Why your Realtor doesn’t matter
Realtors are a dime a dozen. Seriously! We are everywhere. Your aunt, Your neighbor. Your best friend’s brother-in-law. As I am writing this article there are 422,496 licensees in California and over 10,000 Realtors® in Santa Clara County. It is no wonder you know so many of these people!
Getting into real estate, for many, seems like a great way to have a flexible schedule with a big paycheck. Those people are not wrong. However, there is a ton of real work that goes along with this profession and I think it is really easy for things to get a little confusing.
Choosing a realtor is an important step regardless of whether you are in a buying or selling position. The problem with picking a person to represent you for arguably the largest financial decision you will make, is that it is not as simple as: “what can they do for me?”
There are a ton of great agents out there. I know, I’ve worked with them. There are also a ton of not so great agents, and I have worked with them too. The problem is not so much the agent as it is the client. Yes, you heard me correctly. It’s you!
You can have the best agent, that knows all the right things, and gives you all the right answers. They will bend over backward to lay out the red carpet for you. All this in an attempt to get you everything that you have on your wishlist. And let’s be honest it’s a lengthy list! I get it. This is a big investment and you want what you want.
The problem that I find is not your long list of wants and needs, I can work with that. It’s that you are not listening. Well, I take that back, you are listening, but usually not to your agent.
Here’s an example: I love my Grandpa, just like you probably love yours, but he hasn’t bought or sold a home in a long time so his information on buying or selling in today’s market, while very compelling, (he is a great story teller) is not as relevant as it once was. When you take advice from everyone BUT your agent, the process is going to take a lot longer than if you started getting your mindset right from the beginning.
I am going to borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, Khalia Davis, who is the artistic director of Bay Area Children’s Theater, “We’re not reopening or re-starting our business. We are re-emerging.” Like her and her organization, I have been working throughout the pandemic, helping homebuyers and sellers through the real estate process. One of my biggest takeaways from this time is how much undue stress is involved with navigating this market, and quite frankly any market.
It is like the wild west out there and if you don’t have the correct mindset you are going to struggle through the process. Your Realtor should be your resource. They are out there everyday in the trenches, taking their cues from what is happening right now. They have first hand knowledge of what offers are getting accepted and what sales prices are realistic.
I have been in this business for over a decade and what I have learned over the course of my career is that finding the best home for you and your family or selling your current home for maximum value, has less to do with your Realtor and everything to do with your mindset. It is not luck that makes you the winning buyer out of a sea of offers. It’s also not how you set the new record sale price in your neighborhood. You need to get clear on what you want and set the stage for how you are going to get there. That way, when your first offer gets rejected, which is statistically very likely, you are not so emotionally devastated that you can’t pick up the pieces and start again.
So, should you hire a Realtor? Yes! You absolutely should. No one wants to go it alone in this fast pace competitive market. You need a smart savvy Realtor on your team. But, they can not get over your mental hang-ups for you. You need to show up for yourself so that you can stop wasting your energetic currency. When you are worried about the what if you will never get to the what’s next.
Originally published at https://clairealexanderrealty.com/ on May 18, 2021
