Buyers! Find Out If You Have Any Relatives That Are Realtors FIRST!

I'm posting this as public because I want it to be on my public post so buyers know what not to do.

Here's the story: I rec'd an email about a week about from Steve saying he wants to buy a townhome in Plainfield. I emailed him back and he forwarded his preapproval letter so I set him up on a search and we went back and forth on townhomes and Plainfield. I forwarded 2 school websites so they could make an informed decision for their 10 year old son on his schooling.

We were set to go out today at 11am to view 4 townhomes in Plainfield. We got along great and there was humor and I thought this was going to be a fantastic buyer.

On Friday I told Steve that I would be asking him to sign an agreement that he was using me for these 4 townhomes. He asked to see it so I emailed it to him. It's the standard agreement our office uses and our board as well. I told him in the email that I needed to protect myself because I have been burned in the past by showing homes to buyers only to find out that they already had a realtor but that realtor was on vacation or busy that day. So this was my guarantee that if he purchased one of the 4 townhomes, I would be his agent.

HOW FUNNY THAT I THEN GOT THIS EMAIL:

We will not be able to use you because as it turns out one of Sherrys relatives is also a Realtor. She wants to use him. I am not real thrilled with this as I don't believe family and business should be mixed together. I appreciate all your help and am sorry it turned out this way.

Of course I don't believe it for a minute and told him so in response. There is NO WAY out of the blue you learn that a relative is a Realtor. He was scamming me. His "realtor" was not a local realtor so I'm guessing I was being used to do the grunt work and if they chose one of those 4 townhomes, they were going to their realtor to write it up.

But the minute I let him know he would be signing an agreement before I put my SUV in "D", he backed out.

Buyers - don't waste our time. We get babysitters, we leave our families for the day. You wouldn't want to be used in your job so please don't use me.

An agreement is required for me to take my buyers out. Period.