Are real estate agents a dime a dozen?  Maybe they are, but I’m reminded of something I learned many years ago in Alaska.  I had graduated from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks with a degree in economics, but I wanted to become a teacher.  I knew that teachers were a dime a dozen, and there were many applicants for every opening, so I asked my old high school principal, Gary Hebert, if there was room for another teacher.  His reply was full of wisdom.  He said, “Chuck, there’s always room for a good teacher.”

Real Estate Agents a Dime a Dozen?

I learned that rule applies to every profession.  I did teach high school business education for two years before deciding to go to law school and specialize in real estate.  As a teacher, I learned that many teachers are mediocre, some are less than mediocre, and a few are exceptional.  As a lawyer, I learned that many lawyers are mediocre, some are less than mediocre, and a few are exceptional.  Now as a full time real estate broker, I can say precisely the same thing about real estate agents.

Real Estate Agents – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Every profession has the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Sales pitches, bloviating, and hype on advertisements have gotten out of control, and people don’t know what to believe any more.  It takes a great deal of discernment and research to know how to find and select a great professional in any profession.

Who isn’t tired of annoying TV commercials after seeing them the 100th time, “My name is Doug and I am not an actor.  I have Mesothilioma.”  Are you tired as I am of the “Buy Gold Now” commercials, or how about the Viagra commercials?  Ridiculous and annoying!  But some commercials don’t even tell you what they do.  For example, a company called Insperity has a commercial in which their theme statement is, “Inspiring business performance, that’s what we do.”  Boy, when I saw that commercial I was desperate to hire them.  Not.

Real Estate Agents

Consumers are getting smart, or perhaps they’re just getting tired of the old tricks and gimmicks.  I’m a real estate agent, and this is a shameless plug, but I can tell you precisely what I will do for you.  There is no bloviating or hype or generic branding here.  As your buyer’s agent I help you negotiate the best possible price on the right home, and I help you handle all of the inspection and due diligence items all the way to closing.  That’s straight forward, right?  By the way, I represent you at no cost.  The sellers always pay my commission.  Isn’t that great?  I hope you’ll do your due diligence on Sequim real estate agents, and then I hope you’ll come back and consider hiring me as your buyer’s agent.

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Real estate agents are supposed to take beautiful photos of their listings.  Right?  After all this is how buyers begin to picture a home, and it’s a beautiful photograph that catches a person’s eye.  Stunning photos pull us into the listing for a closer look, and it’s these visual aides that encourage a buyer to add that listing to their favorites so they can view it when they arrive in Sequim.

Real Estate Agents and Listing Photos

I probably should show an example of terrible photographs of other real estate agents, but I just can’t bring myself to post one here.  First, some of them are so ugly, I can’t bare to look at them, and secondly, it would not be a good idea to share another agent’s photo disaster.  What I am showing here are examples of nice photos that help buyers get an idea of how beautiful this home is.

Sellers assume (do they not?) that real estate agents will do all this.  This is fundamental.  It is basic marketing 101.  So why oh why are about 65% of all the MLS listings missing photos of key sections of homes, or why are so many photos blurry or low resolution, or why are so many photos not accurately depicting the home?  In an earlier article I wrote:

You’re on your computer in California, or maybe you’re in Arizona or Nevada right now looking at homes on the MLS in Sequim or Port Angeles.   “Darn it,” you say to your spousal unit.   “There are no photos of the back of the house or the rec room or the garage or shop in this MLS listing either.  What are the real estate agents thinking?”   As your beloved multi-tasks from the kitchen, you hear this soft response, “Well, honey, we’ll just have to wait ’till we get there to see the rest of the house.”

Real Estate Agents as Listing Agents

You can see more photos of this listing at Sequim Water View Home for Sale. 

Real Estate Agents – Photographer for Hire (Free)

If you are are planning to buy a home in the Sequim or Port Angeles area, and you have found a listing online but the photos are incomplete, email or call me, and I’ll go out and take good photos and email them to you.  It would be my pleasure to help you filter through the MLS listings and ultimately identify the homes you want to see when you arrive in Sequim.  Meanwhile, I will continue to encourage real estate agents to take good photographs.

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Real estate agents.  There are all kinds of real estate agents:  short, tall, fat, skinny, talkative, reserved, honest, and exaggerators.  I realize this isn’t front page news, but what I try to do on this real estate blog is provide my readers, subscribers, and clients with an inside view of the real estate industry.  I don’t believe there should be secrets that only Realtors know.  I believe if there is information that could really help buyers and sellers understand how to buy or sell their homes in this market, they ought to have access to that information.  Some information can literally save buyers or sellers tens of thousands of dollars.

Real Estate Agents

I never share “secrets” or “insider information” with a view to expose any wrong doing by real estate agents or brokers, nor do I have any animosity toward any of my competitors.  I love people, and I get along with just about everyone.  I share truths or insider information because it is good information that can help people.  Consumer protection is a theme you will continually see in all that I write in my books and on this blog as well as in my videos.  I love helping people, and having been a real estate lawyer, I am keenly aware of the sales pitches and the gimmicks, not to mention misrepresentations, that are made all the time to suck consumers into a less-than-honest relationship. (more…)

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Negotiating price is a major part of any real estate transaction.  I’ve written elsewhere on this blog about negotiating (Negotiating Price), and the techniques learned in the school of hard knocks over many years.  But today I want to raise a very important aspect of negotiating that very few people think about, and to my knowledge, no one has written about.  What is this element of negotiating that is so important in order to have a successful negotiation?  You may be surprised at my answer at first, but I think you’ll agree as you think about this and your own experiences.

What can either kill a transaction or facilitate its success?  The professional maturity, or lack thereof, of the opposing real estate agent can either facilitate or kill a transaction.  Let me explain.

Let’s assume you have a great Realtor, one who has a deep and broad real estate education, who has decades of real estate experience negotiating hundreds or even thousands of transactions, who is competent and trustworthy, and who is diplomatic but assertive.  You have confidence in your Realtor, and you know he will do a wonderful job in every aspect of your transaction, including negotiating price.  But even if your Realtor is this kind of professional, if the Realtor representing the other side of the transaction is professionally or personally immature, you have a problem Houston.

Childish behavior is often found in adults.  Immature behavior is not a function of age.  Realtors and other professionals are not immune from dysfunctional behaviors.  None of us are.  I have seen opposing Realtors make all kinds of mistakes, mistakes that actually killed transactions.  Now you might think, “Why would a real estate agent kill a transaction when he or she only earns a commission if it closes?”  Good question, but now you’re being logical, and immaturity is not logical.

As a Realtor I’ve had opposing agents swear at me, not return phone calls, not communicate at all when an offer expiration date comes and goes, whine like a baby about an offering price, repeatedly try to justify a higher price even though the listing has NOT sold in two or three years on the market, compare apples and oranges when arguing price, tell me that the comps are higher even though they refuse to show me any of those comps (because they don’t exist), and literally kill an offer on their own listing, contrary to their own client’s interest and contrary to their own interest in earning a commission.

I kid you not.  In 30 years in the real estate business from Fairbanks to Spokane to Las Vegas to Seattle-Tacoma and to Sequim and Port Angeles, I’ve seen some of surprisingly immature behavior that ultimately did not serve the clients’ best interests.  I’ve watched some of these properties subsequently grow stale on the market, and I’ve seen  subdivision lots that hang on the verge of foreclosure on properties that had good and reasonable offers rejected.  What a difference maturity can mean to a real estate transactions on both ends.

While you have no control over the opposing agent’s maturity, you can carefully select your own Realtor.  Don’t underestimate the importance of maturity.  It could be the variable that facilitates or kills your transaction.

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Sounds like the title to a tantalizing new mystery book, doesn’t it?   A book like that might  be chock full of suspense with the characters  experiencing emotions ranging from  confusion to  frustration and a maybe even a dash of irritation.

Too bad that what I’m talking about here isn’t fiction.   For far too many home sellers, this mystery is all too real and common.   Every day in our market sellers are wondering “What happened to my REALTOR?”

Nancy and I handle a lot of sellers who have had their listings expire from the MLS for one reason or another.   Sometimes it’s price, and other times it’s lack of attention from the listing agent.   Here’s a prime example:

Last summer we visited with a seller that had his home on the market for one year with another agency.   His listing had expired and he was interviewing new agents.    A really good move on his part – sellers should talk to as many potential agents as possible to find a good fit for both them and the agent.   A few days after we talked, he called to tell us that he had chosen another agent but that it was a close call.

His house has now been on the market for over 560 days.   When I pulled up the listing history in the MLS, I noticed that the listing had only been touched once over the past year – and that was to extend the listing agreement. In our MLS, agents input prospects to receive listings as they come on the market – the catch is that if your listing is there BEFORE the prospect is entered by the  another agent, the prospect doesn’t receive your listing.   So for approximately 10 months, his listing has sat there unattended and has not been populated into the listing cart of ANY prospect after he was listed.

It’s actually sad, isn’t it?

The number one complaint I hear from sellers who have had their listing expire is “My REALTOR ® stuck a sign in the yard and disappeared.   I would have lowered my price if they had taken the time to do a market update every few months.   I never heard any feedback from showings, and in the 100 degree summer my house was being marketed with a picture of it with snow on the ground.   What gives?“

I believe that there are some agents out there that think the work stops when you get the listing agreement signed.   That’s just not the case.

The gentleman in my example above took all the right steps, he interviewed multiple agents and he didn’t pick his agent based solely on price.   So how can Edwardsville and Glen Carbon home sellers avoid becoming the main character in a bad mystery novel?   Arm yourself with these 10 questions for any agent you interview.

1.   How often will you communicate with me?   How will you communciate with me?   (If you prefer a call and your agent prefers e-mail, hash that out now.   Communication is the foundation for a great team, and you and your agent are a team).

2.   How long do you normally take to return a phone call?

3.   How long do you normally take to respond to an e-mail?

4.   Will you provide me with market updates that compare my house to ones that have closed as well as my active competition?

5.   When the seasons change, will you update your marketing materials?

6.   Will you set me up in the MLS to receive automatic e-mails when something new comes on the market that my home will be in competition with?

7.   Can I deal with you personally when I have a problem, or do I have to go through your assistant?

8.   Will you provide me with a monthly status update about where my home is being advertised?

9.   Even if you can’t reach the other agent for showing feedback, would you please still call me and at least let me know that?

10.   Will you change MLS descriptions every few months to give my listing a fresh look?

If you receive an unsatisfactory answer to any of these questions, move on to the next agent.   The seller-agent relationship is not like an employer-employee relationship… it truly is a team effort and you must find an agent that matches your style for your home sale to be a success.

Questions about selling your home?   Stop by Sacred Grounds Cafe in Edwardsville every Tuesday from 12 – 1 to have them answered.   We’ll be there talking all things real estate – and we’ll even buy the latte.

[This article contributed by Realtor Kristina Pratt.]

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As a real estate broker I’m part of a national network of professionals in the real estate business, and I have the privilege of conversing with these professionals about the real estate business, brokerage, the market, sales techniques, and trends.   I learn a lot from these colleagues, all of whom live and work outside my market.

Here’s a story I’ve heard more than once.   An agent worked for a broker who promised everything under the sun, including a vast educational network, training and mentoring, opportunity for growth and income, office support, tools, supplies, and affiliations that could help the agent build his business.   The agent wasn’t new to the business.   As a matter of fact, the agent had years of precious experience that the broker insisted would be helpful to the brokerage and help them finally get moving in the right direction and get some momentum going.   There were even hints of partnership or management that would involve substantial compensation.   It all sounded so good to the agent that he signed up enthusiastically with the broker.

Unfortunately, after a year of no office meetings, no “vast educational network,” no helpful affiliations, no marketing systems, no business planning, . . . and virtually no office support with any value, the agent decided he had no choice but to move on.   He realized after pouring his heart out and working long hours to be successful at the brokerage, and after undying loyalty and faithfulness to the broker and the broker’s wife and the entire staff, the broker had in fact misrepresented his services and benefits.

It turns out this is a common story told in nearly every region of the country.   Real estate agents have a hard time finding a good home, and that’s the rule rather than the exception.   The exception is the agent who has been working with the same broker for a dozen or more years.   That’s rare.

It’s a tough business. Brokers are trying to make money off every agent, and agent’s are trying to keep as much of their money as they can.   If an agent felt he was getting great value for the substantial portion of the commission he gave his broker out of each transaction, that would be one thing, but many agents are finding out they don’t get all that was promised, and some argue they don’t get anything.

With the real estate market down so far, and deals few and far between, it has become dog-eat-dog out there.   If you’re a Realtor trying to find a broker who understands how to run a profitable business and take care of his agents with generous compensation and mentoring, don’t give up hope.   They’re out there.   They’re just hard to find.

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