Bees Ka Tees – The Importance Of Documenting Real Estate Referrals

By Author: Ashil Patel
Total Articles: 33

The importance of documenting your agreement and agreeing to terms on paper can’t be better illustrated than the following situation…
Telephonic conversation part 1:
Broker 1: Client needs a 1 BHK, vile parle
Broker 2: My commission?
Broker 1: Bees percent
Broker 2: Done
After the deal is done, telephonic conversation part 2:
Broker 1: Deal done, 1cr-1%, sending you 20,000
Broker 2: Why 10,000 less?
Broker 1: 20 % of 1,00,000 is 20,000
Broker 2: Even I know that but we agreed on 30, tees percent was decided.
We can all guess how the conversation would have gone further. Good case of misunderstanding or was Broker 2 cheating? We will never know.
In the age of +1’s (and I’m not talking about google here) we all have a fear that your client will be stolen, you will be undercut. To quote some real estate players, “They are sharks out there.” Typically what happens is that you restrict yourself to a very select few, try to match your leads by yourself or don’t give complete information. All three lead to one thing—LOSS OF BUSINESS.
Thus, it is very important to have documented evidence of all referral or +1 business done. It should cover split of commission, conditions under which it is applicable and any other conditions deemed necessary. This will not only protect you but ensure your reputation is not spoiled. A few simple techniques for the tech savvy, phone savvy and paper savvy:
Email the terms and conditions and receive confirmation. This ensures transparency and also clears ambiguity.
Paper: Put the terms and conditions on paper and both brokers’ sign on it. The only problem with this is it might get difficult to have brokers present at the time and it’s not suitable to changes in the conditions.
SMS: A slightly less fool proof but most efficient option is to send a text message after a conversation confirming the terms and conditions and ask for confirmation to the same.
If you can think of other ways to safeguard against misunderstandings and cheating please add them in the comments…
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