When you are putting your trust in someone to guide you through something as complicated as the emotional, stressful and financial applications involved in a real estate transaction, do you know the five key ingredients the best agents display? Don't you think you would want to be able to gage more than skills in the agent you select to handle the buying and selling of your home?
Most people only think warm fuzzy and skill when hiring an agent. Skill in real estate, though certainly important, it is only a small piece of the pie. Negotiations, marketing, pricing, staging advice, people, and legal skills are all certainly "skills needed". However, you need to know that these skills are only the tip of the iceberg. And like with any iceberg, the danger lies somewhere beneath the surface.
It really takes five key ingredients to find a truly successful person in any industry, especially real estate. Why? Because a home, typically is many people’s largest asset and they are paying an agent a lot of money to use great care and skill in selling their home.
Skill is the first key ingredient. Skill is completing all the necessary documents in a timely manner and providing the sellers with an education on the process of selling their home. Also, skill is very important in pricing a home correctly and marketing is huge. Getting maximum exposure is honestly what most of it is about. Are you wondering what the other four are?
Number two is character. Character is a person’s internal compass that guides their decisions. It is a guide to treating people honestly, respectfully and fairly.
Number three is philosophy. Philosophy is how deeply they ponder character, situations and people. Philosophy is sort of the purpose behind the character. How they see life in general I guess. My favorite philosophy is a simple one that most of us learned as a child. It is called the ant philosophy and defines the character qualities of work ethic, purpose and diligence.
Number four would be attitude. Attitude is how they respond to people and situations. When something goes wrong, are they negative or do they have an attitude of getting things done without anger, procrastination, and pettiness. Do they know how to motivate others to work with them or do they tick people off wherever they go?
Lastly, number five is goals. Goals are important because you have to have a plan in selling your home. How quickly do you need to sell? How much will you make on the sell of your home, what fees are you looking at? Without a goal or target, how do you know where to aim? Goals stem from both needs and wants. Strong goals push you toward results. To make the picture a little clearer in your mind, let me ask you, have you ever worked with someone that had a high level of skill, character, goals, and philosophy about their job, yet displayed a crummy, negative attitude? Or perhaps their attitude was good, yet they just didn't’t have any direction or goals in life and you suspected they would never get very far in their career, let alone their life. Or worse still is maybe they had a great attitude, strong skills, strong philosophies, and they achieved their goals but they stole, lied and cheated to get what they wanted.
When selecting an agent to help you with buying or selling a home, it is in your best interest to find someone that works on all five key ingredients that will make them a success, is’t it? Of course it is! When they are truly a success in every sense of the definition, you will enjoy success too, right? RIGHT!