Real estate salespeople may seem all
the same to some, but in my experience, we are not all made equal. It's one job
where your skills, knowledge and abilities can vary so widely. It can be a
little surprising. This may be true for other career choices as well - lawyers,
doctors, waiters, and über car drivers all become more skilled with experience.
As a real estate salesperson, I have come across some very impressive
salespersons who have clever market strategies, thorough knowledge of a given
neighbourhood, and good results for their clients. Then there are those who are
slippery as a wet banana, out-of-touch or have lack in experience, and put
their clients best interests at risk.
Over years of working in real estate,
I often place my fellow colleagues into three categories. There may be many
more ways to do this, but I thought I would make it simple. In the world
according to me, the three kinds of real estate salespeople are the
non-transactional agent, the
transactional agent and the referral agent. Let me tell you a little about each
and which one would be your best bet.
1. TRANSACTIONAL AGENT
The title for these agents sounds impressive -
transactional agents! And often their experience at turning over transactions
make them very skilled at the rules and regulations. They often try to turn
over as many transactions as possible. Many work in teams because it is tough
for one person to turn over the number of transactions required to be the top
producer at the end of the year. This creates a lot of .01% agents who do a lot
of marketing with tens of thousands of mailouts. Their goal is to turn around
as many transactions as he/she/they can. The reason? It's good for them: They make a lot of money
quickly. The reason that's bad: They don't necessarily build relationships and
show their worth. So they rely on a constant stream of new clients. The focus is on making money,
turning transactions quickly and finding new clients.
2. THE NON-TRANSACTIONAL AGENT
The landscape of real estate agents
has changed remarkably over the past five years in Toronto. For starters, there
are A LOT of real estate agents in this city. Now to be fair, every one has to
start somewhere and learn their business. I admire those who are taking a stab
at working as a salesperson in real estate. It's a competitive market,
especially in Toronto and Vancouver. In Toronto, for example, 70% of new agents
will drop out in the first two years. Many will not make a sale at all. Then
there are the part-timers - the firemen, the nurses, and teachers who try to do
real estate on the side. The thing is when you turn over one or two transactions
a year (or less), you really don't have a chance to hone in on the important
skills like pricing a property correctly, developing marketing strategies and
negotiating. Even something as basic as filling out an offer are full of
problems because the person has so little experience. As I said, everyone has
to start somewhere, and deserve to learn, but as a consumer, do you want to be
the test pilot for an inexperienced agent or one that has worked five years in
the business, but have only sold or bought five to ten properties?
REFERRAL AGENT
This is the kind of agent you want to
have. These agents have experience and focus on doing a great job so that
clients will recommend them to their friends and family. Through their results,
these agents create raving fans, and subsequently grow their business. It's not
that they are selfless angles who want
to make their clients happy. They work hard and making their clients happy
because they make more money from it. Both sides win. For the real estate
salesperson, it can take more time to cultivate these kind of relationships,
but they do pay off in the long run.
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