Committing to a real estate agent is important if you want him or her to commit to you. Looking for homes for our buyers is what we do. If you are driving around town and calling on signs simply telling agents to email you such and such, you will likely end up with lots of properties you don’t want in your mail box and no one will be really trying to find you the perfect home. You’ll have to keep driving around and surfing the web doing the leg work yourself.
If you are serious about buying a home, no matter what your time frame may be, find a Realtor you can trust and take the time to sit down with him/her and share what you are looking for. It will save you time and energy and you’ll probably end up with a home that is just right for you.
Top 5 Reasons to Commit to Your Real Estate Agent Now
1) They can do a better job for you. With commitment and loyalty comes trust. I can do ten times more for a client if they are committed and they trust me. If you are working with an agent that you don’t trust, you need to move on, because there really is no point. Last year, I saved a client $195,000 on a foreclosure he was purchasing. I convinced the bank to lower the price by almost one third. How was that possible? My client trusted me. Not blindly, but I definitely asked him to do some things he didn’t think were necessary. In the end, I was able to save him almost two hundred thousand dollars simply because he trusted that I knew what I was talking about. Could I have done that with an uncommitted client that didn’t trust me? Absolutely not.
2) They will stop being a salesperson and start being an advisor. Hate all that sales-talk? Want your real estate agent to stop selling you? Look them straight in the eye and say “I’m buying a house with you, period, you are my agent,” or “I am listing my house with you, period, you are my agent.” And mean it. What will happen next? Most agents will morph right before your eyes from a salesperson into an advisor. Now that you’ve gotten that out of the way, they can start to do their job. Want to get some of the worst real estate advice? Keep every real estate agent you talk to on a string and make them dance for your business. Sales-talk is a little like dating-talk, it’s a necessary skill to have, and not exactly fake, but not exactly real either.
3) They’ll make sure you know when you’re wrong. Imagine you are wrong about something. Not a little wrong, but very wrong and extremely convinced. You would want your real estate agent to tell you, right? Well there is telling and there is telling. I always give my clients my honest opinion no matter what – the inability to contain my actual opinion is a burden I’ve carried my whole life. However, if I am dealing with an uncommitted client, I say my opinion a couple times and I move on. Not that long ago, I had a client who was about to overpay by $70,000 for a piece of property. I told him he was wrong over and over again and frankly, we argued about it. He called me months later not only to tell me I was right, but also to thank me for saving him $70,000 as he would have already been underwater on that property. Would I have spent all the hours and hours pouring over market data to prove my case, showing him that property (and its defects) multiple times, and chatting in the street, if didn’t KNOW I was his agent? Not a chance.
4) They come across great deals all the time and they only call their best clients. I know you think you are gaming the system by emailing 15 different agents or calling them from a blocked number and telling them to bring you a “deal.” However, as a real estate agent, I come across great deals all the time, and I won’t be emailing them to anybody. First of all, I have no idea who I am emailing. I could be emailing my competition or someone who is working with my competition. If you don’t trust me enough to give me your phone number, why would I email you the best deal I came across in the last 3 months? If I don’t have a pre-approval, a proof of funds and a phone number, you won’t be getting notified when the best thing since sliced bread hits the market. I’ll be calling my committed client that has their ducks in a row, whose motivation and tastes I understand because we’ve talked about it, and who bothered to give me their unlisted phone number.
5) The best real estate agents have their choice of clients. Sure you might catch a good REALTOR® in a bad market and they go against their gut and work with you even though they know you are not fully committed to them. But, usually the best real estate agents can pick and choose who they work with based on whether your listing fits their business plan, whether you have saved a down payment, whether you are truly motivated, and also whether you are committed to them. The truth is there are plenty of loyal clients out there, and a loyal and committed client is worth 10 times more than a disloyal one regardless of price range or almost any other factor, and every successful real estate agent knows that. Remain uncommitted and you are lowering the chances of getting an experienced agent to work with you. You are, in effect, limiting your prospective agent pool to those that simply don’t know or can’t do better.
Tni LeBlanc, Mint Properties
Broker/Owner, Attorney
CA DRE License #01871795
http://SantaMariaRealEstateBlog.com
(805) 878-9879 – cellCopyright © Tni LeBlanc 2010 * Top 5 Reasons to Commit to Your Real Estate Agent Now*
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Do you really need to write the offer today? As an experienced real estate agent, I must confirm that I have seen people lose the house of their dreams because they hesitated just one day. Yes, just one measly day. I hate that this market demands that buyers make decisions so quickly, but it is my job to let you know what the market is actually like. The last thing I ever want to do is to rush any client. But I’ve also seen the disappointment that can result when someone misses out on a truly exceptional home. And, in almost any kind of market a well priced desirable home will move FAST. 
4) Eager can be a good thing. Sometimes buyers don’t want to seem eager. They don’t want to come off like they want the home too badly. However, while playing “hard to get” may be an effective strategy for some personal relationships, I don’t think it translates as well into the home buying arena. After all, most people don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes they are indifferent to, so if you write an offer today or write it tomorrow they are still going to assume that you want the home. Also an experienced listing agent will encourage a seller to take a solid offer from the most motivated buyer. Being the first to arrive conveys that you are motivated. Accordingly, writing the offer today on a well priced desirable home can indeed be a smart move.
