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Icky business: Some things agents hate that other agents do
Parking in the bathroom — or the driveway — are two of the many no-nos at open houses.
While on a showing with her buyers, the property’s listing agent told Kate Ziegler that the windows were deleaded, but if you painted them, the lead would come back.
“I was like, that’s not how that works,” said Ziegler, a realtor with Arborview Realty in Boston. “I think if I’m being generous, what he meant was that if you repaint them, then they could require further testing, because there could still be lead in the wood.”
At that moment, Ziegler felt the realtor “ick.” Generally applied to dating, the “ick” is a slang term for a sudden, inexplicable feeling of disgust or repulsion. But the term is also in heavy rotation when it comes to real estate agents and brokers, who frequently cross each other’s paths and occasionally get in each other’s hair. In Ziegler’s case, this was an example of her biggest “ick”: Agents who pretend to know the answers when they clearly don’t.
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“If you are giving people the wrong information, it can set them up for bad experiences,” said Ziegler.
Social media is also ripe for potential icks for brokers, since nobody wants to project an unsuccessful image. However, some take it to an extreme.
“This is my number one ick,” said Sarah Maguire, principal of the Aranson Maguire Group at Compass in Greater Boston. “Agents who post Instagrams of themself driving their luxury cars with their luxury watches on the steering wheel. We get it — you make a lot of money.”
The open house is also a prime spot for bad behavior, as agents often descend upon prospective properties like moths to a flame. But chaos can ensue from far more than just a messy charcuterie board on a sparkling quartz countertop.
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“One of my peeves is when agents park in the driveway,” said Ryan DeLisle, a realtor with Coldwell Banker in Marblehead. “Toilet seats left up. Agents using the bathroom at your open house.”
Pre-COVID, you would have been hard-pressed to find agents using the bathroom at another agent’s open house — especially since the water wasn’t always turned on if the house was still vacant. But when finding an open Starbucks became a bit more difficult, agents — many of whom spend half their time on the road — got a little more desperate.
When the pandemic ended, the bathroom ick continued.
“I get it, it happens,” said Ziegler. “But to camp out in the bathroom is just weird. It puts everyone in a weird spot.”
Loose lips at open houses also sink deal-laden ships. DeLisle said one of his biggest icks is when agents talk badly about people’s homes while they’re still in the house.
“Get in the car and say whatever you want, but it’s someone’s home,” he noted, pointing out that while generally agents follow a code of ethics, that doesn’t always stop bad behavior. “I’ve seen agents ask other agents to leave because they’re talking and pointing out stuff when there are potential buyers there. They were saying things like, ‘These closets are tiny!’”
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Ultimately, realtors believe treating each other poorly is the ultimate ick, since bad behavior always comes back around.
“There are a lot of agents in New England and in Greater Boston, and the people who do the most work will cross paths again,” said Ziegler. “It will show up in unexpected and sometimes embarrassing ways if you’re handling things poorly.”
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