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Everyone has that one client you wish would get the hell out of your office and stop wasting your time. We’re here to help with this step-by-step guide on how to fire a difficult client, plus provide an additional letter for when it’s too late!
The “letter to discontinue service to client” is a letter that can be used when you want to fire your current client. It includes information about the reasons for termination, and also includes a free breakup letter for agents.
Regrettably, not all real estate buyers and sellers are made equal. Our customers are accountable for being appropriate, honest, and appreciative of the value we bring to the table, just as we are responsible for giving the finest service to each of our real estate clients. While the majority of your customers are fantastic, you will sometimes have clients that are less than ideal, and you may terminate them if necessary.
The following is a step-by-step instruction on how to dismiss a real estate client:
- How do you know which forms of client conduct are considered fireable offenses?
- If you have to terminate one of your real estate clients, here’s how to protect yourself and your reputation.
- When you need to break up with a customer, you may use this free sample letter.
1. Identify Fireable Client Offenses & Protect Yourself Against Them
As a real estate agent, you intuitively want to seize every chance to assist a client and close a deal. However, many of us make the costly error of tolerating and continuing to deal with customers who are unsuitable, take advantage of us, or treat us badly, which is one of the leading causes of real estate agent failure. In this scenario, firing that customer and moving on to others who would benefit from our expertise is the greatest alternative.
Do you need assistance recognizing the signs? Before you have to terminate a client, go through the list of fireable client transgressions and the measures to protect yourself.
The first offense is unrealistic expectations.
Clients with unreasonable expectations come in all kinds and sizes, and they might be renters, buyers, or sellers. Buyers are often on the lookout for a unicorn property, which, like a unicorn, is flawlessly gorgeous and magnificent but does not exist in real life. Sometimes it’s sellers who wish to advertise their home at an unreasonable price for the present market.
These customers are generally easy to recognize during your initial chat since they are either unfamiliar with the market, seeking for a deal, or part of the 31% of homebuyers who refuse to compromise on features they consider essential in a property.
How to Protect Yourself: We don’t want to immediately terminate these real estate customers. It is our responsibility as real estate experts to be knowledgeable with the market, not theirs. Listening to your customer’s requirements and wishes is your first line of defense against an unrealistic client, and then educating them on whether those goods are practical inside the market they’re looking to sell, purchase, or rent in.
Make a list of must-haves, desires, and would-be-nice features for purchasers or renters to understand what they are prepared to compromise on. Present a comparative market study to sellers so they may objectively assess price and demand in their market. These factors help you determine if a customer is ready to embrace your professional advice and appreciate your viewpoint, or whether you should fire them in the long run. If your customers are still unwilling to establish reasonable expectations, timeframes, or set deadlines for locating or selling their property after meeting with them, you may need to split up.
Dishonesty is the second offense.
Red Flags: Is it dishonest if a customer claims they want a three-bedroom colonial house on the north side of town but ends up falling in love with a two-bedroom ranch with a pool on the south side? Certainly not. Clients do not always know what they want until they see it. When we talk about dishonesty, we’re talking about lies and omissions concerning their finances, features of the house they’re selling, or their connection with you as their agent.
For example, a seller may be aware of a problem with a property but chooses not to tell you about it and hides it every time there is an open house or showing. It might also be a customer that claims to be working with you solely, only to discover that they are dealing with other agencies. These might easily be deal-breakers for you, leading to the termination of a real estate client.
How to Protect Yourself: One of the most challenging aspects of dishonesty is that it is usually discovered after the fact. You may prevent this by being frank and honest with your customer from the start, and stating that you would prefer the same honesty from them.
Our fiduciary obligations to our real estate customers are defined by the acronym OLD CAR, which stands for obedience, loyalty, disclosure, confidentiality, accounting, and reasonable care. Make sure your customers feel you’re on their side and looking out for their best interests throughout the deal. Breaking up with your customer may be the best choice if you’ve been honest and they continue to be untrustworthy.
Inappropriate Behavior is the third offense.
Warning Signs: As real estate agents, we are obligated by the Fair Housing Laws, which make it unlawful to discriminate against any protected class, including race, religion, sex, color, and many more. It is crucial and important to preserve such values with our customers, not just to be decent people, but also to follow the law.
Clients may get enraged and upset throughout the process of buying or selling a house, but they should never threaten you, other agents, or anyone involved in the transaction with verbal threats, harassment, or improper language and humor. This is a serious infraction for which you may be fired.
How to Protect Yourself: This one is difficult to prevent since you can’t control your client’s comments or behavior at the time they happen, but you can speak out afterward and explain why it shouldn’t happen again. If you see a pattern of conduct, you should consider ending the relationship. If you ever encounter bigotry, violence, or unwanted advances, you should leave the scene immediately and alert the proper authorities.
Offense #4: Wasting Time
Red Flags: This is the most frequent reason real estate brokers terminate clients, and there are a few telltale signals that you’re dealing with a time-waster. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates that it takes an average buyer eight weeks to locate a home, during which time they look at nine homes.
It’s a red sign if a customer takes you on a wild goose chase, showing you properties in every area of the county, city, and state. It’s OK if customers don’t know precisely what they want, but those who are serious about seeking a house should be able to focus their search fast to prevent wasting your and their time. Time wasters may also be over-communicative, calling you at all hours of the day and night, which may be annoying and interfere with your personal life and well-being.
Unresponsive customers, on the other hand, may make your job as an agent quite tough. Without open and continuous communication with your customer, you won’t be able to accomplish your work well. Working with numerous agents at the same time is one reason why some customers are not communicative. Another reason this is a fireable offense is because it has the potential to derail the transaction for you, the other agent(s), and the client.
Using client relationship management solutions is an effective approach to remain in touch with a client (CRM). To keep all of your customer information in one place, Top Producer CRM interacts with over 100 different suppliers, including Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. They also offer marketing and insight into your customers’ interests via email and social media technologies.
Visit Top Producer CRM for more information.
How to Protect Yourself: It’s critical to establish your limits and be aware of your client’s schedule from the start. Understanding these two points can help you avoid terminating your client and avoiding agent fatigue, which is a major reason why many real estate salespeople fail. Furthermore, understanding a client’s timeframe will allow you to assess how serious they are about moving through with the purchasing, selling, or renting transaction.
Set your limits by letting your customers know when you’ll be accessible. Provide particular hours and a time range, such as 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., along with a guarantee to respond to their message within three hours. Also, make them know that you expect the same level of attentiveness from them.
Offense #5: Client Who Isn’t Qualified
Red Flags: Whether a customer is paying for a property wholly in cash or using a loan, proof of money is required to complete the transaction. Unfortunately, some customers make the mistake of assuming they are financially prepared to buy before consulting with their lender. Furthermore, some customers may not check with their lender at all, preferring instead to take you about to look at houses for fun without first obtaining pre-approval.
How to Protect Yourself: Real estate brokers often make the error of being excessively enthusiastic about a customer and failing to check with them about their financial situation. Before bringing customers to visit houses, you should have an open dialogue about their financial condition at the start of your partnership and demand consumers to present a pre-approval letter.
Some customers may find this intrusive, but you must explain that you can’t help them to the best of your abilities until you know how much money they have to spend on a property. This knowledge may assist you avoid having to terminate your customer.
2. Speak to Your Broker of Record & Review Your Client Contract
Before you fire your customer, talk to your broker of record about the issues you’re having with them. Your broker is likely to have dealt with similar customer horror tales, so getting their viewpoint and advise on the problem can be valuable. Make a list of everything that happened to you and go through it with your broker so you can talk about your best alternatives.
The contract you and your customer signed is an essential thing to go through with your broker. You may have signed an agreement or an exclusivity contract with your customer, whether you’re dealing with a buyer, seller, or renter. Before proceeding, thoroughly review all papers to determine your duties and legal requirements.
You may usually free yourself from responsibilities and break up with your client if both the agent and the client voluntarily agree to end the contract. There are various reasons to terminate a seller listing agreement, according to US Legal Forms, including property damage, insolvency, and time frame expiry.
In any case, both parties must sign a termination agreement before the “breakup” may be finalized. Before communicating with your client, double-check that you’ve completed all of the necessary paperwork for seller/listing termination and buyer/tenant termination.
3. Speak to Your Client & Try to Work It Out
If you and your broker agree that the relationship can be saved, the next step is to chat with your customer to see what you can do to help them before terminating them.
Pro tip: If you believe your client’s conduct puts your safety in jeopardy, you should fire him or her right away.
To attempt to work out a solution, write down and offer thorough reasons and instances of the actions that generated a strain in your relationship. Naturally, you’ll want to deliver these arguments politely and remind your client that you’re all working toward the same goal: selling, buying, or renting their house.
The objective is that after this talk, you and your customer will be able to continue the transaction in a friendly manner. Unfortunately, unless you’ve known or worked with your customer for a long time, predicting how they’ll respond is tough. To prevent any unneeded conflict, have this chat in a public environment or over the phone or video conference.
4. Compose a Letter of Termination for a Client
If your efforts to date haven’t resulted in a change in conduct, it’s time to terminate your real estate client. You should take the time to write a proper breakup letter that explains why you are ending your relationship.
Here’s an example and free printable breakup letter template for terminating a customer, complete with what to include and how to write it:
Breakup Letter Template for Clients for Free
It’s crucial to have a formal letter to record your issues in writing, even if you’ll be having this chat in person or over the phone. Give your customer a copy of the signed letter at the conclusion of an in-person meeting. Send a copy of your signed letter by mail or email after a phone or video conversation.
Client Breakup Letter Template (Free Download)
5. Arrange a meeting with your client to fire them.
This is perhaps the most painful aspect of the process, similar to a breakup in a love relationship, since the dialogue is awkward, but it must be done before everyone can go on. Your meeting should ideally take place in person, but depending on the circumstances that led to the split or your inclination to connect online, you may opt to meet via phone or video chat.
Pro tip: If you believe your safety is in threat, conduct this chat over the phone or ask a coworker to accompany you to a public meeting with your customer.
Keep your calm and retain professionalism, even if you are disappointed, furious, or outraged. Do not dispute or raise your voice; instead, be strong in stating your concerns and your desire to stop the connection. Use your letter as a script, avoid expressing emotion in your explanation, and stick to the facts. Hopefully, your customer will understand and you will be able to part ways on friendly terms.
If you and your customer can’t agree on anything, talk to your broker about next actions and if you need to hire a lawyer. For procedure, your broker will check their mistakes and omissions insurance.
If you do need to see a lawyer, you may do so via your brokerage’s approved attorney or through RocketLawyer’s skilled real estate lawyers. They can give legal papers and guidance to resolve your case for a reasonable one-time or monthly charge. Furthermore, to get started, you may book a free 30-minute consultation.
Go to RocketLawyer.com.
6. Carry On
You may exhale a sigh of relief and go on after you’ve parted ways. Although it may seem that you missed an opportunity and lost money by terminating that customer, you really saved time and money. To be a good real estate agent, you must have faith in your abilities and avoid customers who interfere with your personal and professional lives. Although the majority of customers will be lovely to deal with, there will always be a few nasty apples. What makes the work worthwhile is remembering the lovely customers.
Check out Top 25 New Real Estate Agent Recommendations From the Pros for additional real estate agent tips to keep your company growing.
The “my realtor dropped me” is a problem that many people face. A free breakup letter for agents can be found here.
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