Therefore I immediately went home to my family to tell them about how perfect this apartment was, how much I wanted to move there and so forth. I also started to calculate if we could afford this apartment. The broker made a great impression so we even contacted her and asked her to evaluate our apartment.
Two days
after, me and my husband decided to make an offer on the apartment before the
original display. The broker was very interested to hear our offer. It was well
above the accepted price for the apartment. Without asking the seller she
turned our offer down though explaining that they already had indications of an
even higher amount from some other speculators. AND that the seller wanted to
have a traditional bidding process. Why then did she even listen to my offer?? This is where my emotions changed from being
excited to me being upset with the broker’s ignorance and later her lack of competence.
Theory discloses
that our emotions will influence the purchase decision and our loyalty. It did.
My purchase decision took a U-turn. I went to the next display of the apartment, but this time I ended up finding fault in the apartment. My calculations ended up being less risk averse. I had a lot of contact with the broker and I experienced our contact as vague, not straight forward and her really pushy. I explained the situation to her, that we were not that interested any longer. I felt she pushed me to make another offer. I did not. I could have seen between fingers for all of those things if my emotions at that time was not affected. I ended up being critical towards the apartment and the broker. We canceled the meeting with the broker regarding our own apartment. And we ended up pulling us out of the bidding before someone even made a bid on the accepted price.
In the end
we made a more thoughtful decision, with less risk, and perhaps better for us.
Yet they lost a potential buyer.
Yet they lost a potential buyer.
Overall a
bidding is quite stressful for anyone participating in it. This area could
definitely benefit from a CX overview.
An expectation I have of the occupation group of brokers is that they are really skilled and trained to capture buying signals and balancing them through the process. It's a matter of keeping facts of the object and emotions of each party straight. This broker seams to have only a sales skill. Do you share that view and could that have been a reason for your emotional shift?
SvaraRaderaWell... my expectation is that the broker must be impartial. When not even passing on my offer to the seller before turning it down with the reason being that the seller wanted a regular bidding. Who´s party did she then take? When I asked her later about this she said she had passed the information to the seller but after our call. One of the two seller had wanted to accept my offer. What if both had? Would she then call me back and try to sell the aprtment to me anyway?? This is what annoyed me and changed my emotions about the whole situation.
SvaraRaderaI think the brooker seems somewhat unprofessional. She is engaged by the seller and loyal to him/her. And that is fine, but...you were close to be her customer and generating more money. Seems like she didn´t think a step further. I guess you won´t ever turn to her for her service, will you? /Elisa
SvaraRaderaHrmmm… Bad behaviour by the broker. Totally understand your feelings for the apartment making a U-turn…
SvaraRaderaAs far as I understand the broker shall represent both seller and buyer. But you shouldn´t forget that the brokers earn money on bidding. Maybe the broker wasn´t happy with the emolument your bid would lead to?.. But as you already has written, she shouldn´t have turned your bid down directly without asking the sellers – that looks really unprofessional if you ask me. They are actually obligated to pass that information to the sellers. The thing in this case is that you don´t know what the broker and seller had discussed in beforehand. Maybe they had agreed on that if “get an offer they can´t refuse” they could accept the bid and your bid wasn´t near that? But acting like that saying that the sellers would like to have the normal a bid after she had pushed you on a bid wasn´t a smart move from her, that just creates irritations from the potential buyers.
But I also know that brokers are living on their reputation, not only from percentage of bidding… And things like this are spreading like rings on the water… Bad move from her…
Hang in there – this wasn´t meant to be - you will soon find the apartment of your dreams! :)