Shameless Plug

I ran into an interesting situation on Twitter the other day and I thought I'd share it with you. I saw a persons Tweet that said to the effect, "My friend is moving to Nashville, TN does anyone know of any good churches?" So I responded, "www.fellowshipnashville.org, I've been going there 5 years, great place. Also, I'm a real estate agent as well." His response was "Ah, the ole' shameless plug that Realtors have down pat! nice..." I actually took offense to that. This particular individual was a "church planter" as he says in his profile on Twitter. I must assume that from his response to me, if he heard someone say, "Hey, my friend just became a Christian and is moving to (enter your town here)", this person would not want to at least say, "Hey I'm a church planter (which is to say, I know a lot about churches), you should try my church out." This guy reeks of hypocrisy, and is one reason why I believe people are turned off by those that call themselves Christian, (which is why I choose to use the phrase, "follower of Christ" for myself) Look, as a real estate agent, I see some really good agents, and then some others that just do not put the clients needs first. Example, I'm working on a deal now where I represent the buyer. The sellers agent is asking me to change a couple words in the contract after it has already been agreed upon by both parties. Currently the contract states: "Seller to pay all title expenses" and "Seller to pay up to $3,500 in buyers closing costs." This agent has asked that I change this to read, "Seller to pay all title expenses, except for Mortgagees expenses." and "Seller to pay up to $3,500 in buyers closing costs, including title expenses." Well, if I do that, it would cause my client to pay an addition $1,019 out of pocket at closing. Would some other agents roll over and say, "Well. ok, I want to get the deal done, I'll change it and have my buyers sign off? Yes! I'm sure some would, but not me. I work very hard on behalf of my clients. I look out for them and do my best to protect them in this transaction.

So, if I ever offer my services to you, it's only because I know for a fact that I can protect your interests in your real estate transaction. I know that I will work extremely hard on your behalf. And by the way, my response back to this person was, "No prob, just tell him about the church, no worries." I can tell you this much, if this guy does happen to tell his friend about me, out of principle, I will likely choose to NOT represent him. Yes, I'm in this business to make money, I do not work for free. However, my integrity is worth much more than the commission of one deal.