Ethical Business Practices

Happy Friday Red Rock Agents,

So, it is most definitely Summer, just grab hold of the steering wheel of your car real tight when you get in. I think you’ll understand what I mean.

I’m going to dive right in with issues this week. I want to remind all agents that honest and ethical business practices are expected from Red Rock agents. It was brought to my attention with no names being disclosed to me that one of our agents poached another one of our agents’ clients. It was the old deal “Ditch your agent and I’ll save you their commission on the purchase price”. I need everyone to understand that Allen and I have gone to battle for our agents when this happens by agents from other companies. If I knew the agent that did this, we would have a better understanding of how business is conducted. It’s always disappointing when we find other agents poaching other agents’ clients, more so when it happens within our office. It’s interesting that when it happens to you we’re asked to do something but if you do it to someone else it’s somehow OK. Like Allen and I won’t find out. Trust me we will. We might not say anything right now, but we know. Please, I would like to think that in this market there are plenty of clients to go around, we’re just short on inventory, and that’s no excuse for that kind of conduct. Red Rock agents are better than that, or they are not Red Rock agents.

On new construction most of the time a large amount of money is tendered for a “Construction Deposit” that is non-refundable. Then a lesser amount for earnest money, that under contract guidelines could be refundable. So, if you represent a builder make sure you fill in the money correctly on the contract it makes a huge difference. If you have questions, please ask.

We had an offer from one of our agents with an escalation clause attached. Of course, the seller had more than one offer, and in between all the offers the sellers accepted the original offer our agent sent, and the addendum for the escalation clause. One of the other offers had an escalation clause as well that ran the price up by $20k. My question to all of you is what did the seller accept for the purchase price? Is it the original purchase price offer or an unstated purchase price based on the escalation clause? Keep in mind that the offer was accepted without a counteroffer. Seller's agent felt that the price was $1000 over the next highest price because of the clause, is he right? It’s a little gray and it’s all in how it was stated in the offer and addendum. So, here is the deal: if you get one of these offers with the awesome escalation clause attached and it applies to another offer higher, please counteroffer with the price as it states by the escalation clause. “Purchase price shall be $XXX based on addendum X the escalation clause”. Please ask if you have any questions.

Last item. I will be out of the office next week pursuing a bucket list item provided by some very generous people. I will have my phone so call, if I can answer between reeling in big fish, I will. I will be back in the office Tuesday the 22nd.

Please have a great weekend and be safe out there,