Learn to swim

I have never been the biggest producer. I have never been #1 in my office. I am usually in the middle. Over the last few years, I spend MOST of my time speaking, writing, coaching, and training - but somehow I managed to squeeze in selling a dozen or so homes.

The last two weekends have been red hot in my market. I have had listings with dozens of showings. What I was reminded of during this time: there are many agents who are terrible at what they do.

There are obvious mistakes like not locking up the home after showing (twice went to check on the home only to see the door not only unlocked but left wide open). More subtly, however, is how agents jockey to represent their clients in a competitive situation. Sure, some of it will depend on the buyers’ commitment on the home, but nevertheless it is crystal clear to me who knows what they are doing and who does not.

One of the worst offenders can be someone who sells a lot of homes. In this instance, an agent calls me the day showings start and asks if we will be accepting offers ahead of the Saturday deadline. “I am afraid not,” I reply. I can hear her clicking her pen multiple times, and then she huffs, “Well, we are going to write you an offer to change your mind.”

Okay.

She sent over a really good offer! However, with 45+ showings, the sellers traveling schedule, and the home-schooling of their kids - they had planned to review offers on Saturday afternoon. The agent texts me early Thursday evening and I reply again that we will not be responding until Saturday. I turn my phone off. When I wake up in the morning I have two texts from her.

The first one, sent shortly after I shut my phone off: “Ok that's unfortunate. In that case please rescind our offer.”

The second one, which came in the morning, “My buyers are out of town now as well and may possibly still be interested.”

Hmmmmm.

Sounds like someone got cranky because they couldn’t bully their way through a deal...? Then they had to explain to their clients that they were unable to do what they had promised, and worse, got them OUT of the running? (Why would you ever promise that strategy?)

I am speculating on what was happening behind the scenes. There was much backtracking the next morning. By the way, this goes back to one of my main principles: set an end time to your day that is close to dinner time. Likely this agent was tired, cranky, and made a bad emotional decision that could cost their client getting the home.

I don’t pay too much attention to the news, but every now and then I will scan some headlines - and HousingWire had reported on one of the DOJ lawsuit responses. I am not going to recount all the specifics - but the gist was that the DOJ believed that commissions should be completely de-coupled. The seller should not be paying commissions to the buyer's agent - the buyer’s agent should be paid directly by the person hiring them - the buyer.

Now, I can get the logic of that. If you and I have a dispute, we each go hire an attorney and are on the hook for our respective attorney's fees. Kind of the same here? In practical terms though that doesn’t work well. Mostly because over the last 50+ years (probably longer) the fees of the transaction are baked into the cost of the home. Now you want to de-couple them?

We could go totally off the rails on this topic - but that’s not my point. Here is my point: let’s say this happens (and the odds are much greater than they ever have been in my 20 years in the industry). What do you now say to a buyer? What is a good agent worth to a buyer?

Isn't that the question? What are we worth?

I am going to say that most agents aren't worth much. If you look at the averages, the average annual income and hours worked puts the "average" agent at $30-$35/hour. Of course, averages are misleading. When I ask agents what their hourly income is they usually have no clue - almost no one keeps track of their hours (or their income!!!).

This got me thinking - what if there were a competency test that agents had to take? Like a real estate IQ test. How would they score? Based on my experience I would say: low. (How many agents know what a 'fiduciary' is - let alone spell it!) Even agents who "sell lots of homes" - there are many who are, frankly, not very good. Selling the most does not mean you are the best. Selling more homes simply means you have put in the effort (and/or money) to get in front of people and convince, entice, cajole or sell them on using you.

I am exaggerating!

Well, not entirely. There are professional agents who have great reputations, great skill, and great rapport and trust with their clients. I am not referring to them - they would likely score quite well.

I am talking about the people who get by on ego, ignorance, hope, sales tactics, and brute force. Now, maybe these folks will still do okay in a new real estate realm where there is more pressure on fees. But I don't know!

Let's pretend you and I are good swimmers (big leap for me because I am terrible). But you and I used to swim in high school and college, and while slightly out of shape, we are still pretty good. Our office decides to have a Memorial Day party out on "the lake". A hundred of us out on the boat. A storm comes in, hurricane-force winds knock the boat over, and everyone has to swim to shore - about 300 yards away. The wind is howling, the water has been whipped up into white caps - chaos is everywhere. You and I have pretty good odds to make it to shore. We have the muscle memory of swimming. We simply make the nice, steady strokes to get us to shore. We block out everything else and swim. Next thing we know we are safely on shore.

What about all our other real estate friends?

Many will not be so lucky. Especially the people who bragged about being great swimmers but...weren't! How effective is talking about being good when your life is on the line?

When I first read that HousingWire article this week - I am not going to lie, I was nervous, scared, frustrated, and furious! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that - again, a good agent is worth their weight in gold. If we are truly operating as fiduciaries for our clients, and we are GREAT at what we do, then there will be plenty of clients who need us, want us, and will make sure we get paid.

If you are newer, or you feel nervous reading this post - good news, there is still time to learn how to swim!