"Realtor-Concierge" -- or "Realtor-Slave"?

Can You Say, "No Boundaries?"
How about, "Unprofessional?"

To reduce stress and temper the disappointment of lower sale prices — and also to keep clients from dropping them for another agent partway through a seemingly endless sales process — some brokers are significantly expanding their job descriptions.

Beyond rearranging furniture and decluttering, they take on jobs like plant watering, bed making and floor scrubbing; they check on homes when the owners are out of town; and sometimes even apply a coat of sealer to the driveway or do real estate-related paperwork.

During the two years that their two-bedroom Glen Cove colonial was on the market, Jenna Caggiano and Rich Peck would often return home after yet another real estate open house to find dinner ready. Their brokers — Natalie C. McCray and Eileen B. Heimer of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty — had cooked it during the event, between visits from potential buyers.

--Marcelle Fischler, "A Little Alfredo With That Listing?"; The New York Times (11/27/09)

Would you expect a lawyer handling an especially drawn-out case for you to start repairing things around your home?

How about your doctor cooking you meals -- elaborate meals, yet -- if your illness lingered?

Apparently, there are some Realtors who think that their job duties include helping clients run their households if the listing doesn't sell.

What exactly are these Realtor-Servants thinking??

"With all the things I have done for them, they stay with me. They will re-sign," said one agent interviewed for the article.

Job Confusion

That would make perfect sense -- if the object were to simply accumulate as many listings as possible, or to re-sign clients in perpetuity.

In fact, the Realtor's job is to sell their client's home (or at least procure an offer).

If a home has been on the market for an extended time, even in a soft market, one (or both) of the following is likely true: 1) the home is mispriced; 2) the home is poorly staged and marketed.

The antidote to #1 is a more realistic price; #2, another Realtor.

Realtor-performed household chores isn't one of the choices.