While I'm sure every career has its share of bonbon-eating-folks; but in this career, you do not get paid unless you perform. But what do we actually do?
To the novice, it would be easy to think that an agent simply finds their buyer a house or represents a seller by snapping a few photos and putting their house on the market; then just sit back and wait for the inevitable to happen, since the market is so hot. I am here to tell you that is NOT the case.
The very first order of business for a real estate agent is generating business.
People do not come knocking on our doors begging us to sell their house. We have to pound the pavement to find business, by either door knocking or email/social media marketing, or via paid leads through Zillow (yes, those are paid for by us).
Once we have secured the opportunity to help a client find a home to buy or a client with a house to sell, we then have to bring it to market.
We have to develop a strategy of how to advertise the home and showcase its unique strengths. Sometimes we’re selling a house because of a tragic situation like a divorce or death and maybe the house is in disarray because the person’s life is in disarray. We must make it look its best so that we can help our clients achieve the sale.
Sometimes we have to have difficult conversations with sellers about cleaning up the dog poop in the yard or the dead animal in the front yard (no I'm not making that up and yes it really happened).
After we have shimmied items around so that we can take photos that look their best, we must come up with the pricing strategy for the home. How do we do that? We look at the most recently sold homes, the data, and compare those homes to the home in question. We do some adjusting, since no two homes are alike, through a process known as a Comparative Market Analysis and we arrive at a price that we deem a fair asking price.
Side note: In a crazy hot market as such as the one that we are in currently, there are a lot of sellers testing the market. Sellers try by putting a high price tag on their home to see if it will sell. You see this on Zillow with their new "make me move" campaign.
Once we have taken pictures and chosen the asking price, it's time to write our description and then we are ready to put the home on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).
When acting as the listing agent, we stay busy coordinating with the homeowner to get buyers into the property to view it and hope to generate an offer, or several.
When acting as buyers’ agents, we are constantly watching the market for properties that match the criteria that our buyers are looking for.
In either case, once the property goes under contract, this is where the real heavy lifting begins.
The buyer usually has ten business days to conduct their inspections. As agents, we help them coordinate inspections. Maybe they don’t know the name of the septic person, a specialist on mold issues or a general home inspector. We connect our clients to those resources. We refer many other resources from movers to home stagers, cleaning services and contractors of all specialties. Agents often meet these people at the property and show them firsthand the issue that needs to be remedied.
After inspections we counsel our clients which items are deal breakers and which ones the client can live with. We also aid in helping them determine the costs of the items that need to be fixed. Often, we call in an expert to offer a quote on the work.
We also talk to our clients’ lender to make sure all the things they need are satisfied so that our client gets the loan. Concurrently, we are also arranging for a title search to be done on the property. We will negotiate on our clients’ behalf and work to find a happy medium with the other side of the transaction, so that the end goal is met: a successful closing.
We are doing all of this (hopefully with multiple clients and properties) while we continue to try to create more business in our pipeline, go to closings, write new offers, show properties, conduct open houses, and write/answer several emails and calls per day.
In the midst of all of this, we are handling the associated paperwork documentation necessary throughout the transaction, for the state, ourselves, our clients, and our agency.
Though this career affords a flexible schedule, the best way to think about our job is that we are always working; we make hay when the sun shines.
It’s a wonderful career, full of personalities, problem solving and negotiation. I’m proud to help my clients move to the next chapter of their lives.
Call Amy Krikken, The Rock Star Realtor/Better Homes and Gardens/Masiello if you wish to buy or sell. 207-317-1338 abkrikken@gmail.com.
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