Bryan Vogt: Hey, welcome back. This is Bryan Vogt with Ready, Set, Sold. Thanks so much for joining us this fine Saturday. We’ve been talking about how to choose a realtor. If you did come in late, you didn’t miss it. Just so you know, the show is on iTunes, and Google Play, and a podcast so you can go back and listen to those segments, quite frankly probably at the end of the show, we’re trying to get them on as soon as possible. With that said, we talked about, we’re looking at how to choose a realtor, and we talked about the experience factor.
We’ve kind of gone over the trust, how important questions are. Is your agent in tune to what you’re trying to do? Also, if you choose a family member, it has some great rewards, but also has some great risks. Make sure that everybody’s on the same playing field. Now we’re going to be talking about experience, and why experience is so, so, so, in my professional opinion, so important.
Again, you have a track to run on. What does experienced agent look like, and do they have sales, and how many sales do they have? The more the merrier. Again, how long they’ve been doing this. If they’ve sold … Just so you know, if they’ve been selling houses for any period of time, and hopefully, the last five, seven years, they’ve seen just about every market, and they’re still in there. Many times, especially in the hot market, good or bad, agents kind of come out of the woodwork because it’s a hotter market, they’re gonna have much more success versus the agents that have seen all the markets where maybe the market wasn’t so hot, and were able to have great production and be able to make sales in those markets too. The years is really important, how long you’ve been doing this.
Does that mean that a new agent can’t do a good job? No, it doesn’t. The problem always is, again, with your biggest investment, do you want to take that chance? Maybe you do, but we’ve seen situations where that turned out very, very badly from an inexperienced agent. Their intentions were good. They really, really were. They’re very, very nice people, but again, we’re in a results-oriented business, and it’s just simple as that.
Any realtor that’s been in this business for any period of time knows that. That we have to produce, we have to be able to get your house sold for top dollar and past sale. Experience becomes so, so much more critical when you understand that scenario that you not only have sold in this current market, but even years past. Five, seven, 10 years length of service is not a bad thing.
Again, also the volume of homes. They’ve seen more houses in their marketplace. There are times where there is no sales in a particular market, in your subdivision, maybe on your street. You really want to rely on that experience factor, if they have sold a house in the location. I think last week we talked about the idea that builders will build the same house even, literally, in different locations throughout the metro east. It’s a hot selling house, so they sold that house.
Again, every house is unique for where it sets at, but there can be so many similarities. Many a time, an agent’s had fantastic success because they’ve had the experience and know what this house is likely to sell, even if they didn’t have all the numbers in the last three months, or the last four months, be able to give you a professional opinion and have great success with it.
That becomes really, really super important of a track to run on. The other point about it answers a few questions. Number one, if they’re having sales or having consistent sales, and having lots of sales. That ranges. Again, 20, 30, 40, 50, go up the year. That’s not a bad number to be looking at, and 30-40 would be an ideal situation. The reason for that is, is it shows that they have the marketing.
Again, that’s always a concern many times to sellers, but do they have a track to run on? That usually answers it. Again, as a seller, you can always ask and see what their plan is, and they should be able to explain to you what that is. It’s a good idea that they’re going to have a great experience as far as marketing your home. That’s a big relief to most sellers. Again, having an experience kind of gives you an insight that this is gonna work out.
Also, they’ve been able to make other people successful. Ideally that’s the plan, that they’ve had those sales and been able to make other people happy, and that’s … I know it sounds like common sense, but sometimes sellers, I think on one level understand that, but sometimes they kind of forget. If you’ve had those type of sales and consistently, that you’ve had some success, and there’s a reason why they had success, that they’re good at what they do. That’s really important. When you have that in mind, when you have the four factors we talked about is the trust, the listening, how important that is, we talked about this segment, the second segment.
Also, family members. We talked about how to deal with family members. That can be kind of sensitive, and I get that. Again, hopefully the family member, if it doesn’t work out, that’s not the choice you make, that they understand the reasons too and they want what’s best for you too. It’s been said that, are they really a friend if the only reason why they’re a friend is if you use them or use their services or if you do what they say, so that’s something else to keep in mind too. I understand it can be touchy, but when you’re dealing with this much on the line, I think sometimes maybe a few hurt feelings for short period of time can work out better.
Then also, the experience factor, how huge that really is. I don’t know if there’s one thing, if you really had to base it on is the experience. Then again, do they have testimonials? Do they have people that they can just show you and say, “Hey, this is what they’re saying about me.” That’s a big thing too. Testimonials can be really huge. It lets you know that they’ve had not only the experience, but they’ve had a great experience. Those are the four things that you really kind of want to really focus on.
There’s also some other things though, just some other tips I want to throw out to you. That is, when you first contact the agent as far as making a decision. Look, technology has changed so much, and whether that’s email, whether that’s possibly a text, or maybe the old fashioned way of picking up the phone, which we still see a lot of sellers do, what’s the response time? Again, they have an opportunity to you, and how quickly are they responding back to you? That’s gonna tell you a lot in the very beginning.
If they’re taking 24 hours, which no offense, yeah, back when the landline was the only way you communicated, that might be an option, but now with technology, that time should be usually shortened down into hours, maybe even an hour. Keep that in mind. That’s one tip I wanted to throw out there to you that can kind of tell you how the rest of the situation is gonna go.
If they’re not willing to jump into action to see you and to do business with you, once they list the house, how much are they gonna be doing? We’ve had sellers say that that was one of the first things that they thought of. They didn’t understand why it took so long to get ahold of them and it didn’t turn out so well. That could be a factor, not always, as is everything, but it could be a factor.
Hey, get the book. You can like us on Facebook at Ready, Set, Sold, Bryan Vogt, or just go get the book. It’s absolutely free at ReadySetSold.org., not dot com. ReadySetSold.org, not com. Hey, get ready for the $5,000 tip of the week.
Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #12-04: Why a proven track record is a must for an agent you will hire
August 12, 2017