The Real Estate business is a really interesting one. For the most part it is primarily a sales industry, that requires it’s professionals to be knowledgeable in marketing, negotiating, and people skills for starters. Real estate agents also deal a great deal with contracts and legal issues.
It’s a very tough business. Nearly 80% of new agents end up quitting the business within the first 2 years. It’s not as easy as you might think.
Yet, real estate agents are responsible for handling the most expensive financial transactions most people ever have.
Almost anyone can get a real estate license, but only the good ones will ever actually make it past the first couple years. Because real estate agents rely on full commission sales, over time, the bad ones are usually weeded out because they can’t make a living selling real estate.
Here are five signs you have a bad real estate agent. If your agent displays any of these traits, you need to stop and run away as fast as you can. Fire them immediately! The biggest financial transaction of your entire life could be at stake:
1. Your Real Estate Agent Has Another Job – A real estate agent essentially is a small business owner. Like any other business owner, it requires certain costs and demands a large commitment of time, in order to become successful. If your real estate agent has to focus the majority of their time working some other job, how can you trust them to sell your house? Would you hire an doctor who also waited tables 40 hours a week while he tried to get his medical practice off the ground?
How available will they be to answer questions, or show homes if they are working their “other job.” If they can’t adequately manage their own finances, how are they going to help you out?
2. You Can’t Reach Your Agent – Communication is by far one of the most important parts of a real estate transaction. Real estate agents need to be able to communicate readily and be available. If your real estate agent doesn’t answer calls, or quickly respond to emails, what do you think they’re doing when potential buyers and sellers are calling them? They are missing out on opportunities to sell your home.
3. Your Agent Never Calls You. If you’re entrusting the sale of your largest asset to someone, you would probably expect to hear from them on a regular basis, right? If your home has been sitting on the market for the past 3 months and you haven’t heard from your agent, what on earth is going on? If you’re trying to purchase a home and need to look at property but your agent is out of town and didn’t bother telling you beforehand, how professional is that? You need someone on your side who will constantly keep you in the loop and updated at all times.
4. Your Agent Doesn’t Know the Market. A critical aspect of being a good agent is knowing the real estate market. This industry changes on a daily basis. Homes get bought and sold, new laws take effect, property values go up and down. If your agent isn’t studying homes and prices every day, what are they doing?
The reality is that in most real estate markets, home prices are still going down, and there is a huge surplus of real estate inventory. Real Estate agents who allow listings to be overpriced are just doing a disservice to their clients and themselves. Real Estate agents need to understand the realities of the market, and explain the facts to their clients.
5. Your Agent Doesn’t Have a Website. In today’s technological age, nearly 90% of all homebuyers and sellers find their agent on the internet. If you’re planning to buy a home, where do you normally start looking first? If you have a home to sell, where will most of the buyers find out about it? That’s right…the internet.
If 90% of consumers start looking online when they are thinking about buying or selling a home, why doesn’t your agent have a professional presence online? I’m not talking about that single page they have on their company’s website, I’m talking about their very own domain name and website? Do they just not care enough about their chosen profession? Maybe they’re just doing real estate part time while they pursue some other career. If I was a buyer or seller, I’d only want to work with someone who was completely dedicated to the business of real estate.
I mean, if I needed a lawyer and 90% of them worked in big law firms, why on earth would I go pick one who worked out of the back of his car? Doesn’t make sense.
These are just 5 of the ways to tell you have a bad agent. If any of these items describe the agent you’re working with…BEWARE!! Your real estate transaction is destined for problems, potentially costing you thousands of dollars in the process.