Dave Dobbyn is Not Your Buyer

"people amaze me with the lack of loyalty"

A Tweet from a frustrated real estate agent. I've heard it a thousand times. Frustration with a buyer who has gone and bought from someone else after the agent has invested time and energy showing them property.

Agents want loyalty but operate within a set of industry processes that force buyers to be anything but. Think about it:

• A agent can only show properties that are listed with their agency
• They cannot show property exclusively listed with other agencies
• The exception, if allowed, is through an interagency conjunctional sales arrangement
• An agent earns most selling their own personal listings
• The agency earns most selling it's own listings
• Conjunctional arrangements discourage cooperation by being normally weighted in favour of the listing agency

To survey the market and access relevant property the buyer must work with multiple real estate agencies. The reality is buyers go to property websites (www.realestate.co.nz and Trade Me) to survey the market and only call an agent with specific requests. Don't blame the agent though. Industry structure either does not allow the agent to, or actively discourages them from, satisfying buyer needs.

Why do we even expect the buyer to be loyal?

Dave Dobbyn might be "Loyal", a real estate buyer can't be.