Yeah...I know.
Believe me...my jaw hit my desk too when I read that statement during a debate on whether or not I had a responsibility to notify a broker as to the unprofessional actions of one of his agents.
A little background for you...
My company uses email campaigns to fish for agents as any marketing company does. One female real estate agent in Mississippi called my phone off of the emails and proceeded to cuss me like a drunken longshoreman. (This is a "professional" real estate agent, mind you...)
Roughly five "f" bombs and a whole host of other flavorful inuendos and suggestions of where I can put my client's information later, I decided I would call her back. Irritated to no end, I dialed her phone and was directed to her voicemail. (Figures...)
So, at that moment, I politely told her I recieved her voicemail and that as a professional courtesy to the company she works for, the broker that she is under, and the brand she represents, I would be more than happy to make a courtesy call to her broker and let him know how she was representing the company. I also gave her my phone number in case she wanted to call back to attempt to rectify this situation.
After waiting an hour for a callback, it took about 17 seconds to google her cell phone number to find her information on the company website and a direct phone number to her broker. I called him up, explained the situation, and he was FURIOUS that any of his agents would act in such a way. He told me it "would be handled" and he apologized to me yet again as we got off the phone.
To this day, I have no idea what happened, if anything. But, as an advocate for continued education, increased professionalism, and elevating the standards of the real estate industry, I believe it was my right...perhaps even my duty...to let the broker know.
So...My question for you is this: If you know of an agent that is acting in a manner that is ridiculously unprofessional, do you have a responsibility to notify the broker of their behavior? If this was one of YOUR agents, would you want to know that this is how your company was being represented?
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You did have a responsibility to the brokerage. I am sure that the situation was rectified. Good call!
Don -- I'm certain it was. :-)
Yikes...i always remind agents taht we are not only representing ourselves, our company but our industry as a whole! We need to keep that in mind when we want to 'Verbally vomit" on some one!
Deborah -- "Yikes" is right. I was floored.
Im finding it rather amazing how few people are willing to answer the question at the bottom of the post...
If this agent was working for you, would YOU want to know they are acting this way?
Small minded people live in closed loop worlds and they respond out of their own fear, prejudice, self-loathing, or ignorance. I would venture to say, having been responsible for brand management and marketing for a couple of quite successful mortgage companies and a small, successful real estate company, there are few people who have been solicited for leads more. In fact during "the boom" I often received multiple emails, faxes, snail mails, and phone calls from lead generation companies in a single day. Sometimes the calls were a minor interruption to hectic days but I never knew when the person on the other end of the line may one day either need my services or become a friend. YES - if representative of my company or organization responded that way I would definitely want to know about how my brand was being represented in the community at large. Well done, sir! (Ref: Courage under fire and grace under pressure.)
Ken -- Thank you, sir! I was hoping someone with your perspective on the situation would weigh in on this.
I approach every call the same way. I have made more friends in the RE.net world than I have ever made "sales" and I'm happy to say that. But, that never would have happened if I treated people this way. And, I think it is the responsibility of everyone in the industry to help police it.
Desperate times call for desperate people. . frustrations are at all time high. . apparently she is living at the edge..
Courtesy is easy when everything is going well. .
The answer to your question is YES. . as a Manager, I want to know about how is my company being represented.
Fernando -- Regardless of the level of desperation involved, the abandonment of common courtesy and the degradation of the professional standards that should be maintained are simply abhorant to me. And, for the record, I would hope someone to have done the same for me.
Clint,
Did the agent in question give any indication as to her motivation to call you and give you such a verbal bashing? I mean, did she feel like you were spamming her?
If I took 5 minutes to reprimand every company who I felt had sent me unsolicited mail, I'd have a separate full time job and still never get through it all. I think Fernando mayhave hit on it. Times are hard and she just snapped, and you happened to be the convenient target of her barrage. An agent with multiple transactions in the hopper likely wouldn't have taken the time.
Rich Bailey
Rich...
In all honesty, I have no idea as to her motivation. Nor do I care. Yes, times are hard. But, that is precisely the reason you should ELEVATE your game, not drive another nail into the coffin of your career. :-)
Clint,
Kudos to you for helping 'self-police' our industry!
What makes this situation "interesting," in my opinion, is that you are a third party servicer to the real estate industry. Were you an agent, then, yes, I believe you have a responsibility, via the Code of Ethics, to take this to the broker's attention. Since you are a service to the real estate industry, I don't see that there is an obligation or responsibility to to 'kick it up the chain,' so to speak.
However, you still did the right thing!
Your actions show that you care about the real estate industry, and more pointedly, the real estate consumer. If you, as a service provider are shown such disrespect, then what kind of experience is the real estate consumer experiencing?
Todd -- Thanks. I appreciate that.
I think that regardless of me being a 3rd party servicer or not, I have an obligation for the sake of the clients I work with and the agents I work with also to make sure that there is an established threshhold of behavior that will not be tolerated. Regardless of the position, I think should be maintained by anyone anywhere.
Clint,
There is no excuse for such behavior! Yes, there are situations that stress us out, cause us to loose our "cool", but we need to stay under control. It's part of the job!
Marzena -- Amen! And, thank you.
Chris,
You and I already had this battle. You feel your way. I feel mine. And, I think you have made it perfectly clear where you stand....as have I...
And, for the record...I had people DMing me about you as well. And, now I know why.
Have a great day, Chris.
One of them alerted me to this here post, Clint. Be accountable for your actions. People will call me names, I'm fine with that. But I always look first at my own actions before whining at someone. What did I do to make them feel that way...
Best to you, Clint.
Chris -- So, youre telling me someone tattled on me? ;-) The nerve of some people. :-)
It seems to me the point of the blog is not the action Clint took when the agent went off; it's the action the agent took in response to Clint's email. I don't know how Clint gets the contact information he uses to sell to the real estate community, but we can all agree agents imbed their contact info well within the public domain, and vendors will use that as a marketing avenue. I think that simply comes with the territory; if Clint's tactics are seen as spamming, well, that is subjective and having never been solicited by Clint, I am hereby unqualified to comment. I see little difference between Clint's email campaign and an agent sending me a piece of snailmail because she sold a house on my block. I have a recycling bin and I use it if I'm not interested.
So my takeaway from Clint's post was always that an agent responded to the email with an unprofessional tirade. Clint has always from the start put the event in the context of the "Raising the Bar" discussion that has permeated RE conferences, bar camps and other events for the past several months. More specifically, a major component of this dialog has been the obligation of brokers to protect the integrity of their brand within an industry that is already battling a poor public perception. Brokers are responsible for their brand, and their agents are representatives of that brand. Thus if an agent is poorly representing a broker's brand, that broker will likely want to know about it.
So Clint's caveat about his phone call with this agent's broker is merely to point out he probably understands the significance of his own brand, and the importance of holding his agents accountable for the brand's integrity. Or in the higher context of "RTB", that brokers who are truly concerned will appreciate hearing feedback, irrespective of the source. The fact Clint is a vendor targeting agents via email campaigns adds context to the discussion, but ultimately this isn't about Clint.
Rich -- Can I buy you a beer? Honestly, I have no follow-up comment on yours...you nailed it.
Clint, i have one standard. When someone badmouths another person behind their back, they reveal that they are scum and I generally don't seek to do business with them. Any time someone says something privately not to be repeated they are double minded fools. It does not surprise me that people DM'd you to take shots at me.
Those that contacted me to speak to you diminished themselves drastically in my eyes, particularly the two that talked to you during the conversation and seemed to have supported you.
Clint - You and I have had some great conversations in the past about phone calls from vendors. For the record (for those that read this comment outside of Clint), I've never had a bad phone call or email from you (or anyone at RECR) that annoyed me or set me off. I have however had some pretty bad experiences with other vendors. Most agents have a story or two. While this doesn't justify any "bad behavior" on the part of the agent, it certainly does put us on edge when we see the 800-number or have the guy who introduces himself with "You probably know me, I'm Bob Smith, the guy who puts your name on pens" (Bob Smith is just a random name). Unfortunately, (hmmm, does this sound familiar), there are those in the vendor industry who have given real estate agents a very bitter taste in their mouth.
Would I have called the broker? Based on what you say, probably. As an agent I would. As a vendor more than likely. If I thought someone overstepped the boundaries of either the Code of Ethics, went way beyond professional practice (obviously a grey area as many people define "professional" differently), or was severely exposing a client to damages in a transaction I was involved in (something illegal such as fraud) - then yes. If I were a broker I would love to hear from others if an agent who represented my brokerage was behaving poorly.
I'm not really sure what the multiple 'f' bombs were about but I'm tired of having to police others in my business. I used to feel that it was my duty and I've given up being the planet police patrol.
I just reported an agent 2 days ago to the managing broker & she could care less. Turns out the listing agent on one of my deals is a cop (which makes him part time BTW to me). He emails me to say he is having the buyer arrested for stealing (grand theft I suppose) the lockbox he left on the buyers closed house 5 days after the closing. Mr. Policeman said the buyer had the "sacred duty" to guard his property & he is swearing out a warrant. Long story short the broker said 'ahh, who cares' even though I pointed out to her why didn't he get over & take the lockbox off on a closed property per the board rules? We have plenty of squirrels in Illinois!