Ileri Ogunfiditimi, REALTOR®

Paul Howard, I appreciate your insight on advocacy, but we're not attorneys and don't represent "opposing interests" or "sides" for that matter. We're "deal brokers" and small businesspeople. According to Dictionary.com, a broker is defined as "a person who functions as an intermediary between two or more parties in negotiating agreements, bargains, or the like." That definition defines one of the many roles we play in real estate transactions. And supports my point that real estate agents, as intermediaries, can represent both parties effectively in a real estate or business transaction. The question is or should be does the agent have sufficient skills to perform in such a dual role? The answer to that question will depend on the agent's experience in business and whether or not the agent has received any training in negotiations or in this case, dual agency. As I mentioned earlier, "dual agency deals" are commonplace in commercial real estate. So, again, I don't believe that dual agency is irrelevant and should be phased out. But I do believe that agents need to receive more training on it and agency relationships in general. Ileri Ogunfiditimi, REALTOR® Managing Principal/Commercial Investment Broker Ileri Ogunfiditimi LLC/Jobin Realty 6278 Montrose Road North Bethesda, MD 20852 Direct Dial: (240)403-3400, Ext 742 Direct Fax: (866)283-7840 Email: Ileri@IleriOgunfiditimi.com www.IleriOgunfiditimi.com www.JobinRealty.com

Dual agency does have utility and I believe that because so much focus is placed on commission income and potential risk, a crucial fundamental element of business practice is being overlooked. In any professional service business, there are only two ways to generate revenue: 1) From new customers/clients; and 2) From your existing customers/clients. In corporate sales organizations, this activity is known as CRM or Customer Relationship Management. This CRM process is the foundation of practically every business because without customers/clients, you don't have a business! In order to manage the relationships with your new or current customers/clients effectively, databases are used or some other form of customer management system - analog or otherwise. Unfortunately, rarely is there any mention or discussion about database management in real estate sales. This is especially true of residential practitioners and totally contrary to most sales professions. Commercial practitioners are prevalent users of CRM databases which is how most commercial brokers are able to broker transactions without being members of local real estate boards, MLS systems, or even cooperating with other ("outside") brokers. Some commercial practitioners have databases with 5,000, 20,000, 50,000 and more clients/customers. Do you see the potential? How would you use such a database? How many residential agents do you know uses a database? And if they do, how many clients/customers do they have in their database? Every salesperson and business professional who's worth their salt knows that it's easier to do business with their existing customers or clients. And this is where dual agency can be and is used most effectively. If an agent already has established relationships with a buyer and seller in a transaction, why wouldn't that agent be able to represent both parties fairly in that transaction? I believe that they could. And in commercial real estate, there are several examples where dual agency has worked to the satisfaction of all principals involved. In fact, oftentimes, it's the preference of clients (previous/current) to work with a real estate professional they already know and have chemistry with. So to remove the option of dual agency severly limits the services an agent can provide to his/her existing customers/clients. Dual agency has less to do with "double-dipping" and more to do with serving ones existing client base. So what if an agent gets both sides? If they've earned it, they should be paid accordingly. But now, because of the lack of training on dual agency, here's the current situation: As an agent, you work hard to build your client/customer database (which is called your "book of business," - which by the way could become very valuable). You get a property listing that a past client has an appetite for. You contact the past client to find out if they're interested in the purchase opportunity. They're interested, want to work only with you, and they want to submit a contract. But now since dual agency is no longer practiced, you have to bring in a "new" agent to represent YOUR past client, the buyer. No previous relationship exists between the new agent and YOUR buyer-customer. You don't even know if there will be any chemistry (this is important in sales) between your buyer-customer and the new agent. You don't even know if the new agent will be competent in handling the transaction. So you hope for the best and that they'll hit it off. If not, your deal is at a standstill or dead in the water! Not only that. The new agent didn't do any work. You did all of the work. You found the seller and the buyer (isn't this what we're paid to do?). You consummated the deal. Now, because dual agency no longer exists, another agent that no one knows has to be appointed to help close your deal and earn potentially thousands of dollars in brokerage fees all from your hard work. From a business perspective, such a scenario makes absolutely no sense and goes against the principles of good business dealing. Which brings me back to my earlier point about residential agents and CRM. Because many (not all) residential agents don't view themselves as businesspeople, they oftentimes don't get any business or sales training on their own. So legislatures feel that they have to protect the public from our ignorance of General Business and Sales Practices 101. There's nothing wrong with offering or selling additional services/products to your current customers/clients and financially benefiting from it or so called "double-dipping." It's good business. Unfortunately, because database CRM isn't practiced by the majority of agents (especially residential), the usefulness of dual agency gets overlooked. Ultimately, agency is a tool agents can use to establish business relationships with real estate consumers. And each type of agency has its place and utility. But the training on how to use these tools have been either non-existent or terrible at best. In business, there's no one right way to work with a customer or client. Yet, this is what some legislatures are trying to create. One BEST WAY. Dual Agency doesn't need to be eradicated, we just need to be trained on how to properly use it in our real estate practices to the benefit of all parties concerned. As agents, we "broker" deal opporunities by bringing buyers and sellers together. Removing dual agency lessens our ability to perform in this role and creates dependency on other real estate professionals (career suicide). The real estate industry was never intended to model after the wage and salaried industries/corporations. It was built on the principles of self reliance, business independence, and self sufficiency. Sadly, we're getting away from the factors that make our industry one of the best industries to be in if you're an entrepreneur or business-minded person. Ileri Ogunfiditimi, REALTOR® Managing Principal/Commercial Investment Broker Ileri Ogunfiditimi LLC/Jobin Realty 6278 Montrose Road North Bethesda, MD 20852 Direct Dial: (240)403-3400, Ext 742 Direct Fax: (866)283-7840 Email: Ileri@IleriOgunfiditimi.com www.IleriOgunfiditimi.com www.JobinRealty.com

I think that we all have a "human" brand by default because each one of us is unique and different. As personal service providers, customers choose to do business with us based on this human brand or intrinsic qualities such as our skills, talents, knowledge, abilities, personality, etcetera, all of which contribute to the creation of our personal or "business" brand. So, the human brand and business brand are intertwined. Personally, I feel that it can be disadvantageous to not acknowledge the existence of one's brand in an attempt to be more "personal." Identifying one's brand can be a great way to position oneself professionally. And in addition, it gives one control over the use and deployment of the brand. If a business professional doesn't recognize, or worse, doesn't know that they have a brand, they leave themselves vulnerable to external forces determining what their brand should be. In other words, if a professional doesn't know who they are; what they stand for; and what they represent, how can they effectively communicate their value to a customer? How will they stand out from all the clutter? And what actions will they take when confronted with issues that run contrary to their values and business philosophy? Because at the end of the day, knowingly or unknowingly, the customer isn't only buying into the company's (brokerage house) brand, they're also buying into the individual agent's "personal" brand. Ileri Ogunfiditimi, REALTOR® Ileri Ogunfiditimi, LLC/Jobin Realty 7825 Tuckerman Lane, Suite 201 Potomac, MD 20854 Direct Dial (240)403-3400, Ext 742 Direct Fax (866)283-7840 Email: ileri@ileriogunfiditimi.com www.ileriogunfiditimi.com www.jobinrealty.com