I thought this would be an intriguing question to ask to experienced real estate agents and home sellers.. so here goes..."How Many Homes Do You Have to Sell Before You Are an Expert?" In real estate these days there are so many catchy phrases, slogans, and tag lines that promote the employment of an agents that is marketing his/her abilities or skills are superior to others! A seller would then employ them as a matter of trust, safety, ability, and can do attitude! It is quite impressive to say the least. Words are very powerful in marketing, but deeds are more important! Slogans such as "Your neighborhood specialist," "Consultant for life," "The Can DO Team!" and others have become trite, and overused! They have no bearing on ability. The problem arises for a home seller when they find out that that the agent/ or agents have never sold a single home! Is that misleading? Was it right to mislead even if the sellers never asked for testimonials, or references from closed sales?
So when can an agent claim that they are experts in a given field? The answer may lie in what they choose to demonstrate their accomplishments. It can be easily be accomplished by charting: units sold/units listed, list price/sales price, days on market (DOM), expired listings, withdrawn listings, testimonials, web statistics, web inquiries, and more! All come to mind as areas that separate your performance and achievement from other real estate agents. It should not be based upon wants! Achievement should measure not on what we fantasize about attaining, (best agent to use), but rather a demonstrated ability of closed sales.
An example of this is an agent that is recognized as a neighborhood specialist. In their neighborhood there are lots of signs for sale with only their name. Residents believe they are the specialists, but reality is different. They may only sell 30% of what they list, their list price / sales price ratio could be way off other competing agents, and be in the low 90's, and other agents whose signs they never see...because they actually come in list the home right, sell higher and close the deal rather than go on the market for 9 months plus! So who is the real neighborhood specialist now?
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I believe it takes about 100-150 transactions to really know what you're doing. I had 300 transactions before I got my broker's license.
Even today I still learn on each transaction because every buyer or seller presents a new scenario.
Lenn
I've sold hundreds of homes in my market and learn something new in every transaction. Sellers need to ask for stats, for the individual agent, not their company. I give the sellers my stats at every listing appointment. The only time I don't get the listing is if I turn it down. I do consider myself an expert but only in my particular market. Take me 20 miles away and I'm clueless to market conditions.
My ads never say how good I am or how much business I do. I harp on what I can do for them. That's what the consumer wants to know.
you never stop learning....
and you should always seek to learn as much as possible
Thanks! I guess tag lines are ok if you earn the right to use them... but lately I really feel like they are way, way overused. This is especially true of someone "Branding" themselves after they just get their license, and before they've made a single sale. I guess years ago persons coming into real estate used to ask what type of luxury car they should purchase because they were going into real estate. That did not make sense either. Best wishes!
Jim Crawford
I hear lots of responses here but this is a very open ended question. Are we talking about expert in a neighborhood or expert at selling homes? IMHO there are agents out there who have sold their fair share of homes and are still clueless or at the least very laxadasical (hmmm look that one up in the dictionary) or at the very least don't care to pay much attention to detail.
For that matter I have gone out on a listing before where the seller was so up on their neighborhood and who had sold what and for how much, what was coming or happening or what wasn't, that there would have been no way for most any agent to have as much knowledge about the neighborhood as they did. That is when you are expert enough to know to hand over the reins and listen to that seller.
Each sale is different and hopefully when the opportunity arises we will always be willing to learn and take notes.
I'm with you on the tag lines. Over used and abused.
Of course.
A red flag for insecurity.