9 Traits Only the Best Realtors Have

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial transactions of your life.  For a $1,000,000 home, each buyer and seller are usually represented by a Realtor® who gets paid about $30,000 each.  Since the internet has made marketing your home for sale or finding your next home easier than ever, today’s Realtor® responsibilities aren’t the same as they were in the 1990s.  So, let’s see what today’s best Realtor® looks like before you trust one with $30,000 of your money.

 1.       MANAGE EXPECTATIONS?”

When a real estate agent tells you, “My listings sell for 15 days quicker than the industry average,” beware.  The number of days a home is on the market before an offer is accepted is called the “days on market” or DOM. When a home is priced correctly, the market will determine the DOM, not a flashy listing agent.  If a home sells relatively quickly, it was priced too low, which doesn’t benefit the seller.  Just make sure you understand all the details of a claim that sounds something like, “I can sell your home quickly.”  Ask your agent what the average DOM for your neighborhood is and set that DOM as an expectation. And remember: no two home sale experiences are identical because (1) no agent can produce more buyers, (2) no home is exactly the same, and (3) the home buyer pool changes daily.

2.       ARE THEIR SALES FIGURES “TOO HIGH?”

When an agent touts their recent sales figures, beware: Are those solo or team sales? 15-30 transactions per year per agent is a good rule of thumb.  More transactions than that can start leading to quality concerns, not spending enough time for your situation, etc.  Lots of sales by one agent can indicate that their listings were sold for under market value.  Some agent groups/teams do 1,000s of closings per year, because they have dozens of team members… the transactions per person average may only be a handful per year.  There’s nothing wrong with this, just know the numbers.

3.       GREAT AGENTS WILL FULLY EXPLAIN THE AGENCY AGREEMENT

Whether you’re hiring an agent to help you buy or sell, most agency agreements are written to protect the agent, not you, the client, whether you’re selling or buying.  It's strongly discouraged for an agent to change the pre-printed language in an agreement.  Therefore, it is common to see numerous extra conditions written in by the agent towards the end of the agreement.  These may be extra fees, cancellation conditions, commission conditions, and other “fine print.”  A good agent will discuss these conditions at great length until you are 100% comfortable with them. You will generally find more extra conditions with larger, national realty companies.  Don’t be afraid to think about things and wait a day or so before signing.  Also, be sure to understand, although there may be industry tendencies (i.e., seller helps buyer with some closing costs, certain commission structures), everything is negotiable.

4.       LOOK FOR A FRIENDLY AGENT

When you hire an agent, you hire someone to sell your situation to others… your agent becomes an extension of you and your goals.  Since your agent will be talking with strangers to buy or sell you a home, you want them to make it easy and inviting for others to do business with them.  If your agent is not friendly by nature, it will be hard for other agents to want to work with him/her on a transaction.

5.       FULL-TIME vs PART-TIME AGENT

There are over 35,000 real estate agents licensed in Tennessee.  It’s hard to find data on how many of those work in real estate full-time, but it’s safe to say 1/3 do not.  Some brokerage firms even hire mostly part-time agents.  There is nothing wrong with a part-time agent, just be sure they have enough time and experience to get the job done.  Ask them what their schedule is and if they have enough time to find or sell your home.  And don’t be afraid to ask them why they aren’t doing real estate full-time.

6.       LOOK FOR PROFESSIONALISM

First impressions are super important when buying a home and when hiring an agent.  When your agent meets you for the first time in person, look for polish, punctuality, and organization.  Most people don’t like to be waiting even five extra minutes when meeting someone.  So, if your agent is late for the first meeting and hasn’t informed you about being late, this is not a good sign of things to come.  Hire an agent who calls, emails, and meets you when they say they will, accepts responsibility when they’re at fault, looks you in the eye when talking, uses proper grammar and appropriate language, and is organized with their thoughts and sales pitch.

7.       DOES THE AGENT LISTEN OR TALK?

An agent who doesn’t listen to you and is more interested in touting their experience and sales figures can trick you into a quick sale, which may mean you paid too much or sold for too little. Watch out for fast-talking agents who talk more than they listen. YOU are the important element in a real estate transaction.  This means your goals should come before an agent’s goal of getting to closing ASAP and getting paid. A great agent will be honest about the industry, local housing conditions, neighborhood trends and your goals to help formulate a selling gameplan. A great agent won’t make promises about finding or selling your home, and they certainly won't promise, "I'll sell your home or I'll buy it." Who wants to buy your home at market value, pay closing costs, then try to sell it again at market value and pay more closing costs? Unless you want to be $50,000 in the hole, no one, and that's why this trick always results in buying your home below market value. The only caveat to this is when the seller needs to sell quickly and probably below market value.

8.      “DUAL AGENCY” IS A NO-NO

Dual agency occurs when the listing agent represents the seller and the buyer in the same transaction.  Dual agency is legal in Tennessee, but it is frowned upon due to its borderline unethicality.  Before the 1990s, many home sale transactions did not include buyer representation.  So, the listing agent would essentially collect 6% commission on the sale.  After retirement, Dallas Cowboy quarterback great Roger Staubach shook the industry and launched a real estate firm that focused on buyer/tenant representation and listing agents would agree to split their commission with these agents when they brought their party to the table.  When a seller or buyer signs a representation agreement with an agent, it starts a fiduciary relationship, meaning that agent must act in the client’s best interest, similar to a defense attorney.  But how can one agent simultaneously act in the best interest of both parties?  They can't. And for this reason, dual agency is often linked with deceitful, unethical, insufficient representation.

9.       TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

By visiting an open house, you get to see a prospective agent in action.  Ideally, you should do this before you hire them so you can discover how they interact with you and others during the open house.  Are they knowledgeable?  How do they treat stranger? Ask them questions about the neighborhood.  Are they polite?  Do they like to interact with other people?  Are they professional or do they play with their phone in another room while visitors are looking for them?  Are they organized?  Do they have brochures about the featured home, the neighborhood, the local HOA, a comparable market analysis, and their business card?  Do they listen more than they talk?  Do they boast about their sales numbers?  You get the idea... go with your gut. To get a really unbiased report about that prospective listing agent, get a friend to visit the open house and report their findings.