We have an epidemic of rookie real estate agents, and bad real estate agents, in charge of your largest financial transaction with no one to babysit them. If you find that you (1) are considering hiring a rookie agent or (2) already hired a bad real estate agent and realize it may be a mistake…here are 5 tips to help you work with a rookie real estate agent.
- See if you can negotiate their commission. If you haven’t hired them yet (signed a listing contract or buyer agency contract) there is no harm in asking if they will provide their service at a lower price than a more seasoned agent. Chances are you will not be getting someone who will be able to answer all your real estate questions promptly or correctly on the first go. If the service you’ll be receiving won’t be upper echelon, why should they get paid the equivalent to a knowledgable, seasoned agent?
- Ask that their broker/manager/mentor is involved in the entire process. This means that their broker/manager/mentor is CCed on EVERY email, all text chains and aware of all phone calls. You should NOT sign any documents without knowing that their broker/manager/mentor has reviewed the docs. Make sure their broker/manager/mentor has reviewed your inspection, title, all relevant documents.
- Be honest from the beginning about your expectations. Tell this person you realize they are new to the industry, and while you acknowledge that you expect them to be professional and to exceed your expectations. If this makes your real estate agent nervous, I’d seriously reconsider hiring them. This is a very tough, cut throat industry. If they cannot take the heat, it’s better they get out now.
- Point out any mistakes or disappointments they create. This may be annoying because it makes you feel like you are (1) responsible for keeping them on task or training them or (2) it’s just uncomfortable to say. Ultimately you will be helping them to be a better real estate agent, but also this honesty can build a level of trust…or it can create a toxic environment.
- If things get so bad, they cannot be fixed…ask to be reassigned another agent. You’ve signed a contract with the brokerage, it belongs to the broker and not to the agent. Therefore, if you are not happy with your real estate agent, you should be able to ask to be assigned to another agent at the firm. You could always ask to terminate the contract as well, but that is something to discuss with a lawyer. Each state is different, you want to make sure that you have the right to terminate and are not breaching a contract.
Side note on commission:
If you ask the broker/manager/mentor to be involved, I’d anticipate that negotiating a lower commission will be a bit more difficult because you are now going to have 2 agents for the price of one. If the agent works at a company that pays the same commission across the board to all agents then I’d discuss it.
A lot of real estate agents are trained to combat the commission being lowered by saying that their company has a standard rate. I’ve found over the years, very, very few actually abide by that. In the end it is about the current market & how difficult of a client they think you will be.
Why do we have so many Rookie Real Estate Agents?
I bet you have a ton of friends who have gotten their real estate license in the past few years. Why not, right? The real estate market was booming and the money sure looks easy enough to make. Not to mention, many of the real estate brokerages give incentives to their current agents to talk people in to getting their license. If you talk people in to joining your brokerage, you get $$$ for each of their transactions. It’s super easy for anyone to get a real estate license, and the interview process isn’t difficult. Pretty much any brokerage will hire anyone. This creates a problem in the industry, there are tons of rookie agents running around trying to talk you in to working with them.
Anywhere from about 2-3.5% of the sale of your home will go to their brokerage, and your rookie real estate agent will be paid a good chunk of that. The brokerage will base the agent’s split off of their rank at the company. So the more rookies doing a few deals = a bigger chunk of change in the brokerage’s pocket. And here is the kicker, chances are the broker of that company will not oversee your transaction…let alone shake your hand when you hire them.