I just had a meeting with a Realtor I am hoping to do business with, he is part of a huge Real Estate company, that will remain nameless as to not offend the billionaire owner. My realtor friend was explaining to me how their “preferred vendors list” works. One of my competitors; a larger organization just “donated” a substantial amount to this realtor group to purchase a new moving van. He went on to say that other “preferred vendors” have made less substantial contributions but all of the vendors they use, must be on this list.
When I ask him how do I get on the list, he said look for a way to help us sell more and that he looks for inspectors that; state the facts and not make recommendations for further inspection or evaluation, in his opinion these are deal breakers because the buyer takes it as a green light to ask the seller to pay for said evaluations or repairs no matter how minor they maybe.
I am really struggling with the “preferred vendor” concept as described here. Isn’t that part of our code of ethics? I also want to perform inspections with the clients best interest in mind, if I see something that I don’t think looks right and needs further evaluation shouldn’t I state it that way? I am not a contractor.
Is this the way the business works? I have left jobs for similar situations, requesting that I compromise my integrity in order to benefit business.
