CRAZY STORY OF THE MONTH

Last month, I published a blog post about StreetEasy's deceptive new Premier Agent feature. This month, I got to see the confusion play out in front of me:

Last weekend, I was holding an open house for an awesome 2-bed in Greenwich 
Village. An agent had reached out for a showing for his clients, and when he arrived to the property before them, I greeted him in the lobby. When his clients showed up, the agent introduced himself to them; clearly, this was their first encounter. He never identified himself as their agent; he just gave his name. I showed them the apartment, during which we started talking about how they lived in the neighborhood and would love to get an idea of what her place might be worth. She lives in a very coveted Greenwich Village building, so when they invited both me and the other agent over to assess her home, we of course went.

Fast forward to an hour later, the 4 of us together in her apartment talking about every topic under the sun, having a really great conversation. I was talking to the female client and the other agent was talking to the boyfriend, when things got a little murky:

• Female Client (FC) to me: "So, are you guys a team or something?" (referring to me and the other agent)
• Me: "Huh? No, I’m helping the lead agent while she’s out of town, who represents the seller. And he (pointing to the other agent) is your agent."
• FC: Clearly perplexed. "But wait, I have an agent. I work with {insert very well-known agent's name here} from {insert large brokerage name here}. So how the hell did I get connected to him (pointing to the other agent)??”
• Me: "Let me guess: you got this appointment through StreetEasy?"

When she confirmed that yes, she had in fact reached out to make an appointment via StreetEasy, I told her to pull out her computer and walked her through what had happened. I explained to her StreetEasy's tricky new feature that was confusing buyers into thinking they were contacting the listing agent directly, when in fact they were being put in touch with an agent who had paid for access to listings within that zip code. Well, the plan had worked: the client thought she was getting in touch with the listing agent directly. She only wanted to see the apartment and report back to her agent; she had no interest in contracting a new agent to represent her!

To make matters worse, she then went on to tell us how she’d tried to reach out the weekend before to get access to the open house, and she was routed to another agent at {insert big brokerage name here}. That agent had promised he would reach out to the listing agent to get her access, but he completely dropped the ball and never got back to the client. Now that she realized what had happened, she said "No wonder it was so hard to get into this listing. I tried and tried, and I just thought the listing agent wasn't being responsive."

So not only was the client completely confused and coupled with an agent when she already had one, but StreetEasy's deception also made the listing agent look really bad since the client thought the listing agent was the one who wasn’t being responsive to requests.

How Do You Avoid This Happening to You?
While I agree that every buyer should have an agent representing them, I do think that that person should be someone the buyer knows and trusts. I also strong disagree with StreetEasy's practice of routing inquiries to agents who have paid to play, as it only serves to line StreetEasy's pockets with money from agents participating while leaving the consumer completely confused.

If you already have your own agent: They should be making contact with the listing agent for you. Have them make the appointments and do the legwork.

If you don't have your own agent: Follow my step-by-step instructions on how to contact the listing agent directly, so you at least know you're dealing with someone who's knowledgable about the property. If you like the place, you can decide to work with them in a dual agency role (read more about the risks of dual agency here), or go out and find an agent you know and trust to represent you in the transaction.