Can someone else help me or Does it matter if I work with you for a while and then change to someone else in your office? Its all the same company, right?
How do you get paid?
Yes it does matter and not often enough are the two answers:)
Seriously- the vast majority of Real Estate agents work for commission only. We are not employees of Prudential (in my office's case) but are self employed contractors. We "affiliate" with an office. All my time spent in the office handling phone calls, searching the MLS for customers, driving to showings, etc. generates no income for me unless a customer or client buys or sells property utilizing my services.
It often happens that an agent may spend a fair amount of time on the phone and emailing listings to a new customer and then that customer calls back to see some of the properties but does not ask for the agent that did all the initial work (simply and understandably thinking that its "all Prudential") and another agent winds up showing them property. The two agents then have to decide who works with that customer when they discover the situation and the end result is someone winds up having spent time that can be considered lost.
What I recommend for dealing with any business that is commission based is that if you are satisfied with the agent/salesperson give them your loyalty in the spirit of fair and honest business practices. Whenever I have a salesperson help me, whether its at the Excercise Equipment business I visited last week or a Pet Store for instance, I always ask if I should come back to them if I need help at a later date or can anyone help me. That gives them the option to explain whether they are commision compensated or not.
Within our office all of us work together well and assist each other when possible. If you need assistance (getting info on a listing for instance) and I am not in the office just tell the agent you speak with that you are working with me but would like some help. If you are looking for something more involved leave me a voice mail, it pages me and I will get back to you quickly.