How to Avoid Destroying Your Good Reputation - Ep 23

How to avoid destroying your good reputation and keep your clients as raving fans!

It's amazing to see how fast a good reputation can be destroyed. Watching the speed at which Roseanne got fired, and had her career ended, for a ridiculous tweet (although she didn't exactly have a “good reputation” to start with), it puts into perspective how careful we need to be. Remember everything you put online, people can read… forever! One negative comment can get out of control quickly with comments and engagement the post gets, telling the algorithms to show it to even more people. Guys, remember you are a professional. Be conscious and think twice about everything you post.

I remember a Realtor in a Facebook group who made fun of something inappropriate and posted it. When I read it, I could not help but cringe and wonder why he would post such a thing. His brokerage eventually caught wind of it, and kicked him to the curb. Done. Fired. Not to mention his ruined reputation with the rest of Facebook and his local community. This guy was screwed and his career was pretty much done.

I am dealing with a situation right now with a lender that has negatively affected MY reputation, where they screwed things up so bad, causing a nightmare for my buyer. I had to make a hard decision and decided to cut ties with my friend, and his mortgage company because of the debacle. I had used this lender and friend in several past transactions, so I assumed my past positive experience would be the same with this transaction. Boy was I wrong. In this particular transaction, the lender has been a complete nightmare on so many levels. There were twelve frickin' rounds of conditions on this file! Yes you heard me right, twelve! It's not a complicated borrower either. The lender's lack of communication has been awful, both with me and the buyer. It's now reflecting negatively on my business as my client has explained to me how stressful the process has been, and how he can't wait to post poor reviews about this lender, who I referred them to!

I want to to share a tip with you to assure this hopefully does not happen to you: Recommend more than one lender, inspector, title company, etc, so the decision of who to use is on them! Also, another cool thing about working with more than one, is you can reach out to a different lender for advice if something seems off or not right about the lender you are using during a transaction. Make sure anyone you are recommending to clients does business the same way you do, and treats your clients the way you expect them to be treated.

Think of it this way… Realtors are the general contractor of the real estate transaction. When we, as Realtors, recommend lenders, title peeps, home warranty companies, inspectors, etc, those experiences reflect back on us too, for better or worse. If you refer a client that has a terrible experience, that's going to reflect negatively on you. Even if you have done the most amazing job ever. If your recommended vendor screws up in the end and it damn near derails the transaction, they are going to remember the negative stuff and will be left with a bad taste in their mouth. I want you to make a promise to yourself right now. Say it out loud, “I will not refer bad vendors to my clients.” Make that commitment to yourself now. Put your clients first because that also puts your business first.

Don't forget to check out our Massive Agent Resources page to get discounts on some select real estate vendors that I use and recommend. CLICK HERE. I compiled this list of great companies with even better reputations. I personally use these real estate vendors, and recommend them for your business too. Easy Agent Pro, Buzzsprout, LionDesk, Agentology, just to name a few. Also while you are there, check out my Amazon Store for all my favorite products.

And since so many have asked…

Why I decided to switch to EXP Realty

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