I believe myself to be ethical and that includes not snaking clients at open houses as they ascend the stairs to the models.
Yesterday, my partner and I were going to local open houses and checking out the inventory.
We dressed down cause it was a beautiful day.
I believe in handing out my card directly to the hosting agent upon arrival so there is no confusion about why we are there.
However, on our way up to the listing, we were cornered in the ascending stairwell by another local agent who literally blocked our path on our way up to the unit and advised us about a bigger two bedroom she had in her inventory several blocks away. Literally she didn't clear the way until she had rummaged through her purse and produced a business card and a request to "call me".
We discussed it and decided that if we were buyers, we wouldn't call her simply because we consider her actions to be sneaky. If it was a matter of fact conversation, that's one thing; if we had asked that's another.
But to stop us dead in our tracks was way out of line. I immediately thought, "Don't waste a business card on her introducing yourself. This is someone whom you don't want to know."
I am just as competitive for buyers as the next guy but stalking other open houses drumming up clients is just something I find distasteful. We later found out that she has a development that isn't selling well a few blocks away. We ran into it by dumb luck. She wasn't there but the other agents hosting the event were very candid that she is very aggressive and was not attending because she was canvassing the neighborhood for business. I asked if their definition of canvassing included sabotaging other agents open houses by redirecting clients. They just smiled politely. We left and moved on.