But my relative wants to be my Realtor so they can make the money.

That statement should send up red flags for at least a few of you.

“Before taking a client that you are not fully qualified to handle, ask yourself if the few thousand you will make is worth taking a chance of costing the client 10’s of thousands of dollars.”

I have a family member that needs to sell a house belonging to an estate. There are two people involved in the estate: one with a majority interest and the other with a minority interest.

I am a Realtor but not in the state where the house is located.

Yesterday, I was told by the first person that the second person's spouse was a Realtor and that an uncle had a person living in his basement that he needed to get out. Lucky enough, the uncle is also a Realtor. The guy living in the uncle's basement wanted to lease-option the home for a few months until he could purchase it. The uncle was excited to have a way to help the person move out of his basement. He made it known that he would be expecting a 3% agency fee for representing the guy and "bringing the buyer".

The statement "genetics makes a good realtor" causes me to start becoming concerned. Your relative may be an awesome Realtor but not just because they are a relative.

You might also guess but a lease-option is something that I don't think is always the best option.

Over the course of two days, I provided some insight and the conversation changed to a Purchase and Sale agreement with a 90 day closing period and early occupancy. Still makes the hair on the back of my neck crawl but some progress.

So I ask the first person if it would be okay if I arrange for them to meet with a Realtor from my franchise who works in the area, no relation and no referral fee just to get a second opinion. She agrees. So I call the market center assistant at the local office and ask for their best listing agent. The meeting is setup for this afternoon.

Now understand, at this point no one has hired this other realtor. It is just a meeting to talk about price and services, maybe look at a CMA to see if the suggested price makes sense.

If the other agent thinks it is a good deal they will offer to handle contract-to-closing for 1%. If the deal doesn't work out and the property has to be put on the market their fee would be a standard 3%. But again, this meeting is just finding out about options, no contracts have been signed or even promised to be signed.

Now here is where it gets interesting. The second person who is the spouse of a Realtor is suddenly infuriated that her spouse was not getting to sell the property and get the commission.

Then the uncle calls the first person and to verbally harasses the her for agreeing to meet with an agent. Yes, this is the uncle who has declared he will be representing the potential buyer calling one of the sellers to harass them about wanting to talk with an agent about being represented themselves.

So far as I can tell, neither of these family Realtors have completed a significant number of transactions for clients other than themselves in the past year or so.

It amazes me to think that there was even consideration about letting these two Realtors put together this deal without some third-party sanity check. Maybe the deal is great but if it is so great why all the angst when a suggestion to bring in a neutral third-party for their opinion?

My #1 priority as a Realtor is to make sure I can properly represent any client I choose to serve.

I usually handle listings but we have buyer agents on our team and they feel exactly the same way.

Please, if you are a Realtor, and have family or friends who need to buy or sell property, before agreeing to represent them please put their interests before yours and ask yourself if you are in a good position to represent this person. Do you have the currently needed skills, resources and do you know their local market.

Especially in this market! An agent without the proper skills to do a good job can cost their client a significant amount more than the agreed upon commission.

So, before taking a client that you are not fully qualified to handle, ask yourself if the few thousand you will make is worth taking a chance of costing the client 10’s of thousands of dollars, whether they are family or not.