I beat another’s dealers numbers by over $150/month, and potential buyer clearly stated intent was to take my numbers and see if they could match it to skirt broker fee 
At least they were honest? 
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The audacity. “I want you to do the work, but I don’t want to pay.”
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This was the most bold response I’ve ever seen lol
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People suck.
People do this all the time in all sorts of situations.
No doubt. Everyone wants the best deal.
My only point is, if anyone ever questions why a broker charges a retainer, this is a great example explaining why.
Otherwise we would be chasing down quotes all day for people who may not be serious.
That said, I do not charge a retainer, but I’m selective about who I work a deal with. Can’t deny that situations like this make me consider charging one, though.
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Would def belong in choosingbeggars subreddit
Well said. It’s why I rarely provide information before a formal agreement is in hand. You should too.
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It’s a challenging balance.
I like to vet most potential buyers on the phone.
I just think it’s important for members here’s to know that there has to be a vetting process by brokers.
Some PMs are not responded to.
Some PMs lead to calls and nothing from there.
And the rest is easy to figure out lol
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This has to be incredibly frustrating as a broker. All of us here certainly want to hack the best deal possible, considering the website that is a statement of the obvious. But, some ethics and sense of fairness must be maintained as well. It cant be “the best deal everyone else be damned”.
The only excuse one could possibly concoct in the above situation is if the buyer assumes that the broker is being paid directly by the dealer (and therefore in a position similar to a rep at the dealership directly). But I think in most all of these listings, the broker fee is pretty clear.
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I think this site is reaching its apex a make or break point. There is a lot of potential for the creators to take this site to the next level. My thought was your run of the mill deals ie Toyota get posted on the main page to showcase brokers. The special deals or your luxury brands I wouldn’t mind paying a monthly fee even if it’s small to have access to more knowledge trusted hackers and broker deals. I know that’s probably not the intent of the site in its infancy, but the future of car buying is going to be through brokers and the internet portals will handle the rest. I have friends who made a healthy living flipping cars from auctions and the internet killed that market. Sites like these will kill the average overpriced car buying experience, vroom and Carvana are here because people want to cut out the middle guy (dealers).
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Sad and pathetic. If people did simple math, they’d realize that the broker fee covered many times over by how much is saved. Why not charge at least a small retainer? $25. Weeds out the scum.
At the same time, the marketplace advertisements are out there for everyone to see (free of charge). There is nothing stopping the casual user from bringing those numbers to a local dealer. If you hide those prices, will brokers move as many cars?
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Not a bad idea:heavy_check_mark:
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I think this is a reminder to a lot of people, that negotiation and brokering is a skill and takes time.
If anything, this will help the brokering community and should be tagged at the top of the marketplace for all to see.
The reason brokers get paid, we ain’t buying milk here.
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I think this site is awesome! If people weren’t looking for a great deal on getting a car they wouldn’t be here. There are those who are pretentious and those who are informative, I thank the latter for I have been learning much by reading these forums! Sure there are probably some lazy people out there looking for a handout/freeride but from learning what a lot of you have imparted we can keep the balance hopefully on the side of the consumer. I’m not anti broker and would relish the use of one to get me a killer deal to make the effective cost of using one worth it(ie.retainer/travel/shipping)and can work with lease turn in’s. But how do you know which one that might be? I hate the part of going to the dealer to negotiate, I have a terrible poker face, so having a buyer advocate would be great! But I’m willing to do my homework and that’s why I’m on this site. How about the flip side of the coin of the ones who take your retainer and don’t deliver or are advocating for themselves and possibly the dealer! I’m sorry that guy was a jerk and possibly ruined your opinions of us other shoppers. Hopefully there are more honorable ones to keep your fortitude to keep working those great deals for us. Thanks again to you good guys! And this site!
I understand.
Allls I’m saying is this:
Brokers do the work to post deals for the community to see what is possible. That’s the information part. Those are out in the open and drive people to shop them around/see if they can do it themselves. From an information perspective, that’s terrific and everyone should be doing that. It helps to quantify the value of the deal.
For those who have done the research and reach out to a respected broker, they should be comfortable paying a retainer.
All that said, I didn’t collect retainer here (I don’t because I naively believe in the good in people) so this is the my fault. But this is the third point I guess in addition to the two above. To tell a broker they saved you $150/month and then try to get it beat by $1/month to skirt a broker fee from the same dealer that was thousands more the first time around is…fill in the blank lol
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You’re a good person. Charge a retainer.
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I appreciate you being upfront, that’s one of the reasons that I contacted you about the Land Rover lease. If you want to avoid people going around your quotes, it may be a good idea to build your fee into the quote. As long as you state that before hand, I don’t see where the problem would be. In most cases it would only add about $10 to the payment.
With certain deals, especially Land Rover, I’m confident I have some of the best pricing in the country (not to sound like a douche), and you gave me good vibes!
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