I had a conversation with a new seller of mine this weekend that wanted me to "pause the process" while they work through a buyer that showed up out of nowhere with their previous listing agent, after the listing expired.
This scenario is actually quite common when you work the expired business and while they rarely never pan out, how you handle it, could be the difference of a client for life or a client for one deal so here's how I handle these situations...
1) remind the customer that, while you have a signed agreement, you will always do what's best for them and their outcome.
2) ask questions about what they know about this buyer and if they honestly think it's legit.
3) tell the seller that you will call the previous listing agent and handle internally so they don't have to worry about who gets what or who is handling what or who gets paid what (this is their biggest concern by the way - they want to sell their home but they don't want to pay more to do so).
4) offer the previous listing agent not only a buy side commission but also a referral fee from your side if it comes together because what's not in the best interest of the seller is to delay the process to "see what this buyer wants to do".
5) if the agent is not happy with the solution because they have emotions wrapped up in their response due to just losing the listing, go back to the seller and make sure they know that you offered to work together with their previous agent and they refused and let the seller know you'd be willing to bow out if that's what they'd prefer and before you do that make sure you advise them that waiting and wasting more market time on one "potential" buyer is probably not best for them but you'll honor whatever they want.
6) in most cases, because you handled it professionally (and like in my case this weekend) the seller will call you back and say okay let's move forward and if that buyer comes back we'll deal with it then - to which I said, yes, I will never stand in the way of you getting what you want and will always do the right thing so you're not compensating two agents for the same work on the list side.
Stay tuned on whether that buyer/previous list agent comes back and in the meantime, let's go get another listing today.
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