How to handle unprofessional brokers?
50% of brokers are good guys. Hard working, diligent, responsive, ethical. There’s another 50% that is quite the opposite. You know the guys: lazy, arrogant, never call you back, leave you high and dry, tell you twice a week for 3 months that “they’ll have more information tomorrow”, ask borderline to outright unethical questions, and just don’t seem to take you seriously or make your time and effort a priority.


Brokers that have had the misfortune of dealing with these clowns (all of you, some of you may fit this description as well), how do you respond to it? The obvious response is “just don’t work with them.” But what if they are in a position that cannot be circumvented? Like an exclusive rep for a national tenant? Or the leasing broker for a shopping center development? Do you confront them outright? Talk to their boss? 


Let’s hear it
[{"id": "e4skdpg", "text": "Where ever you go, your reputation gets there first. And half this business is, I fucking hate that other guy, It sorts itself out, sometimes you have to deal with Chuck and you will never work with him again. That is why all of he best brokers are the nicest people, you have no idea who knows who, so you never want to burn a bridge since it causes you to lose deals ", "replies": [{"id": "e4skj4p", "text": "So you just put up with it or what ", "replies": [{"id": "e4sqkya", "text": "Figure out if it is a one time thing or an all the time thing. If it is an all time thing, see about changing your tactics. If they don\u2019t answer the phone for you, see who they do work with and attack it that way. See if you can develop a relationship with the owner and go around. Shitty brokers tend to have shitty clients, so if a broker is reflecting badly or has a bad reputation, tell the truth. Chances are they have heard it from others as well. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4tbv4g", "text": "In addition try to pinpoint the issue you're having and offer to help. If they're not getting you needed info the offer to go directly to the owner to see if that \"lights a fire under their ass\" or if they're playing games with an offer just ask straight up if they're shopping your offer, etc. In my experience those tough to work with brokers are also arrogant so if you passive aggressively push against their ego you can get a response, even though it'll probably come out rudely. ", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4sqkko", "text": "Ok so I\u2019m not a broker, I\u2019m on the principal side, but I have to say that some of this is really driven by ownership. Obviously not says my that there aren\u2019t brokers who suck - in fact there are a lot that do - but there are a lot of deals I work on where for strategic purposes we keep our broker in the dark about stuff that is going on at the building and / or we are working on another deal so we might just be directing our broker to put the other side on the back burner. Not saying that this is an excuse for brokers all the time,  but sometimes agency rep guys just legitimately don\u2019t have any updates or direction from ownership on what to do. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4t3owr", "text": "Very good point and true... although one would hope the broker at least responds to questions \"Have reached out to owners, they still do not have a response\" or better yet, coordinate with the owner to ID when they may have a response to help set expectations for the other party.", "replies": [{"id": "e4t5gii", "text": "Yea I mean look I\u2019m not defending bad brokers - there are a ton of them out there - totally agree they can\u2019t just go totally radio silent on someone they can at least make up some BS. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4todho", "text": "Understood on all fronts- sometimes things stall out. Happens on both sides, tenants / buyers go silent too. Just thinking that it's not asking too much to at least return a call / note letting the client know you're getting silence back. And I have no doubts there are many brokers out there that are \"too busy\" to do the fundamentals. ", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4ssyoy", "text": "Honestly, sometimes this means they're a great broker. It more often happens when they're too busy and their team is too small. Because they're killing it, they need to expand faster than they can hire. And it's a long term situation since... Well hiring for a commercial real estate position is incredibly difficult. You need someone who will be a rockstar and not encroach on the business. Only increase and nurture it. But most people who can do this, are ready to be the broker and can't help but think they have the skill to overtake. \n\nHopefully, you don't need such a quick deal that this is an issue. Honestly, most deals happen the year after the process begins so.. I don't know why the response time is an issue. If you're in the market 2 months before renewal, you're an idiot. And of you're new to market, guess what. This is how it works. Sick and tired of hate on brokers when you just don't get it. Go ahead and do the deal yourself. See how much money you lose on the terms...", "replies": [{"id": "e4su7qf", "text": "Hey, Mr. #1 Ranked Office Producer 2006, if you think \u201ckilling it\u201d requires being an unethical, indecent human being to others in your field, then you\u2019re 100% part of the problem. Not everything is about money, but that\u2019s hard to explain to miserable excuses for \u201cprofessionals\u201d like you ", "replies": [{"id": "e4to4m6", "text": "Yeah - and that\u2019s where you\u2019re wrong. \n\nIt is about money. Money for our clients, money the tenants can make, money for us brokering the two sides. \n\nGet your feelings out of it. \n\nBe polite and professional-", "replies": [{"id": "e4tot6i", "text": "Listen \u2014 it\u2019s very noble of you to defend unethical behavior and terrible business practice on behalf of all shitty broker\u2019s everywhere, but the reality is you don\u2019t need to be an asshole to make a lot of money in this field. And I feel sorry for you if you can\u2019t see that. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4tt5f0", "text": "What part of polite and professional don\u2019t you understand?", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4ubvmb", "text": "OP - Serious question. You mentioned \u201cborderline unethical questions.\u201d  Can you give an example of this? Thanks. ", "replies": [{"id": "e4umc8i", "text": "\u201cOh, well your clients offer is really nice, well I know that there\u2019s someone else that has a much more competitive offer than you...let me give you an idea of what it looks like *explicitly explains an LOI/Purchase Agreements details in order to instigate a higher bid* \n\nThis is very common for me. I only realized recently that it is completely unethical when I tried it on a different broker and they chewed me out on the phone ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "e4ur5xz", "text": "Thank you. \n\nTo answer your original question how to handle \u201cunprofessional\u201d brokers - what I do is to never react and simply focus on my best outcome. \n\nI personally wouldn\u2019t consider your example unethical as the selling broker in your example owes his/her duty to the seller.  Setting you up for a higher offer is what they\u2019re supposed to do. Lying about another offer might be unethical  (although I\u2019ve dealt with lots of people who think it\u2019s just negotiating tactic).  My guess is that whoever  chewed you out was some arrogant geezer  who was pissed at seeing his deal flushed because someone else was willing to pay more. \n\nHow about name  dropping? Is that unethical. I used to have prominent lawyers and business people regularly try to intimidate me by telling me about their connections and how they could help or hurt me. \n\n", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]