Guest contributor Jose Perez of PCMS Consulting says:

Last week, we met Justin and Kelly. A young, Millennial couple, eagerly shopping for their first home.

We left them sitting in an outdated conference room waiting for their agent, Susan, to finish her closing. They were frustrated that she was late, and that she had no idea they had already done a bunch of research on their own. (Read Part 1 of their story.)

Justin and Kelly knew they had a good handle on where they wanted to live, and the type of home they were looking for. Susan, unfortunately, had other ideas about this real estate transaction. But not knowing how these things worked, the couple figured they needed Susan. They felt helpless, disrespected and resigned to wait. Susan finally walked in 30 minutes late. Sensing Justin and Kelly were frustrated, Susan apologized profusely and blamed her tardiness on a complicated closing.

She easily threw the other agent under the bus, claiming he was unprepared for the real estate transaction.

In any case, after some small talk, she pulled out a folder with several print outs of properties she thought they would want to see, based on their previous phone conversation. Susan informed Justin and Kelly that she'd made appointments to meet agents at several properties.

She mentioned the last one was a lockbox so they could leave it for last since nobody was waiting on them. As Justin and Kelly reviewed the properties they were about to go see, they asked Susan about two homes they had expressed interest in viewing.

Her response was short and unsatisfactory: "I couldn't get a hold of the listing agents for those properties, so we will have to see those next time."

Unfortunately for Justin and Kelly, those two properties were the only homes they were interested in viewing.

The truth is, Justin and Kelly were unaware that Susan should have previously provided a portfolio of potential properties for them to review online. Nor did they know that the best real estate agents work extensively with new clients – first, face-to-face, and then via email and other online tools. But they were starting to suspect that all was not right in Susan's world.

Since they had already taken time off from work, they figured they would go see the other properties. They got in Susan's sedan and headed towards the first property. The first appointment had been scheduled for 3:30. Since they were already 10 minutes late, Susan called the agent to give her a heads up. By the time they got to the first property, it was about 4PM and the first thing the listing agent said was she had to be somewhere at 4:30pm.

Justin looks at Kelly and tells the Realtor, "That's okay, this really isn't what we had in mind."

They noted the home was located on the wrong side of a major thoroughfare and was a lot smaller than what they told Susan they were looking for. "Don't you want to look just for comparison's sake?" pushed Susan. They walked in, still unimpressed.

They asked Susan if they could move on to the next property, but first they confirmed it was in the neighborhood they were actually interested in.

Fortunately, the next two properties were a lot closer to what they were looking for so they were starting to get encouraged. However, Susan wasn't able to answer any questions regarding pending zoning issues Justin had read about on a neighborhood blog he had been reading recently. Susan apologized saying that she was not aware of any issues, but would find out.

The last property, the one with the lockbox, was vacant and clearly not taken care of. Justin and Kelly could not believe someone would allow their home to be seen in this condition, so they immediately told Susan they were done for the day.

On the way back to the office, Susan started probing Justin and Kelly about the other two properties. And ignoring the properties they were interested in. This left the young couple completely put off, sensing that Susan had other things to work on and just wanted to get a deal going.

Once back at the real estate office, Justin and Kelly asked if they could set up a time ASAP to view those homes they had found online. Susan told them she would try to set up something for the weekend and get back to them tomorrow.

As they left the office, Justin and Kelly talked about how they were not impressed by the experience with Susan, but knew they would probably need her when it came time to make an offer on a house. They got in their car and drove off wondering why they got better service at Starbucks earlier that afternoon than with a Realtor who would make a big commission if they buy something. Being a young, savvy couple, Justin and Kelly decided to head over to the neighborhood they were looking at.

Reading the neighborhood blog, they knew that the local park was hosting some great food trucks that evening. They figured they could grab a bite and wander around a bit. Driving through the neighborhood, they started noticing a few real estate agents' names repeating on the signs they saw.

Funnily enough, one of those agents was local to the neighborhood. Justin and Kelly bumped in to her in front of the food truck they were ordering dinner from.

They grabbed a table, made a new friend, and gathered some important information.

To view the original article, visit the PCMS Consulting blog.

More in This Series

• Part 1: A Tale of the Modern Real Estate Transaction
• Part 3: Taking Charge With The Right Agent