Learn to do your JOB! All this crying about how difficult real estate is and you can't make any money. Maybe it's because if you were employed by a company instead of an independent contractor you would have been fired! It's so frustrating to work hard to market your listings and then have to deal with untrained and inexperienced buyers agents that waste your time, your sellers' time, and even their own time!
Example 1: An agent calls to show a listing stating he's not optimistic, he's been showing this buyer homes for 6 mos. A few weeks later, he presents an offer from that buyer that's 27% under asking price. Yes, it's a buyers market and low offers are expected. However, if he had done his homework he could have easily discovered the home is already priced well under market value and the price was recently dropped 5%. He also could have found the home was refinanced just 4 yrs. ago for more than the current asking price but still less than the sellers purchase price. How could he think the sellers would have thousands of dollars to bring to the closing table in this economy? Learn to counsel your buyers when making an offer OR better yet, FIRE YOUR BUYER. This one's a time waster.
Example 2: Same agent as above calls to show same property again. Showing goes well and the buyers want to look a 2nd time along with 2 other homes they liked. Great! After 2nd showing they've decide my listing is their favorite, but wait....the agent states he's got the feeling the home is out of their price range so he sent them to get pre-approved. Did I hear that right? This agent spent 2 days showing several homes to buyers that are not pre-approved. Not only does he not know what they can afford he doesn't even know if they can qualify for a loan! Ok, dude, you just wasted your time, your buyers' time, my time, and inconvienced several sellers....not to mention getting their hopes up for a possible sale.
This is a job, a career. Work it. Get your buyers pre-approved from the start. Explain they need a letter of pre-approval to accompany any offer. Wouldn't it be awful if they found the home of their dreams and while waiting for an appointment with a lender to get pre-approved, someone else put the home in contract? How about they find the perfect home but discover they can only get approved for a loan $40,000 less? Do you think they will find anything they like as well as that "perfect home" in a lower price range. It will be hard!
Do your homework before writing an offer. You owe it to your buyer to gain all pertinent facts regarding that home. Public records are available online in most areas. Look at the county's valuation for tax purposes. Although in our county they are never in line with market value, but you can see a pattern and come to a more accurate figure. You can follow loan history on a property through the county recorders website. You can follow pricing history on a property through MLS. And certainly you know how to do a market analysis. Compare it to other homes listed and sold to see what a fair price would be. Don't let your buyer make you look like a fool. You're the professional. Do your job well and you'll earn respect and better yet, you'll make money!
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