I knew that somewhere out there, the ideal real estate agent existed, and I found him. Is it because he can get me the best deals? It’s more than that. He tells… and sells the colorful truth.
So what do you think of these home descriptions?
In one description he warned potential customers: ‘Dear God, it’s difficult to imagine a more disgusting house than this.’
One description for a two bedrooms terraced house at £155,000 reads: ‘All the charm and poise of a vicar on crack. Hall, cloak room, sitting room, kitchen, bathroom, parking and rear courtyard garden. Suit midget on a budget.’
He chose to describe some homes as “grubby, cramped and dirty” or “suitable for the Addams Family.”
Meanwhile, an elegant cottage is advertised as: ‘An absolute stunner – if this cottage was a woman it would be Denise Van Outen in a rubber suit holding a cold flannel.’
A description for a one bedroom home reads: ‘My personal favorite. Delicious as a small bun sprinkled with sugar on the top this place fair glistens with delight. It’s smooth and silky with a contempory twist but still holds fast to an ancient value. A must see and cracking investment.’
That got my attention!
The agent behind these effusive listings is Julian Bending from Somerset, England, who has decided to avoid wasting people’s time by stating the obvious. After all, the property will speak for itself anyway at some point.
Perhaps Mr. Bending is a bit, shall we say, “extreme” about the wording in his advertisements, but I do commend him for having one attribute that I wished real estate professionals, and salespeople in general, would be more typical to possess: brutal candor. Of course, this may not be your cup of tea, but a number of people including myself do find this type of honesty refreshing in this business.
So this got me thinking about what it is I’m really looking for in a broker; my thoughts ultimately spawning this wish list:
Wanted: My Ideal Real Estate Professional
Find me someone with all these characteristics, and they’ll have my business!
- Excellent communication skills
The job involves strong interpersonal skills so communication skills that will fit your target market is important. - Flexible about their commissions and their terms
See if you can find an agent who will negotiate with you, give you some leeway or is open to discussion. For example, you should have the right to take the property off the market for any reason, to switch brokers or cancel the agreement without penalty if you are unsatisfied with the broker’s efforts. The agreement should be in effect 90 days and should only have a six-month period where you would owe this broker a commission if someone they showed the home returns to buy it later. - Personable and easy to get along with
Since you’re forging a business relationship with your agent, you should find someone who you like and has a great personality so that your experience with buying or selling a house is pleasant. Can you imagine what it would be like if you’re stuck with someone you’re constantly annoyed with, while steeped in the real estate process, which is aggravating enough? This would totally add to my stress level! - A discount broker, perhaps?
A discount broker may be great for the money but may have less credibility. They may work better as a buyer’s agent since listing agents will need experience with marketing and generating traffic to a house for sale. - Good references
Like in any other job, an agent should be able to supply references. - Recommended by someone you already know and trust
Did someone recommend your agent? If not, make sure you interview your candidates and ask questions…Of course, interview or get to know the candidates you are considering to work with you. Be aware of the reputation of their agencies. - Realistic and honest
Some brokers will try to get your listing by suggesting an unrealistically high price for your house. They’ll tell you every house is the best house they’ve ever seen, every room is just about perfect, your kids are going to love it, the neighbors will love your barking dog. They’ll tell you anything! An agent must disclose all the material facts of any transaction — everything they know about the property, good or bad. If a salesperson knows there are three inches of water in the basement every time it rains, he is obligated to disclose that fact. - An expert in the neighborhoods you’re dealing with
The person representing you needs to be an expert in the kind of property you are interested in buying…or selling. Familiarity in the price range and neighborhood should be a priority. They should know your particular market, as well as the schools, taxes and local transportation. Someone with 4 or 5 years under their belt would be suitable, though folks with less experience may agree to negotiate their commissions. But as they say, you get what you pay for. I’d opt to pay for the experience. - Professional and committed, not a fly by night
I’d prefer to consider somebody who was doing the job full time and for a long while. I do see quite a good number of people who start out as part time brokers to supplement other jobs, and recruiting their own relatives as customers. When they ask for my business, I politely tell them I have many other brokers I know who I’m considering. - Consider choosing an agent who is a Realtor
I’d work with a realtor, as opposed to just an agent or a broker. Some key distinctions: all real estate agents need to be licensed by the state while those who also take additional tests become brokers who can run their own offices. Realtors are agents or brokers who belong to the National Association of Realtors, and pledge to subscribe to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. Note that agents who are subscribers have access to Multiple Listing Services (MLS) (a database of all available properties that brokers use to find homes to show to buyers) through which members share listings and have access to many more properties than non-members. You can locate a Realtor in your area at www.realtor.com. - Someone who has a good network or can provide other services
Will they help arrange a house inspection, refer you to qualified lending professionals and real estate attorneys, and conduct a study of the property’s value? Good customer service shouldn’t be too much to ask. Customer relationships are at the root of a salesperson’s career, and agents are salespeople.
Does your agent’s qualifications read like your resume? It should. After all, you’re picking someone hopefully as sharp as you are in your line of work!
In our town, we’re suffering from a real estate agent glut, or what you may call a bubble. I know way too many real estate professionals all vying for the same business: they approach the same people, the same friends and even relatives(!) as they hunt for clients. When you’re in the middle of such networks and relationships, it gets tough, like when I had to choose between two very good friends to help us buy a house. It actually turned quite ugly after we selected one of them to be our agent based on the criteria I’ve listed above. I tried to be systematic and logical, but my choices were still questioned and taken personally.
If you are armed with a good list that can help justify the broker you decide to do business with, I’m sure you’ll be one step closer to sleeping much better and feeling more comfortable about your home buying or selling decisions. You’ll approach these tasks with due diligence, despite all the subjectivity that comes along with signing up with a professional.
< Source: Estate Agent Decides Honesty Is The Best Policy >
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Howdy, as usual, great post, CT! The point about Realtors may need a little clarification. Any agent who subscribes has access to the MLS and the data cloistered away in its archives. Most MLS systems will allow non-members to search, but won’t present important information like the property’s pricing history.
(Arguing for a more open MLS policies and integration of the countless national and county systems is a completely different discussion.)
Also, you can be a member of the National Association of Realtors without being a Realtor.
When people choose friends and family, it’s hard not to have some of that personal relationship at stake during what is already a potentially stressful transaction. That risk is more than a lot of people want to face if things go south. From my experience, the agents who make it look easy are the most successful ones.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi Steve,
! Thanks for the clarification — my understanding is that the distinction on being a realtor then is someone who subscribes to the Code of Ethics. I’ll have to qualify that! Thanks so much again for the input and would love to hear your feedback on all the real estate related posts I make 
.
I appreciate your comments — you are the expert in this area
Thanks CT, I’m happy to be a part of the community you’ve got here. The blog’s a great read.
Here are two links with some diffs between regular agents vs. Realtors…
About.com
yaerd.org
In general, if you personally subscribe to The Golden Rule and promise to disclose anything that hints of conflict of interest, the two are indistinguishable. The rest California law takes care of.
I find that good realtors are hard to find, but worth their weight in commissions! I have cycled through a few and found one I am sticking with. Great post!
Congrats on your Carnival appearance.
Realtor vs agent is occasionally a moot point. If the local realtor association owns the local MLS, you tend to have to join the realtor association to get the MLS access. No MLS access means you’re worthless as an agent, so…. :-/
Hey CT, congrats on the Carnival pick: awesome job!
I read with some amusement your “Ideal Real Estate Agent” from England…..Bitterness aside….we professional agents in the US have something we must adhere to..its called Fair Housing and all the wonderful guidelines that, if violated [ as the agent from the UK has done] would land him in court, fined to death and loss of license. You can be honest without being pithy, vulgar and bitter. Something bitter Brits have never learned. Hmmmmmmm
Great story and some good points. Now let’s apply those same principles to the tech world and Silicon Valley shall we?
No more suits for “intellectual property rights” after 6 months; and developers and users should be able to “transfer their knowledge” freely among new employers and competitors. Hmmmm! Makes sense to me. They SHOULD have the same value as a “listing contract.”
This was a GREAT post. I hate to disagree with Steve Leung, but… you absolutely CANNOT be a Realtor without belonging to the National Assocation of Realtors. That is, in fact, the definition of what a Realtor is – you had that right the first time. At the same time, someone could be an “Affiliate Member” of the National, State, or Local associations of Realtors and not be a real estate agent. The affiliates may be lenders, movers, title and escrow people, etc. But they are not called Realtors, but simply affiliates.
But if you are discussing real estate salespeople, there are primarily two categories: Licensees and Realtors. All Realtors (not affiliates) are licensees but not all licensees are Realtors.
Regarding the MLS: Any real estate licensee (the license is given by the state, and a real estate agent or licensee is not necessarily a Realtor, to reiterate) may pay dues to belong to the MLS. You do not have to be a Realtor to belong to the MLS, but you must have a real estate license.
OK since I took a long time to clarify a mis-clarification, I’ll try to be brief as I heap on the praise for your litany of requirements and call just one point into question.
(1) I love your list. I wish all my relatives (who are far away and cannot hire me) would hire using a list like this!
(2) The only point I’d have to caution you about is the discounters. I know it’s effete to say “you get what you pay for”, but often that IS true. The best agents don’t HAVE to work for 1%, they have marketing costs that make even working for 2% impossible as a sustainable choice, in fact. Some brokerages have deeply discounted models. I cannot say that I have ever had a good transaction with any of them. I have not found the agents to be full service, but a pared-down deal in which the client is not aided or served nearly as well as in a traditional brokerage.
Reputation is extremely important in this industry. There are agents (and brokerages) with both good and bad repuations, and that reputation can help or hinder you when you try to buy or sell a home.
Within traditional brokerages, many agents will be a little flexible on fees for certain cirucumstances: repeat clients, high-end deals, tough luck scenarios (illness, looming foreclosure, job loss) being among them. But by and large, agents with a professional style business and budget (to cover support services, marketing etc.) don’t offer deep discounts because doing that kind of business won’t pay the bills and make it sustainable.
Last year in Silicon Valley, I was told that 39% of the agents sold NO homes. In desperation, those agents will cut commissions to the bare. But if they sold no homes last year, will they be able to sell yours, or help you get into one, this year?
So, great post – just watch the discounting issue as most of the time, it is a red flag in my experience (of doing real estate full time since 1993).
Just a point of clarification, I said you can be a member of the NAR without being a Realtor, but not vice versa.
(Full Disclosure: I work for Neighborcity.com)
I stop by here often and find your blog informative and relevant. This posting is no different. You made some great points, and I think if someone were to follow the road map you’ve laid out, the end result would be more than satisfactory. However, if you happen to be one of the many people looking to relocate from another city or country, finding a trusted agent can be a little trickier. This is where we come in. Our site provides perspective homeowners with the resources necessary to make the right agent choice, weather this is your first, second or third home, the agent match algorithm, in combination with our real estate specialists, will find an agent that matches the specific needs of a any type of buyer.
RJ C.
Neighborcity.com
A friend of mine hired a Boston real estate agent for apartments, which is very popular in Boston —- which is very unique to Boston… as many agents across the country are hired for condos instead.
It seems like finding a needle inside a haystack. But definitely there are agents who possess that requirement list. Can you please stand up?