What your agent doesn’t know might hurt you..
Let me tell you a few things about getting your real estate license. I’ll start with a questions. How long does it take to get your real estate license? How many hours of sales training must you have before you can pen your first deal? The answers might surprise. To get your license, a person must take a state required course and pass. This can be done in a week and then within 30 days, they can be fully licensed. Even scarier, is that the course does nothing to teach the student how to sell property. There is no further training requirement, so the answer to question 2 is that a sales agent requires ZERO hours of training before penning their first deal. WOW. It take substantially longer to get your cosmetology license or similar than it does to get your real estate one. It should take much longer.
Let’s be honest, most people do not start out right into real estate. They often come from another background and pick up real estate as a side job. Many to this day still sell only randomly. Like most jobs, it require continued practice to learn this skills need to properly represent a buyer or seller. The hard part is that many agents fail to have continuous business due to the market, their efforts and ability. This results in about 10% of the licensees, doing 90% of the work. There is an inherent flaw in the entire qualifying process, a process which usually involves the biggest transition most of us ever do. So it really is true to say that what your agent doesn’t know, could hurt you. So what does a person do?
Ask the right questions! Ask your agent about their hands on experience. Ask them how long they have been in the business and how many transaction have they done. In real estate, practice does not make perfect, but it does help. Anyone that tells you they are an expert, is likely exaggerating their abilities. I’ve never claimed that because my business is always changing. The laws and contracts change on a regular basis. This is where experience and also training matter. Many agents work in offices without any on going training requirements. This is extremely dangerous to consumers. Monthly meetings for agents is critical to get out contract and policy changes to agents, who tend to work more out of their homes these days than in an office. This trend has had a negative in agents not being up to date with contracts and the best way to represent their clients. The end result is a group of agents that think they know everything, but actually are behind and have often times lost money for their clients. For example, recent changes to the financing contingency in the contract, made it mush easier for a buyer to lose their escrow if they fail to perform in a timely manner. When this was rolled out, the board of realtors sent out an email notice, that most agents simply deleted without reading. The results was multiple cases of buyers loosing deposits and agents insistent that they had done nothing wrong. You have to know the contract! When I started 20 years ago, the contract was 4 pages. It is now 12. There are resources to learn the changes and updates, but if you aren’t working in the business, as an agent, you will likely miss these changes and guess who suffers the loss? Interview your agent. Go online and research them, their company and Google questions to ask your potential agent. Any agent worth their salt will be more than happy to answer your questions AND provide the backing credentials or facts to. Show they are worthy of your business. Don’t put your investment in the hands of someone with the best of intentions but inability to properly help you. It could cost you. Happy selling and buying! Questions about what you just read? I’m all ears! 321-293-2240