For most people heart surgery would be the single most important, and complicated, surgery of their lives. For many people selling their home is the largest single financial transaction of their entire lives. Can you imagine anyone scheduling heart surgery with a doctor who performs surgery as a “side hustle”? They might meet the minimum qualifications but are they really the best surgeon for the task? People should want the best person for the job and yet everyday part time agents are hired by people wanting to sell or buy real estate.
Year after year people hire their bartender, lifeguard, librarian or pool maintenance person to sell their homes. “I can sell your home” and “Do you want fries with that?” do not belong together.
Competency in Real Estate Sales is a full-time job. There are ethics requirements, legal changes, technology updates, state agency mandates and contracts that are changing daily. Someone paying attention to those things part time will always be behind. Keeping up with the minimum competency requirements can be difficult but staying current on all the latest tools, techniques and market trends can be overwhelming even for the most dedicated agents.
There are some decent part time agents out there. They work hard and keep up with families and full time jobs. They can, more than likely, do an adequate job for you. But do you want adequacy or exceptionalism. If you are booking a hot air balloon ride do you book one with an adequate safety record or an exceptional one?
The bar for entry into Real Estate is very low. Compared to other financial transaction positions the hurdles for entry are toddler height. It’s an industry that takes a tremendous amount of time and training to be effective, but getting licensed is easy. It takes ongoing study, time in the trenches, and commitment to do a good job for the clients, to be an exceptional agent. Yet every year thousands of transactions are handled by agents who can barely write a contract because they do it so rarely. Professional agents sometimes hate working with part timers because they constantly make mistakes and are hard to connect with during normal business hours.
Don’t cut yourself short and hire an agent who doesn’t take the job seriously enough to be engaged in it full time. You owe it to yourself to make sure the agent you hire has the tools to negotiate effectively for you and to help you navigate through complex real estate transactions.
Hire the part time heart surgeon at your own risk. Everyone else should look for the best heart doctor in Austin.
Steve Mallett has been licensed since 2004 and has been a Dripping Springs resident since 2003. The Mallett Integrity Team was started in 2007 and has been a top team every year since. stevem@mallettintegrityteam.com