Kopa Real Estate Blog

Before I started Kopa Real Estate I worked for 2 of the largest real estate brokerages in Austin for 10 years. Sometimes people who are selling their home have the impression that agents in large real estate companies attend meetings where they will all network together to get their home sold. They think there will be 500 agents from the large company who will care about you.

Despite what agents at large brokerages will tell you when they want to get hired to sell your home in my experience THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. Almost all Realtors are independent contractors.  Many people get into the real estate business to avoid having a fixed schedule and the need to attend meetings.

In my experience the only meetings that were mandatory for agents to attend centered around how the brokerages would protect themselves.

In my opinion for the large brokerages CYA was more important than getting your home sold.

That always rubbed me the wrong way. When I would hear a story about an agent making a mistake the reaction from the large company was always how to avoid liability….even when the agent was wrong.

Something that is important to me is if I make a mistake it will get corrected.

It turns out last month I made a mistake. I listed something wrong when entering a listing in MLS. It wasn’t a huge deal but it became a sticking point between the buyer and seller.

Legally I didn’t do anything wrong. Every MLS listing says the buyer needs to verify all information. I could have hidden behind that disclaimer and told everyone “that’s not my problem.”

Technically that would have been correct but it’s not the way I want to do business. When I started Kopa Real Estate I wanted to be better than the big brokerages, I didn’t want to make our primary goal to be CYA.

Once I realized this small mistake was creating an issue between the buyer and seller I offered to pay $1,485 to correct the mistake. In the end that was the right thing to do and it made everyone happy and helped make for a smooth closing.

Let’s compare that to a situation from last year. A family called me after their home was on the market, but did not sell. Because 25% of our business is helping people get their home sold after their previous agent wasn’t able to get it done they wanted our help.

The family was selling their home and buying a larger home. The contract for the home they were buying was contingent on selling their home.

Their home had been listed with an agent from a big company. The agent made a huge mistake on the listing of the home they were selling. The mistake caused the buyer for their home to terminate the contract. The agent also did not protect the family on the contingent contract causing the family to lose their earnest money to the sellers of that home.

To add insult to injury, the buyers of the house they were selling sued the family. Those buyers said the sellers of the home were being deceptive.

What happened after that was telling about how much a big company cares about you. The owner of that company was difficult to reach and they circled the wagons and refused any responsibility for what the agent did. In the end the family was left to fend for themselves in a legal matter with the buyer costing them additional money in legal fees.

One of the reasons people like to list their home with Kopa Real Estate is they know they have direct access to working with the owner of the company. They know I will take care of them and won’t hide behind company policies that only benefit the big brokerages.

To talk about your specific real estate needs call/text me directly at 512-791-7473 or email me at eric@koparealestate.com.

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