If you were an onsite sales consultant and the following happened to you, how would you handle it?

The following recently happened to me. I had read about it, but had never experienced it first hand.

I walked into the sales office, where I am the sales manager of a large Orlando rental conversion called, "The Crest." All agents were out with prospects and the receptionist advised me that there was one party who had registered for a model tour. A Realtor had come in behind them and, although uninvited, decided to sit at the same table with the registered prospects and yours truly.

Some of you are starting to see what is about to happen already, but wait. It gets a lot worse.

The Realtor asked if she might join us on the model tour, which I agreed to but shouldn't have. During the qualifying process she dominated the entire conversation, and kept pushing to leave the sales office to see the models, because she was in a hurry.

Frankly, I wanted to help both the prospects and the broker, because we are a cobroker friendly community.

We were about to leave the sales office when one of the onsite agents came in and was available for a tour. I turned the three of them over to the consultant, but soon realized my mistake. I should have turned the prospects over to the sales consultant and toured the broker myself.

Realizing this mistake, I jumped on a golf cart and met the four of them in a model. I motioned for the broker to join me, which she did. Because she was in a hurry, I took her back to her car, gave her some materials, and said good bye.

Watch this:

The sales consultant soon returned with the prospects and advised me that the Realtor drove to the parking area in front of the models, waited for the three of them to come out, then rushed up to the prospects and told them that if they didn't find what they wanted at our community she would be glad to help them, as she handed them her business card.

The prospects were dumbfounded and expressed their unfavorable opinion of this Realtor's tactics.

The sale consultant was taken by surprise, and so was I.

Here is a fellow professional, prospecting for buyers on the private property of another party. I was dumbfounded.

What would you do in this situation?

1. Report the Realtor to the ethics committee

2. Notify her that she is never welcomed back to your property.

3. Thank her for coming and offer to help her sell one of your new homes

Here's what I did. It was not what I wanted to do, believe me. I wanted to report this Realtor to the ethics committee, because this behavior hurts us all. But I didn't do it.

I wanted to tell her to never come back, but I didn't do it. My responsibility is to sell the developer's units, not prove a point for the sake of proving one.

So, I let it go. Did I do the right thing?

Just so you know, there is a way to become a very profitable and effective new homes broker, with the number of new homes being sold. There is money to be made.

Here is what I suggest:

1. Visit at least five new homes communities.

2. Ask the onsite agents how they like to work with general agents.

3. When you bring your prospect to a new homes community, make sure they register and that your card is attached to the registration.

4. Let the onsite agent do the talking.

5. Expect to use the builders' contracts, not yours.

6. Make sure you understand the commission AND the commission policy.

Published: April 25, 2006

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David Fletcher has been a Florida real estate condominium and new homes broker for 30 years with more than $3 billion in new construction sales. In 2008, Keller Williams Realty International named him a "Lifetime Achiever." Along the way he has chaired the Florida Homebuilders Associaiton Sales and Marketing Council, trained thousands of general agents and on-site agents to work together, and was a featured speaker at the National Association of Realtors. Recently he founded New Homes Niche, a builder-certified co-broker training system "to meet the growing trend we see in short sale buyers moving to new homes for a lot of reasons." Call David at 407 234 2349, , and visit his website.