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I want to learn how to help home buyers and sellers find the right real estate agent to represent them. I'm looking for some feedback on what buyers and sellers are looking for when selecting an agent. Please help me by answering the below questions.
1) What would you want to know about your real estate agent prior to hiring them?
2) Do you feel it is beneficial to work with an agent who shares your mutual interests such as sports, hobbies, music taste and more?
3) It's difficult to get people to fill out reviews yet it's a huge deciding factor for many people on what agent they decide to use. What would motivate you to fill out a short review about your experience with a real estate agent?
How many sides did you do in the last 12 months? Prove it.
There's not a ton of metrics to judge a real estate agent by, but I've never understood why the public has latched on to this one as any kind of measure of whether an agent is good or not. It's just a measure of business volume. So, let me ask you . . . would you prefer to hire the agent who sold 100 houses last year for 90% of list price in 90 days or the one who sold 20 houses and sold them at an average of 98% of list price in 30 days? I know a ton of agents who are great at selling your house but stink at marketing themselves and networking. I also know tons of highly successful agents who are awesome at marketing themselves and networking but stink at selling your house. They talk a great game but in the end you probably could have sold for more if you hired someone else. Spotting a good agent is just not all that easy.
Personally, I've always felt this is an industry that's hard to assign numbers to whether we're talking about home values or agent performance. Some people are only comfortable if they see numbers though.
I want to learn how to help home buyers and sellers find the right real estate agent to represent them. I'm looking for some feedback on what buyers and sellers are looking for when selecting an agent. Please help me by answering the below questions.
1) What would you want to know about your real estate agent prior to hiring them?
2) Do you feel it is beneficial to work with an agent who shares your mutual interests such as sports, hobbies, music taste and more?
3) It's difficult to get people to fill out reviews yet it's a huge deciding factor for many people on what agent they decide to use. What would motivate you to fill out a short review about your experience with a real estate agent?
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Thanks for your help.
Jon
Just out of curiosity, what is your motivation to "help home buyers and sellers find the right real estate agent"? Do you have a couple of friends who are contemplating the purchase or sale of real estate in the near future? Are you trying to somehow monetize an agent search/rank/referral service?
would you prefer to hire the agent who sold 100 houses last year for 90% of list price in 90 days or the one who sold 20 houses and sold them at an average of 98% of list price in 30 days?
Easy answer. The 20.
But, if you change both numbers to 30 and 2, I would pick the 30.
To me, asking about sides is a way to screen out part-time agents. It seems to me that 20 is about the right minimum number.
It sounds like you have a good mind set. Most people who ask about sides seem to think the highest number wins and don't seem to care about anything else.
Zuniki, do you want to be paid for this benevolent act? If so you're trying to be a middle man to a middle man and there isn't much margin for that. I'd say go find some other way to make money.
It sounds like you have a good mind set. Most people who ask about sides seem to think the highest number wins and don't seem to care about anything else.
Mike, how does one figure out who is part-time and who is full-time? What are the signs?
Mike, how does one figure out who is part-time and who is full-time? What are the signs?
Aside from the signs mike pointed out . . .
Another obvious one is if you call your agent and when they pick up the phone they say something like "Thanks for calling Dominos can I take your order?" that's not a good sign. I've actually had something similar happen when calling a buyer's agent. So, I'm drawing on actual experiences when I say that.
The first thing I would do is ask the agent . . . do you do this full time or part time? Do you have another job that you work while doing this? Some agents will mislead you though because they want the business. Others will be quite up front about it.
In my experience, the majority of people who work with a part timer do so because they are a friend or family member. These people often know their agent has another job. So, they're going into it with this knowledge which IMO makes it even worse that they're doing it.
One thing I've been dealing with a lot lately is attorneys who are also agents. Here in MA if you are a member of the state bar, pretty much all you have to do is send in a form and a check and the state will issue you a broker's license. It's absolutely ridiculous. So, some attorneys will act in both roles for you. However, I've yet to see one of these attorney/agents do anything in the transaction above and beyond what a plain attorney does. They don't show properties, they don't attend inspections, and generally they don't know what they're doing. They just want to drain more money out of their clients. Avoid these people like the plague.
It may not be immediately obvious who is committed to this profession and who is not. The bottom line is: don't be afraid to fire your agent if you find down the road the relationship is not a good fit. We all make mistakes in life. It's just a question of what are you going to do when you realize you've made one?
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Easy decision
