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Pet Peeves

The concept seems simple, with someone else to do the supposedly mundane parts of a Agents job, the Agent can concentrate on the "important" things.

If I were a Seller, I would expect those "important" things to be working to sell my home. Unfortunately, to many of those Agents the most "important" thing is often trying to get other new listings and not necessarily working to sell their current listings. If they have enough listings, some are sure to sell through the MLS system and keep the income flowing. Some may feel that as long as they don't have too much invested in marketing a certain listing, if it hasn't sold, it's not much of a loss.

There are 2 types of assistants, licensed and unlicensed... I'll take a minute and explain what the Buyers and Sellers working with Agents who rely on these assistants might be missing out on.

The most common method is using an unlicensed assistant in the office. This person, often new to real estate, is usually assigned tasks like calling other Realtors for "showing reports" after they've shown a current listing, writing ads for current listings, preparing paperwork for the Agent's listing appointments with Sellers, and printing out MLS data sheets for potential Buyers. Often, these assistants are paid only slightly more than minimum wage and often don't stay for much longer than 6 months. Even long time assistants will never really gain the experience needed to do these jobs as well as the Agent could.

THE way to find out why a current listing hasn't sold yet is the "showing report." Used correctly, this is actual feedback from actual Buyers, as close to the holy grail as may exist in our business. If you can find the common objection(s), then correct it or prepare a way to overcome it, the listing could sell to the next Buyer. But in the hands of an inexperienced "new to the business" assistant who often hasn't even been to the property, there is no chance for follow up questions to search for the showing Agents view on the most likely problem with that Buyers perception of the property. In my experience in returning calls for showing reports on other Agents listings, many assistants focus only on whether the property is still in the running, or has been ruled out by my Buyer. Even for Realtors like myself, willing to take a couple minutes and try and give a complete report, the message is hastily "jotted" down and much of the important information may never make it to the Seller.

If an experienced listing Agent calls the showing Agent themselves and takes the time to find out the details (like I do), the information available to the Seller is, in my opinion, far more valuable than that from an assistant. Also, with their first hand knowledge of the property, a listing Agent might be aware that the Seller has considered a repair or improvement which might overcome that Buyers objections, and might be able to put a sale together where it wouldn't happen otherwise.

Let's talk about the assistant writing the ads for the property. Remember, often the assistant have never been to the property, they have never worked with Buyers and never learned what sells and what doesn't. How effective of an ad do you think they could write?

How about preparing information for a Market Value Analysis (MVA), the Realtor's method to help Sellers learn the most likely selling price and the strategy for pricing the property. Think about it, this assistant probably hasn't been in the subject house, probably has never been in any homes in any of the areas of comparable sales and probably can't predict how Buyer's will compare this property to others currently on the market (the competition). How on earth, for something as important as picking the right price for a listing, can using an assistant HELP the Seller?

Oh boy, you're probably thinking I've gone off my rocker, ranting and raving about those "evil" assistants. No, no no... the assistants are often saints, trying to learn the real estate business and this Agents office procedures while the Agent is probably on the go and not always available to help. The assistants aren't the problem, it's their lack of experience and knowledge of the real estate business. O.K., I'll stop the ranting and wrap it up.

Basically, If the assistant is doing much of the work preparing the Market Value Analysis, writing ads, calling for showing reports and more, isn't the Seller paying for the experience of the Agent but receiving the services of an assistant? Do you think that's a good deal?

By using technology correctly, I've been able to increase my productivity WITHOUT sacrificing the quality of service delivered to clients and customers. Maybe I'm a perfectionist (my wife thinks so), but I won't turn these important tasks over to someone who can't perform them as well as I can. I usually carry a smaller number of listings, but sell nearly every one. With as much as 85% of my business coming from past customers, clients and their referrals, I'm committed to the concept "what goes around comes around."

They may try to sell you on the benefits of their assistant, obviously I feel otherwise. That's what I think, but... who cares what I think.

In my years I've noticed a couple similarities among the Agents who tend to be a bit less concerned about trying to sell every listing. If they tell you "I don't advertise in the newspaper" and "open houses don't sell houses" they are probably relying on only the MLS system to sell your home. It may work much of the time, but I WOULDN'T plan on these Agents "knocking themselves out" to try to sell your home.