If you are a really great agent your client had the smoothest closing ever and never had to think much about the whole process of buying or selling their home (I better preface that by saying in a typical closing, and unfortunately these days not many are). They also have no idea of all of the things you did behind the scene to make sure it happened that way.
In fact, they do not even know what you did to earn the money you made.
I use to set up a web page for my clients that kept track of everything I did to get them to a closing but call attorney, perform a CMA, and make inspection appointments really does not seem like that big of a deal in black and white even if it is a really long list. There are a lot more things involved than that of course so many intangible things that do not really work well written down on a list.
This morning I was sent a closing statement for a buyer I represented in a short sale and it had obvious seller's cost on the buyer's side (including a judgment) to get to the selling bank's approved amount.
I could not believe that it was just sent to me by the attorney saying I hope this works for the buyer that is the only way we can get it approved. I was suppose to tell my buyer who was driving down from New Jersey you should not have to do this but if you really want the home today we may have to. The buyer's have been the greatest to work with and very pleasant but if someone told me that I was paying $1,500 more at 8AM in the middle of a long drive Jeckel may have appeared as well.
My buyer's agent and I decided to call the attorney and listing agent to get to the bottom of this new arrangement and found the right solution but it was down to the wire before closing.
It looked liked we found the solution so do we call them an hour and a half before closing time for them to stress out the last bit of their driving? They were coming anyway after all. We elected to get to the office before them and wait to explain what they needed to know.
It all worked out just in enough time as they usually do some how and it was a happy closing. We did tell them after the fact and they were very glad we just took care of it and left them out.
Tough decisions do not always work out and boy were we stressed for our clients but ultimately they were the happiest with our decision.
It is just one example of the many things real estate agents do that is not on a list but it always leaves me wondering how much does the buyer and seller know a good agent really does? What value do they think we add.? They did realize I was important enough to have me represent them in one of their biggest purchases ever but what should they really know about all of the details in a real estate transactions.
My value to a first time home buyer is definitely more than to a seasoned veteran. Heck agents who know everything involved cannot agree on the value of a great agent how in the world is a client suppose to know?
And I am not even going to get into what an agent should charge? I guess that is up to that agent and their clients.
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