Roofing & Real Estate. I would venture to say most of us know at least one in each profession - or at least in some point in life, they were one. It never fails, April showers bring May flowers and about 100 new roofers over night. The same is to say with our profession of Real Estate. Many people believe, "I'll just put a couple signs in the yard, send out a few snaps, tweets, dm's, posts, etc, and BOOM...I'm a Realtor." It hurts my head just typing that. So when the market jumps, so do they....and when it dumps....
I personally decided it was a good idea to get into the real estate industry in the booming year of 2008. There were more distressed sales than not. As I entered a new profession bright eyed and ambitious, there was a mass exodus of "professionals" leaving. I learned the ropes with a lot of help from a tenured mentor, as well as testing what worked and what didn't myself.
It was PAINFUL that first year. You had a front row seat of friends bringing life savings to close their house or maybe they had to do a short sale, or they got foreclosed on. It was tough. Nothing came easy, and I quickly realized if you were going to survive, you had to know your stuff! You had to know the market, and you needed to know your contracts - inside and out.
I ran neighborhood comps on a normal basis. I could give a round about quote by neighborhood, lot, and size. I memorized the contract while I drove around from one place to another. It HORRIFIED me that someone might think I didn't know what one of the paragraphs said. I WORKED, this was my FULL TIME job. I wanted to give my client all the information they needed to be able to make life changing decision....that's what this is, but there are many who don't treat it like that - "professionals" or the public.
Now, I am not against new agents. In fact, we prefer to only hire new agents. What makes me cringe though, there are hundreds of new agents now in the market again who have no guidance, no mentor. They are going to help a couple friends, maybe sell their own home, and 2 days into a contract, they realize they have no clue what they are doing. They have electronic signatures now - a lot of them don't even know what they are having their clients sign. Think about that statement - a person is buying or selling a product, usually, 6 or 7 digits in price, and the legal contract they just signed - the consumer thinks this licensed person has it under control and the Realtor thinks its no big deal, we're just going to close in 30 days.
We aren't just Realtors. We are crisis managers, "psychiatrists", marketers, communicators....among many other things (note, we are not attorneys though). So many transactions are bumpy, but I want to minimize those bumps, if not eliminate, that my client feels.
I'm not telling you not to use a new agent or a friend - I was there, and thank God someone gave me a chance. BUT, make sure they have the backing needed. Make sure they are a Full-time agent, part time agent is another term for "this is my hobby."
Not every transaction can be without its lumps. Some clients will leave with a bad taste in their mouth - for me, that pushes to me to be even better. I hate people leaving with that feeling. People think it doesn't matter who represents them, until it does.
Make sure you have a shining star, and not just a ball of gas.
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