Here I was enjoying my Saturday evening and I get a call at my home from a local Realtor who was very upset with me. Apparently she and a group of her co-workers were “enjoying” my radio show and they have been stewing about it all week. This agent and her friends are all 20 deals a year and up agents. She has been an agent for 20 years and made $50k last year. I have been very degrading to the industry with my comments and I’m discouraging agents. I was saying things that were very misleading to the public and making agents look like they don’t know what they are doing.
So what caused this outburst?
I happened to take the number of sales made in the local Board of Realtors MLS in 2007 and divided it by the number of agents that belonged to the board. That number came to 8 transactions per agent. Multiply that by the average commission in our area. That figure adds up to $14,400 or less per agent. About the same as my little friend at McDonalds. I stated that since I personally know agents who have 30 or more transactions per year that a fair question to for a customer to ask an agent is, “how many deals have you closed in the last year.” If that number wasn’t at least 12 they may want to keep looking.
I asked her if she had agents that did only one or two deals last year. She did. As a matter of fact there was more than one. She even quoted me the 80/20 rule. I asked if she ever lost a deal because one of these agents was related to, went to church with, or picked up the phone by chance. She did. As a matter of fact there was more than one. I asked her if it bothered her that an agent, less than qualified was taking money from her by a lucky break or “oh by the way I sell real estate on the side.” It did but that “is just part of the business.” I asked her if she thinks a client should know if they are working with a successful agent or a less than average one. She said if someone asks we should tell them the truth, but we don’t air our dirty laundry in public and that if I wanted to get along with the agents in her office I had better tone it down.
So I guess the only heads up a customer should get is if your agent closes a deal with “would you like fries with that?”
I think Mr. Malcomb is correct in not supressing facts. It is good for consumers to know who they are doing business with-including their track record. It is also good for agents and managers to study the the reality of their occupations and sales force.
Well said. As a successful agent handling more than 30 transactions yearly I can say I have lost more deals in the past year to “part-timers”, friends and aunts who sell real estate part-time than I have in the past 5 years I’ve been in the business. The sad part is that my clients admit I am the more professional agent and would do a better job yet they feel “obligated to use their friend”. It’s hard to pursue them without offending them and sounding like sour grapes. Today I just had clients (I got their current home under contract in 2 days with 3 offers) make an offer directly to a builder after they told me they would use me to help them with their purchase. They are smart people and we’ve talked about how builders will take advantage of unrepresented buyers yet they did what they did. Any words of advice? Is the buyer market just that stubborn? I’m sure I can do something better but I’m not sure what that is.