I began my real estate career in August of 1996, in Denver, Colorado. Which was booming. A house I'd bought just two years earlier for $82,000 was already worth $150,000 and going up every day. Amateur investors were everywhere. Any real estate agent with a pulse could have 20 buyers lined up just from holding a few open houses and showing up for floor time.
Sounds pretty rosy, doesn't it? Well, yeah, a market like that has its benefits (and also its challenges), which I discussed in my blog "Were We Old Timers Born on Third Base?" But in writing that blog, the question arose in my mind... "Should New Agents Focus on Buyers or Listings?"
Today's new agent is probably not inundated with active buyers the way we were, although listings are easier to come by. To compare, I didn't even interview for a listing until I'd been in the business for 14 months - buyers were plentiful; listings were not. And I think this experience served me well.
Working with a lot of buyers is quite different from working with a lot of sellers. I'll go out on a limb and say that working with buyers is a better business-building activity for new agents. Why? Several reasons:
• You typically develop closer relationships with your buyers, thus increasing the potential for referrals.
• When you work with buyers, you work harder. And that's good? Oh yeah, that's good. When you're new, you need to stay busy. An active buyer will keep you hopping. An active listing? Not so much.
• You learn more about the overall home-buying process when you work with buyers. You're intimately involved in almost every step of the transaction, from showings to offers to inspections to loan approval. This knowledge will serve you well when you act as a listing agent.
• When working with buyers, if you're observant, you'll see most (but certainly not all) of what a listing agent does. You'll learn a lot about both sides of the deal, where when you list you don't see much of what the buyer agent is doing.
• You will LEARN YOUR MARKET!!!
What do you think?
copyright Jennifer Allan 2007
Actually, I guess I should have made it clear that I don't expect rookies (or anyone) to blow off listing opportunities to focus on buyers. But I think a lot of rookies get the message that they should pursue listings and that there's something "wrong" with working with buyers - that they're too much trouble and you have to LIST TO LAST.
In fact, there's not really any advice at all here - just an observation that I think I was very well served my first year by working only with buyers.
There are a lot of advantages with working with buyers to be sure, and it sure is a wonderful feeling when you finally find "the house."
I think it's probably easier for newbies to start out with buyers, but they do run you hard! LOL
Listings will bring you buyers, buyers will bring you listings. I think you need to find your own strengths and this is the market for that test. Referrals will bring you both!
It's a Good Life!
Fran
I started out working with buyers except for one listing I picked up by accident. (Had been on the market and belonged to an old friend. I went to show it and called him to simply say hi and he gave me the home to relist.) The one thing about starting out with buyers is that if you stay in contact with them, it will help your business in a few years as they start to sell. One problem with listings in my area is that it more than likely means the seller is relocating out of the area. Yes, possible referral to another town, but not any referrals locally.
I agree with Kim in that many of my listings relocate, thereby taking their referrals with them. I like Buyers. They see you working hard for them every day (running around, etc) and I get a lot of positive reinforcement and love from them. Listings are a lot of background work after the initial listing push, and most Sellers aren't privy to it - follow up calls, etc. It's a lot harder for them to realize how hard you are working for them, and harder to "Wow" them. I got in the business around 6 years ago, and I'm waiting for all those Buyers who I sold homes to in the beginning to start selling. Should be interesting to see if they contact ME when they list/buy.
I think most of them will.
Buyers are a nice investment in your future business.
In our market many of the heavy listing agents don't want to work with buyers and many of these agents start a "team" which is mostly made up of Buyer Agents. Getting a listing normally requires much more confidence of the client than many buyers require. So, it seems that many "floor duty" agents really get more calls from buyers than sellers.
Seems to me if an agent is getting into this business, unless they have a great contact list that trusts their business model and are also sellers, an agent would have the greatest chance of building their business with buyers and hope you did a good enough job that when they become sellers, they will still call you.
But beware, being a "box checker" is easy. Truly becoming a great Buyer's Agent is subject for another post!
Stephen - yet another great point I hadn't thought of!
Heather - stay in touch with them and they will. I'm now getting called by my buyers from 2002-3, most of whom I haven't actually spoken with since the closing, but they're on my "interesting, relevant, non-salesy" email list and I send them something nice a few times a year. It's amazing to me how easy it is to get business from past clients if you just make a teeny effort! Of course, if you make a bigger effort, you'll not only get their business down the road, but their referrals in the interim!
Don, - no kidding! Feel free to write to your heart's content on being a GOOD buyer agent! I'd love to read it.
Here's a blog I wrote early in my blogging career about the importance of being 'balanced' - that is, working with buyers AND sellers...
As new agents with not much credibility, you do take what you can get. My only preference is work and I don't mind the running around.
I think new agents must work both buyers and sellers. Knowledge and experience is priceless!
John - excellent point. I'm much more of a details-gal and thus enjoy listings more. Small-talking with buyers in my car exhausts me, but I love the process of pricing a home properly, brainstorming solutions to problems and putting the marketing together. But I still think that working with buyers gives you a little more bang for your effort, from a business-building perspective at least.
Karl - absolutely! So... how does one "work the business right?"
Working with buyers is certainly satisfying and fun. However, they can cost you a LOT of time and money, especially if they LIE to you and say they're interested, serious, will know the house when they see it, etc. Then you take them out every other weekend all summer long, using multiple tanks of gas, paying babysitters, etc. only to have them tell you after Labor Day, "Well, we did like some of the houses but we're still going to wait."
This is what you deal with when working in a vacation market. They could just as easily take up your entire summer and then decide they'd rather buy their vacation home in Tennessee or in the Catskills, or go to Florida.
I work well with people and I also have strengths in listings - I want to have a mix of both listings and buyers.
Being a new agent (licensed last summer), I currently have one listing (a FSBO I won over!). I've worked with some buyers, but no closings yet. I'd love to have more buyers, and have toyed with the "Buyer's Agent" scenario...but I still want the opportunity to have my OWN listings, too! Yes, I want it all!!! :)
Jennifer, in our market we have a current shortage of buyers with a long-term in-migration of new residents. We think working with buyers initially is a great way to learn the neighborhoods, construction styles, home values, etc.; as well as capture more business in both the near and long term.
We also think current home sellers are wanting to work with teams and companies that attract and work with more than the average number of buyers. Having direct, current experience on how a buyer thinks and reacts to a listing will be an advantage to the agent doing a listing presentation in our market.
Thanks for the post and all the comments.
John