Minimalist Agenting

I just made that phrase up. It's the nice way of saying "lazy butt agent who is only sort of willing to work for his paycheck."

We have a property for sale in Sun City, a Del Webb retirement community in the northwest valley. I got a call one Saturday night while I was driving from an agent we'll call Doug because that's his name (that's right, no anonymity for you, bub). He has some clients who are interested in buying in Sun City and are considering our property. He asked me if we have the CC&Rs for Sun City. I said I didn't remember ever seeing them and I was pretty sure we didn't have them, so he should probably just call the HOA. He asked me to look for them and pass them along if we have them. I said I would, but I highly recommended he just call the HOA and get a copy from them.

I pretty much completely forgot about this conversation the second I hung up. I figured if it was really material that his clients view the CC&Rs, he would get them a copy straight from the source. That's his job as their agent. I forgot about him.

That was 2 weeks ago. Today, Doug called again and was making only a slight effort at hiding his annoyance that I never e-mailed him the CC&Rs. I admitted I had forgotten and he again asked me to check if we had them and then to e-mail them to him as his clients are considering putting an offer on our property. Again, "I'm pretty sure we don't have them and I recommend you get a copy from the HOA, but I'll look." I went to the file and checked. No CC&Rs. Approximately 30 seconds (seriously) and one Google search later, I had the URL for the website where the CC&Rs are posted. I e-mailed it to him and told him WE don't have the CC&Rs, but fortunately, the HOA does. Just like I had recommended.

The point of all this whining is that there are a lot of agents out there trying to do the absolute bare minimum of work that will still bring them a paycheck. And that is sad.

If his clients are interested in Sun City, it's not my responsibility to make sure they have the CC&Rs. It's his. Once they put an offer on our particular property and we accept it, THEN it's my responsibility as the seller's agent. This guy waited TWO WEEKS to call me all annoyed that I hadn't sent him what he could have found within minutes on his own. But he was too lazy to try and he preferred to set that responsibility on my shoulders. Less effort for him.

It's not that I even minded doing it, the time and energy expenditure was really minimal. What really annoys me that Doug minded doing it to the point that he made ME work for HIS paycheck. That, to me, is a true sign of a lazy agent. I feel bad for his clients.