Sometimes, I get calls from friends who are trying to buy a home outside of my market in Marin County. Since they’ve had challenging experiences with their realtors, they wonder if I can help them write an offer and submit it on their behalf for a fee. While I’m flattered to be considered for this, I almost always recommend that they “try again” in their agent search and work with a local, reliable, and hard-working agent to help them with their search. When I explain why, I realize I should probably write about my reasoning and share it with the world.
I often joke that you can throw a rock 20 yards and it will end up hitting 5 realtors. But there is some truth to this—recent Marin Association of Realtors data shows 2,695 actively licensed agents in Marin County, yet only 286 single-family homes for sale. That’s almost 10 hotshot realtors per house! In many ways, real estate agents have earned their negative reputation—it’s a low-barrier-to-entry profession (easy real estate exam), ego-driven, and chock-full of negative and nefarious stories about people being misrepresented in their real estate decisions. However, the select few truly great agents are tremendous assets. They can provide immense value. Entering into my 15th year on the job, here are my takes on how:
- A great agent’s name is linked to reliability in the market. On the buy side, getting an offer from a buyer who’s working with a reputable realtor generally translates to this buyer being coached appropriately on disclosures/contracts, being psychologically 100% ready for their decision to purchase, and being financially prepared. Receiving an offer from one of these standout agents means that this offer is more likely to perform than an offer written by an unprofessional agent or an offer written by an unrepresented buyer. On the sell side, a reputable agent representing the home can be the difference between information transparency, disclosure reliability, and the overall quality standard of the property’s presentation. Other agents also know who the trustworthy realtors are, so they won’t hesitate to send their buyers to open houses, etc.
- Inventory awareness. Being honest—when it comes to sellers putting their homes immediately on the market without any pre-marketing, my clients see the home on Redfin and Zillow sometimes before I’m aware of it. However, in Marin County and other Bay Area markets, there are privately listed homes (also known as “off-market”) that every motivated buyer should be aware of. In the last 4 months, approximately 11.8% of the single-family homes in Marin sold off-market. The only way to gain knowledge of these homes is to work with a full-time and reputable local agent. I learn about these off-market opportunities through a variety of different avenues—conversations/networking with other agents, attending broker meetings, and multiple different agent email groups. Being exposed to 100% of the available opportunities is a huge asset to the search.
- Leveraging relationships with other agents. To dovetail with point #1, this is a reputation-driven business. Agents within a local community are aware of the reliable agents who bring in offers. In a competitive market where multiple-offer situations are prevalent, working with an agent whom other realtors trust is a huge advantage.
- Set yourself apart from competitors. The standard for most people is to purchase and/or sell a home 3–4 times in their entire lifetime. Full-time realtors are involved in the process many times per year. By gaining the reps and staying in close contact with market dynamics, good agents know how to coach their clients to win a property in a multiple-offer scenario. It’s my job to talk them through different scenarios, get people comfortable with comps, analyze the disclosures, and ultimately predict a winning offer price and terms. Buyers trying to do this themselves are often giving their best guess and hoping for the best outcome and/or assuming they will be given a second opportunity. The other value comes from communication with the listing agent post-submission of the offer. Most agents will sit back and wait for an answer, while the good ones do whatever they can to communicate with the listing agents about how to properly position their clients.
I hope this helps paint a picture for anyone out there who has either considered representing themselves or has had a previous negative experience with an agent. There are great realtors out there to represent you. You just need to find one of the great ones in your market. Keep interviewing agents until you find the right one for you!
Alex Narodny
[email protected]
415-847-0309
