What is My Territory?

Michelle Bennett, KWLG Operating Principal

I recently had a conversation with an agent, who was doing the right thing. She had an opportunity to represent someone, a referral from a close and consistent referral source that she didn't want to let down. The property they are looking for may be in the Iowa City area. She is in Cedar Rapids MLS only. She can have agents send her listing sheets, she has access to the lockboxes, but would she be best representing the client? This agent travels to Iowa City often, spends a good amount of time there, knows the area well. Yet her gut instinct said she should be careful to represent her client to the very best of her ability.

As we talked through, it made sense for her to work with the client, but have a partner she could work with who was a member of the Iowa City Area Association, so that she would have extra insight and quick access to disclosures, comparable sales, etc. with compensation to the other agent rather than just getting that for free (it costs about an extra 2k a year to join that association).

So what is your territory? Your license says it's the whole state but I'm not listing property in my hometown 3 hours a way, I can promise you! I like to use the guideline that if I can tell you what streets to take to get to a Casey's (since there is one in many small towns), I would take that listing or represent that buyer. If I can't, I won't. Some our agents work a lot of small towns and will drive an hour to an hour and a half away, but they are maybe from that area or have family there and know it well.

There are quite a few areas that fall in between MLSs, especially in rural areas. Even between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, many in Solon, Ely, North Liberty may fall on Iowa City or Cedar Rapids. Those we just have to roll with!

However, you should NEVER list property in an area where you don't belong to the MLS that is seriously situated dead center in a city (we know how frustrating it is when an agent from out of area lists a property in the center of Cedar Rapids and you can't find the listing) or do not have it co-listed with someone who does. That's just a given. It's not good customer service. Here's what happens, we all know Zillow and REALTOR.com have the listings no matter what MLS they are a part of. However, if a buyer calls their agent, their agent looks it up on the MLS and it doesn't exist, they will often assume two things and tell their client that it is either already sold since it isn't there and is a fake listing on the syndicates, or that maybe it is FSBO and they don't have information. Many times a buyer will move on after getting that information from their agent.

I'll give you a couple of examples. Kurtis Hartsock has a listing in Wyoming. The seller is actually from Burlington (he's from Columbus Junction), and his significant other is from Wyoming and has family there so he spends a lot of time there. That makes sense. Wyoming is CR MLS and he's a member.

I have a listing in Anamosa. The seller is engaged to a consistent client of mine. He asked me to list it and I wanted to help them, but I hesitated because while I can tell you the main roads in Anamosa, I don't want to drive there every day and I can't get you from there to the Casey's by landmarks or road names (my guideline). We have some great agents there so as I was thinking about who to co-list with I happened to see that Carter was bringing someone to the holiday party with the same last name as the seller, low and behold, it's her twin sister! Small world! So I called Carter and the seller and everyone was good with it and we co-listed. Anamosa is Cedar Rapids MLS but he is much more familiar with Anamosa. He's taking care of things like snow removal while I'm getting people to do some work and staging it.

Remember, making money is great, but you have a business you are running, and the objective is to represent the client to the very best of your ability. That means making sure that you have access to the information needed to do your job well AND that if you are listing a property, it will be exposed to the right people to get the home sold in the timeline the seller is looking for and for the most amount of money possible.

Also, you should know, this can be actionable at the Iowa Real Estate Commission level. Rare, but happens. A client finds out after the sale that the property was not listed in the local MLS and that was not disclosed to them, the IREC can find that your actions in not having it on the local MLS were misleading to the public. I dealt with a complaint on an agent at my former company for this, from the buyer side, which was weird, but he said he wasn't given all the information since the property in Iowa City was listed by an agent in the Des Moines MLS and his agent, representing him in Iowa City, did not have access to the information needed and he lost in a competing offer situation. In this particular case there wasn't enough information to establish that and it was dismissed, but know it can happen! Dismissed or not, the agents involved spent a lot of time preparing for and attending the hearing.

We don't restrict how you work out payment to one another, but we do ask that you are kind and generous in doing so, as you would hope someone would be if the roles were reversed. I've talked to a few agents who used to pretty much volunteer to help everyone, until they found themselves working for free in instances where they ended up losing out or not giving great service to their own clients while helping others. Don't be the agent who asks that of people. You will lose out on having some great help when you really need it! Always remember the golden rule as it applies to other agents and to your clients too.

I was talking to an agent yesterday who has been at a few different companies and what she said impresses her most here is the willingness to jump in and help out. It is amazing and like nothing I've ever seen. People have asked her "Why Keller Williams?" and that's always her answer, "You wouldn't believe how these people help each other, cheer for each other, and even teach each other." So just a reminder that we are here to help one another, but be legitimate in your asks and acknowledge when something wouldn't have happened without someone by sharing a little of the moolah.

Years ago I referred a buyer to Kurtis. It was like, an $80,000 buyer. The commission wasn't much and he didn't pay a referral fee. Years later, I got a surprise deposit and asked the closer what it was. She said, "Kurtis paid you a referral fee because that client bought again and sold their other house, he said he didn't pay you on the first one because he really needed that check then, but wanted to pay you on this one." It was much greater than the referral would have been on that $80,000 house. I had forgotten all about it and had no idea they even bought and sold. THAT my friends, is KW Culture in action.