Based upon my experiences, a majority of brokerages (and their agents) either put their interests above their clients interests, or are simply average, at best, at what they do; selling a few homes each year to family or friends and the occasional “walk-in” or captured lead. The (few) truly good ones that take this business seriously, continue to educate themselves (and I don’t mean by memorizing ‘objection handling techniques’) and always put their clients interests above their own.Want to do a fun experiment? Try this: Call three agents from the same office of any real estate company and ask them to present you with a market analysis and marketing presentation to sell your home. You will almost certainly get three completely different marketing plans, three different values for your home and three different reasons why they are better than any other agent. But, what you will most likely get is almost the same, exact rehearsed dialog…you’ll think the agents have a recording in their pocket. I have personally seen the exact same slide presentation, exact same dialog (to the word), exact same stats, etc, being used by agents of one of the national franchises all over the country! How can the exact same demographics, stats, charts and graphs (and advice) be relevant everywhere?
What you’re not likely to get: insightful questioning with the resultant pertinent advice; a real in-depth knowledge of the micro and macro market trends; any knowledge of the demographic and socio-graphic profile of your buyer…and on and on.
The opinion of value you get will vary because each person has their own opinion and use the comparable sales they decide to use. But it will vary also because some agents have been trained to “say what you want to hear” just to get the listing…basically trying to outbid other agents by selling the owner on selecting an agent by the auction method: goes to the highest bidder! Also, it will vary because the agent doesn’t really know the marketplace in great detail…what are the trends?, what is the inventory?, what type of financing is the probable buyer of your home most likely to get? Are they factoring in the influence that HOA rules can/will have? Are they considering the desirability of current (and proposed) school boundaries? And many, many more factors.
And if an agent doesn’t want to pay for and/or doesn't know how to produce a virtual tour, high quality digital photography AND a video do you think they are going to say to the seller, “I’d rather not pay for/don’t know how to do a virtual tour and a video, even though they would really help to get prospective buyers into your home, is that okay with you?” Of course not! They’ll tell the seller that they don’t need them or that tours don’t sell homes or they just won’t bring it up at all. But no matter which of these options they choose the seller loses. The seller, their client, is the one who is hurt. And this is from the person they are asking to help protect them.
Everyone has heard this saying: you get what you pay for. But with a real estate agent, you could easily get less than you paid for. A Bad agent will charge you the same amount as we charge…but will end up costing you much more.
Bad agents tell you what to price your home at, good agents help you determine the best price possible for you to achieve your desired outcome.
Bad agents are hard to get ahold of and slow to respond, good agents are easy to get ahold of and respond very quickly. This applies not only to consumers who have hired that agent, but to an agents response time to other agents. It is mind boggling to me that in this day and age there are still agents who don’t text, who check their email every couple of days, and who rarely return calls.
And this sad fact that I see all of the time: In a majority of cases, the client never knows that they have a bad/incompetent/etc agent until it is too late. Plus, there are some things that a bad agent does or doesn’t do that you, as the client, will never, ever know!
There are even big agents/brokers out there who advertise heavily, but you never actually see them. Your phone call is answered by and “intake” person, your listing appointment is with a “listing specialist”, your ongoing communications are with a “customer service coordinator and if you don’t immediately do business with them, you are handed over to “inside sales” to be “incubated”. And this I know…you’ll never get the agents cell phone number…you’ll always be routed through someone who will “get your message to them”! Nice.
It all comes down to this: There are some major differences between brokerages and agents. There are good agents and bad agents (many more bad than good) in every market. It’s always good to know exactly who you are hiring..but more importantly WHY you are hiring them, specifically.
Finally, let me say that there are good Realtors out there, with many different brokerages. There is not just one brokerage that is good and there is not only one good Realtor out there. Many go to work every day taking care of their clients and doing the best job they can. Just be careful and do your homework, whether you are looking to work with an agent on the selling OR buying side.
Thanks for reading...AND letting me vent!
Steve Jackson…561.602.1258 (my direct number, no intermediary answering for me!)
