We are afraid of social remifications if we don't buy through our relative/friend
3. Our friend is very professional, he discusses everything in details and shows his strategy
4. Our friend/relative ensures the personal information is not rumoured in the family circle
5. The relative was my spouse's brother/sister/mom/dad
6. He was with a reputed Real Estate Company like RE/MAX and we were sure of his professional ethics

For those who don't want to go with their friends/relatives:

1. We don't want to discuss our financials with close relatives
2. If we use one friend/relative as our agent, others will get angry
3. We will lose right to criticise or argue during offer
4. Bad experience as our relative pushed us to buy a home we never wanted in the first place. So we quit him
5. Relative/friend is a part-timer agent. We don't get to see many homes when we want to
6. We want to keep business and friendship/relationship separate
7. He worked in a no name brokerage with no backhand support. We couldn't trust him.

So to sum up, the decision is all yours. As long as your relative or friend shows professionalism and treats you and your information in the most ethical way, it is good to go with him.  BUSINESS SHOULD STRICTLY BE BUSINESS & NOT A FAVOR TO ANYONE. It is you who are going to commit for 25 years to pay. 

The video on RE/MAX's youtube channel is a nice watch in this context. Click here to see it.

Should you find yourself in need of some information or discussing your homebuying plans, please feel free to call me at 647-333-2273 or my office 416-232-9000 or email me at dealswithpaul@gmail.com.

Do you have a real estate purchase story to tell? You can send it to me at dealswithpaul@gmail.com.

By subscribing here, you will get all the updates and new informational blogs delivered before anyone else does get it.






Disclaimer: The above article is an original text based on Paul Cheema's experience with prospects. Your agreement or disagreement is a matter of sole discretion. Not intended to solicit clients already under other brokerage contracts.