Jack Bailey’s Buyer Consultant Training starts today, so I thought I’d share some of what that excellent program will cure: a few of my Pet Peeves!
- Real estate professionals who don’t know how to use their calculators and can’t figure (or at least look up) a mortgage payment on the fly.
- Real estate professionals who don’t know how to measure for and calculate square footage (at least good enough to tell if the tax records are wrong).
- Real estate professionals who can fill in the blanks of their State approved purchase agreement but can’t walk through it with a buyer or seller explaining each boilerplate paragraph.
- Real estate professionals who stop at ‘No,’ when trying to get a deal closed or financed. The answer to ‘No’ is always the same: ‘What do we need to do/add/change/find to make it work?’ and ‘What can I do turn this around?’
- Real estate professionals who can’t do basic pre-qualification of a buyer including an initial discussion of finance including an examination of income-to-debt ratios. (Though important, this is not a substitute for an in-depth discussion with a lender).
- Real estate professionals who can’t accurately (within a reasonable tolerance) calculate seller net proceeds and buyers’ funds needed to close quickly and on a legal pad if necessary.
- Real estate professionals who are afraid of the Internet . . . or even uncomfortable with it.
- Real estate professionals who ‘wing’ their listing presentations. It’s a job interview, for goodness sake! You at least need an outline of where you want to go with it!
- Real estate professionals who don’t spend money on marketing. Agents should be spending a minimum of 10% -15% of their anticipated 1099 on marketing. Brokers should be spending more.
- Real estate professionals who expect the MLS to sell all of their listings.
- Real estate professionals who organize their companies to appeal to agents rather than to serve consumers.
- Real estate professionals who celebrate mediocre production.
- Real estate professionals who don’t constantly question why things are the way they are and how they could be better for the buying and selling public.
These are just some of mine . . . what are yours?