This article will be appearing in this month's newsletter, going out tomorrow ...
First, a significant disclaimer: I am not a fan of reality television in any way, shape or form. If I want a dose of reality-type programming, I’ll tune to the original version and watch a ball game.
With that out of the way, I finally stumbled across Million Dollar Listing on Bravo late last night. Most of the time I can accept these type of shows for the train wreck they are meant to be, but this one struck a nerve — mainly because of my intimate connection to the subject at hand: helping clients sell their homes and move on in their lives.
Taking into account the editing for dramatic effect that almost certainly took place, I still was stunned to see a real-estate professional voluntarily say and do much of what was broadcast.
First, there was the condo queen showing two of her beachfront listings to prospective buyers.
In a nutshell, the buyers decide to make an offer below the full list price of the home and the seller decides he’ll wait for his price. The show ends without any resolution of the possible sale.
Several problems are apparent, at least to another real-estate professional.
To start, we only can assume she is representing these buyers which means she would be a dual agent in this sale — in other words she’s representing both seller and buyer. In such a case, the agent can’t recommend an offering price to the buyers or offer advice to the seller on whether to accept—both sides are to be represented equally. Yet there is the agent, working to get her seller to lower his asking price—which, incidentally, was the price she had recommended to him at the start of the show!
Also, when her buyers ask for a mold inspection, she tells the camera it’s her job to convince her buyer there’s no mold in the house.
Um, no. It’s your job to have the inspection done and discuss the results with your clients, not to decide up front that what they feel is a material fact really isn’t.
And finally, we see the buyers asking the agent before the agent’s wedding (an all too true scenario) what the result was on their offer. Why the agent had not called after meeting with the seller, I still don’t know. Maybe it didn’t make for dramatic enough television.
On the other transaction, we see a husband and wife team working with a highly emotional seller on the sale of her home in the Hollywood Hills.
In this instance, it’s not the agents’ actions that are overly worrisome but the general attitude that pervades their soliloquies — almost every statement refers back to closing the deal for the sake of the commission check.
And in general, getting the listing has nothing to do with helping a seller — it sounds like it’s little more than a notch in the agents’ belts.
Again, Bravo does the agents a bit of a disservice through some creative editing, such as the juxtaposition of the agents’ celebrating a successful listing transaction with the seller emotionally discussing how little she wants to move. But they also hang themselves with their own statements.
My wife argued any publicity is good publicity but I’m not seeing it. And on a more global level, every day real-estate professionals are battling the stereotype that we are nothing more than used-car salesman looking for our next check.
If I wanted to feel that kind of vibe, I only need pick up the newspaper and watch them bash my profession while subtly positing themselves in the real-estate business. I certainly don’t need to turn on my television and see the worst of the stereotypes brought to life by agents more concerned with their own publicity than the best interests of the clients they are supposed to be representing.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes | 
