Imagine this scenario. It’s been 120 days since your agent put a for sale sign in your yard. On the day you hired your Realtor, she promised it would be a successful working relationship. Weeks later, this “relationship” somehow turned into a “one-night stand.” She doesn’t return your phone calls, she never drops by and now there’s a bird’s nest occupying the empty Info Box that use to hold your house’s brochures so many months ago.
In this situation, do you think your real estate agent is doing everything possible to sell your house? Of course not. This agent is certainly not worth their commission.
Work of fiction? No. There really are agents like this. Lots of them. Many homeowners find themselves in this type of situation everyday because they hired the wrong agent. Not to worry, there are good real estate agents out there too. However, it’s hard to tell the difference between a top producing agent and a non-producing agent without being able to look at their track records and sales histories. With a top producing successful real estate agent, you can expect the following level of service.
Recent Sales Track Record
You want a top producing real estate agent that has a proven track record of selling houses in your area over the last six months.
Easy to Contact
The best real estate agents communicate with their clients regularly. They give their clients multiple phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and when you leave a message or ask a question, they always respond in a timely manner.
Knows the Best Price
Good agents that can sell houses in your neighborhood, know your market and they know how to price your house. Top producing real estate agents continuously monitor the real estate market to make sure their listings stay competitive and they quickly react when the market requires it.
Provides Advice & Mentoring
Good real estate agents are experts in their field. It is their job to share that wisdom to benefit their client. They should advise you about prepping your home for sale, including improvements, repairs and enhancements. Top producing Realtors should also walk the client through the entire transaction, informing them and educating them along the way.
Great MLS Listings That Buyers Notice
It’s amazing how many bad pictures there are on our local MLS. Even worse are the listings without any pictures whatsoever. Top producing Realtors take the time to put together the best MLS listing possible. They wait for a sunny day to take pictures; write descriptions that emphasizes a house’s attractive features and keep the listing constantly updated.
Successful Marketing Techniques
Successful real estate agents promote their listings in a variety of ways that grab the buyer’s attention. Their listings show up on all the major real estate web sites, brochures boast about the house’s features, and the Info Box next to the For Sale sign is always full of pamphlets. Besides marketing to buyers, it’s also important to market to the buyer’s agents because buyer’s agents attract buyers.
Consistent Status Updates
The market is constantly changing. Successful agents position their clients to take advantage of it. They provide you with consistent market updates, share buyer feedback and log all showing activity. These factors determine the actions you have to take to stay competitive.
Client Representation
Representing the client is a very important role for a Realtor. Top producing real estate agents advise you on expert contract negotiating tactics; help you with inspections and contingencies; and make sure all the necessary paperwork is in order to ensure a successful closing.
If we revisit our imagined homeowner scenario again but swap agents, how much of a difference do you think a successful real estate agent could make. In this case, when you ask yourself if your real estate agent is doing everything possible to sell your house, do you come up with a different answer? I assure you, agents of this quality exist and AgentHarvest knows how to find them. Here’s how we find the best real estate agents for you.
If you are buying or selling a house and are looking to hire a successful real estate agent to help you through the process, take a look at AgentHarvest's list of top-ranking local Realtors in your area. We found these agents by examining their sales track records, awards, rankings, client testimonials and by conducting personal interviews.
The topic being discussed in this blog is truthful. There are so many real state agents that are worthless. For this reason, it is very important to make or carry out a background check before you hire a real state agent. In this way you will be sure that you had hired a responsible real state agent.
The WORST WORST WORST Real Estate Company I ever Worked with was XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX (name removed by Admin), The staff is rude, the agent that
said his name was “Mike” had such a bad attitude and the broker was never
there. I don’t know her how company stays in business. DO NOT USE THEM!
Hey great post man awesome motivation to look into when selling my next house and about what you said about:”Successful real estate agents promote their listings in a variety of ways that grab the buyer’s attention. Their listings show up on all the major real estate web sites, brochures boast about the house’s features, and the Info Box next to the For Sale sign is always full of pamphlets. Besides marketing to buyers, it’s also important to market to the buyer’s agents because buyer’s agents attract buyers.”
You are so right but i would imply this for any business as well wouldn’t you
However some marketing campaigns are better than others. MLS systems all over the country are filled with crappy pictures and canned, meaningless phrases. And no matter how good the marketing is, if an agent never follows up with the buyer or you, then the whole promotional campaign is wasted. Don’t be too impressed with an agent for distributing your MLS listing across multiple websites because lots of websites automatically pickup the listing because it’s on MLS.
I am looking at starting as an estate agent part-time on my own. Looking for a career change. I am looking at selling from home, doing all the paper work myself. I am good with figures, computer, etc. I have a 3rd level qualification and have templetes for all paper work, contracts, etc that would required. Would anyone advise if I should give it a go. I live in a semi rural area and the local estate agent is not very highly respected in the area. Anyone have any advice?
Jason:
If it’s something you want to do, then by all means go for it. However, as a part-timer I worry you may not be able to provide the same level of service that a full-time agent can, and the level the client expects. Basically, you’ll be charging the same commission but providing less service. This part of the conversation has been discussed in Is A Part-time Career in Real Estate a Career or just a Hobby so I’ll refer you there for that.
Regarding the competition… This may be a problem for you. Sure, you can work from your home, but for the first few years, you’ll need to be associated with an agency broker before you can qualify to get your own brokerage license, depending on your state’s rules. Either way, you’ll need to be associated with a brokerage to practice real estate, to get experience, and to take advantage of training. If the only agency in your area has a reputation for being horrible, you may need to associate with a broker in another town. If that town shares your MLS database, then you can probably service your area from the distant office. But there will be a couple of trips to the office per week. After you earn your brokerage license, you can setup shop in your spare bedroom and service your local community. Best of luck with your new career.
Where does one find these national websites in order to advertise and post pictures of their property? How do you check out an agent? Especially if you don’t know any of their past clients. Any advice if the building you own is another city from where you live? Thanks.
Dianne:
The best form of advertising is putting your house in your local MLS. From there it gets propagated to the feeder sites like Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and many others, including all agent sites that incorporate MLS feeds into their site by IDX. The best part is that all of that is done automatically. The price of admission is either a negotiated commission with an agent or a flat-fee from a flat-fee listing agent. Your best marketing efforts will be done on the local or community area. You don’t have to know past clients to call them. Ask the agent for a list of houses they’ve sold, then pick a sample of houses that either took a long time to sell or had a large price reduction and then pick a few others that fall in the average. Ask the agent for their contact info and call them. People don’t mind. The best way to evaluate an agent is to compare them to other agents. That’s why I recommend interviewing at least three. For recommended price and improvements, consensus rules. If the building you own is in another city, nothing changes. Everything is available on the Internet. You will have to plan a weekend trip to meet the agents and you’ll definitely want to have them walk the property with you to see their reaction and get their ideas. Study them while they are studying your building. The rest can be done from afar. It just takes a little longer. Best of luck and take your time. You’re making an important decision.
I agree with almost all of the content of your post.
My own view (as a property developer AND a real estate agent) is that you should never underestimate the importance of personal recommendation. If friends or family have had a good user experience with a particular agent you are likely to get the same.
Tony:
Yes, personal recommendations are valuable only if they are from people in your area or in the area you’re wanting to buy in, and if they’ve actually used the agent to buy or sell a home. I usually ignore all recommendations where a someone is recommending a friend or relative and not an agent that they’ve used.
Your information was very helpful. Our real estate agent did not take the photos, did not come up with the description and is asking us to promote on social media our house and “network” around the neighborhood. Our flyers are never updated and the box sits empty half the time. This is our first experience with a real estate agent so we are not too sure, but we don’t have a good feeling about this. Also, he just told us he is recording conversations with potential buyers and emailing us those conversations. Is that legal?
First of all, the legality of recording conversations is different in each state, however I think the laws may treat recorded conversations differently if both parties are aware of the conversation being recorded and agree to it. Once again, check with the laws in your state.
The way you describe your agent, it sounds like you’re working for them instead of the agent working for you. You should voice your concerns with the agent, give them a list of areas to improve, and let them know you’ll fire them if they don’t improve. There’s no excuse for not taking photos or creating an MLS description. Make sure your agent gives you a stack of flyers to keep inside for buyers who tour your home. Those are more important then the drive-by box. If your contract is nearing expiration, you may want to consider finding another agent. I’m sure we could help.
We have a realtor and I would love some advice please, it’s been on the market 3 weeks. They have never brought a client to look at it or another realitor. They have held 2 open houses (3 hours) and did list it on the major sites with good photos. Our home is not visible from the road and before those open houses no notice was up that there in advance . (just doing the OH) now they want us to bring down the price significantly and sent us info why they thought so. They sold less then 4 homes in the last 12 months. Am I being too picky ?