The Cliff Stevenson Group

If I were to target this subject to somebody in the real estate industry, it's probably of benefit to new REALTORS® coming in, but I think to anybody out there that professionally refers services, people, individuals, contacts to clients they may have.

I think this is pretty important. Make sure you have a good relationship with and understand the person or business that you are referring. I referred a cleaner that I have worked with in the past to clients of mine this past week and unfortunately when we went in, when my buyer went in to take possession, the place was still really, really dirty and some basic things had been missed.

Understanding it was a very difficult unit to clean.....it was a filthy unit....it was a really difficult scenario walking in and seeing how dirty it was when it is suppose to have been cleaned as agreed to in the contract. When I approached the cleaner on it, the individual indicated that it was impossible to clean it any more than it was, and sort of defended the level of cleaning that they had cleaned the unit to. My problem was I didn't want to argue or fight about the details or the little bits and pieces that were missed or not included....what I wanted to do was resolve the situation for my clients. So my comment was "Let's not fight about this, how can we resolve this?" And this individual indicated that they weren't prepared to assist at all with further cleaning or resolving the issue.

That was a really tough scene for my buyers, I went out to find another resource to assist us, but it really made me look foolish.....and as a result, I'm not going to refer that individual again. It was just an experience where I can't have that risk in my business. If I'm referring somebody, whether I like it or not, or whether they think so or not, it's an extension of my business. It's something that may be completely out of my control, but essentially, I'm responsible for anybody that I refer to.

So my advice to people out there who do a lot of referrals, just be careful.....make sure there's a track record, make sure there's a history, and make sure you understand who and what you're referring before you do it, because you can look as foolish as I looked, unfortunately, this week.