Congratulations, your company wants you to relocate to Annapolis, or Washington, DC or Baltimore! They have a generous package of relocation benefits for you, and your Human Resources Manager hands you a list of "approved" agents and lenders to use. You might think that the company has thoroughly examined the qualifications of all the agents in the area, and has selected the best ones to save you time and make the move smoother. But this simply is not true.

Most transferees I talk to are surprised when they learn what's really going on. The fact of the matter is that the company has a huge expense in relocating you. They seek to reduce that expense by receiving "referral fees" from real estate agents and lenders. Those agents on the approved list are not necessarily the most qualified, but only those who are willing to give back some of their fee to the company. That's why they say that your relocation benefits are in jeopardy if you don't use the approved agents.

This is not to say that the agents on the list are not competent, only that you can't assume that they are. There's good ones and bad ones. I'm on the approved list of several relocation companies, and I can tell you that no one has ever asked me about my credentials, only whether I would pay the referral fee. No questions about my professional designations, no review of my letters of recommendation, no investigation into what kind of service I provide the transferee, nothing.

Since this is true, you should never let the company "assign" an agent to you. Ask for a list of all the agents and interview them just like you would on the open market. Have them send you their promotional materials. Then go ahead and choose who you'd like to work with. 

By the way, it regularly happens that I have been the preferred R ealtor® who wasn't on the "approved" list, but that didn't mean my Client and I couldn't work together. Simply stated:  I must have a dialogue with your relocation represenative and/or manager, agreeing to their fee structure, and I can become "approved."  This way you have the best of both worlds - you get the Realtor® you're comfortable with, and you get your relocation benefits, too.