Real Estate Agency

Whether you are buying or selling a home or property having a good top performing real estate agent represent you can make the task so much more easier. With the recent boom in real estate markets gone bust so many real estate agents who had gone through ten years of good times are now falling over one another vying for your business. So where do you start?

To begin with check to see if they are a member in good standing of the local, state and national association of Realtors. Only those who are in good standing with this organization can call themselves “realtors”, otherwise by definition they are referred to as an “agent”.

Ask if they are full time or part time in the business and what hours they can be reached at. This is important, because they are not only dealing with you but also the seller and if they are spending the majority of their time golfing or fishing it can become a problem when you go to finalize a deal.

Years of experience is also very important as well and knowledge of the type of real estate that they are selling is also important. For instance, if you are in the market for a condo you will want a
realtor’s that is completely familiar with standard rules and regulations involving the ownership of a condo.

How does he or she communicate? Are you comfortable. An experienced realtor will know that ever person they deal with doesn’t buy from them, so they should not treat you differently then they would any
other potential client if they determine that you are perhaps not a motivated buyer.

One thing that you want to also make sure of is that they are in relatively good shape if you plan on scouting around for a great deal. While this might sound odd, some years back a friend got involved with
a realtor that was so overweight that he couldn’t go up the stairs at some homes that they went to and had to be hospitalized at one point for a heart condition while she was dealing with him.

She felt so sorry for the man that she waited for him to get out of the hospital and ended up driving herself around and looking at a list of homes that he had given her. It is important to remember that
before you buy a home and particularly a home with property you will want to look it over completely.

It is important in this day and age that your real estate agent should be tech savvy, so they can at least email you and be able to offer you simple information such as the values of surrounding homes in the
neighborhood that you are considering buying a home in. Also, you will not want to have to deal with a realtor that is over bearing or comes off as a con artist.

For years and years (“good ole days”) buying a home through a real estate agent was similar to going to Sears to buy a stove: you were not legally represented by the agent with whom you were working. Since the Seller usually paid the commission and the listing broker shared that commission with the selling broker, the buyer’s “agent” was in fact a subagent of the Seller. In the 90′s a class action law suit (dual agency) involving one of the largest brokerage firms in the country resulted in a settlement rumored to be a bunch of money. Agency immediately became of great interest and concern for both real estate companies looking to avoid similar problems and state governments.

Today all states have laws defining real estate agency: buyer agency, seller agency, and dual agency, although some still allow for “facilitators,” where no agency has been established. Agency laws define the relationship between the agent and his client, or principle, and the duties of each. Illinois has, by statute, established the duties of the agent to the clients: care, obedience, accounting, loyalty, confidentiality, and disclosure (remember the Boy Scout oath?). The simple rule is that, excepting unlawful demands, the client’s interest must be placed above the agent’s interest. The client would be obligated to treat the agent honestly, cooperate toward fulfilling the goal for which the agency was formed, and to compensate the agent as agreed.

Establishing agency requires competent parties, a lawful purpose, and agreement between the parties. An agency can be express (written or oral, but written is pretty important) or implied (by words or actions) and once established must be taken very seriously. Obviously if an agent has discussed the job, duties, objectives, compensation, etc. with a prospective client or customer, and they have agreed to work together, an agency relationship has been created. Some acts can be performed without creating an agency: things like answering questions without giving advice. Just answering questions about a home, for instance at an open house, is considered “ministerial” and does not create agency: the other party is considered a consumer: a potential client. A problem can arise if the agent begins to give the consumer advice or moves beyond providing information about a specific home. The Illinois law says, “Licensees shall be considered to be representing the consumer they are working with …,” so an unintended agency relationship may be created.

While most agents will represent either a buyer or seller in a transaction, Illinois license law allows Dual Agency in which the same agent “represents” both buyer and seller. As an example, if an agent had a listed property (a seller client) and a buyer for whom the listing seemed perfect, with the informed written consent of both clients, the agent could show and perhaps negotiate a contract between his/her two clients. It’s difficult to understand the term Dual Agency in this transaction: by definition, agency demands working in the best interest of the client and the two clients have opposing interests (purchase price). The agent in this case more intermediates than advocates. The potential for claims of unfair representation are much greater in this type of transaction and utmost care must be taken to insure that both parties are fully informed and agree before any showing takes place. (Undisclosed dual agency is the basis for the law suit mentioned in the first paragraph.) While most agents would like to receive both ends of the commission, it is probably safer from a legal perspective and certainly better service to the client, to avoid dual agency. Illinois uses the “designated agent” approach to allow a Broker to appoint one agent to represent a Seller and another to represent a Buyer in the same transaction without creating a dual agency within the same brokerage.

When beginning to work with a client, get the relationship in writing (if at all possible). It is mandatory for a listing, but sometimes buyers are reticent to sign agency agreements. That may be because the agreement is not properly explained. The Illinois buyer agency forms are pretty non-threatening if explained correctly. Always disclose your position and any information (other than confidential) you have about the property or the agency relationship. If a potential buyer at an open house expresses interest in the property, for example, make certain to disclose that you represent the Seller and that the “buyer” should not rely on your assistance for other than ministerial acts.

Disclosure, agreements in writing, and making sure the client’s interest always comes first are the main points, but training and study of agency law is extremely important.
The State of Texas, for instance, requires 30 hours of Agency in its pre-license course.
Illinois includes it in core curriculum for continuing education. The Illinois License Act of 2000 (Article 15) lays it out in detail and can be found most easily at http://law.justia.com/illinois/codes/chapter24/23835.html (it took me quite a while to find it at the State of Illinois General Assembly site and the URL runs off the page).

Online real estate courses are offered to potential and licensed real estate agents, real estate brokers, real estate appraisers and real estate investors. The online schools offer a wide range of services to their students, which include helping the students pass the licensing exams for each field. Different courses are offered to those who wish to become agents, brokers, appraisers and investors as each has its own specific areas of study.

Courses for Real Estate Agents

The major areas of study that the courses for real estate agents include License Laws, Real Estate Contracts and Law, Escrow, Finance, and the Principles and Practices of Real Estate Math. These courses are often delivered through various software, CDs and virtual tutorials that the online schools offer their students. These courses help the students have access to the most up to date state laws with regard to real estate in the areas where they wish to practice their profession and the most up to date techniques and skills that can help them help their future clients. The students also take exams on these modules as to assess their understanding of the different areas of their study.

Review for licensing exams and license renewal

In addition to the modules that these courses offer, one important service that these online schools provide their students are the reviews that the students can take to help them prepare for the State Real Estate Exams that they will take to become accredited agents. These reviews are often given to the students in the form of practice exams and supplementary reading that can help the student prepare for the exam.

Apart from offering their services to people who wish to become agents, courses are also offered to licensed real estate agents who need to renew their real estate agent licenses. Online real estate courses for agents provide high-quality, effective, and convenient classes to future realty agents, that not only give them the most up to date information on real estate but also the best preparation for the State Real Estate Exams.

Real agencies can achieve their greatest potential for new business when their website is established as the primary lead capture model for the real estate business. Every external print and internet-based marketing initiative should lead to the site, and the site should be developed with strong keyword-rich content, titles, descriptions, tags, and inbound links so it can be found on search engines. These actions are critical to launching a new website (or revamping an existing one), and should be measured frequently (use Google Analytics – its free and highly relevant) and content should be revised on an ongoing basis. It is also important that your webmaster create a sitemap and submits it to Google.

Other ongoing initiatives include social media such as Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain, RealTown, Trulia, Zillow, craigsList, YouTube, Flickr, and Linked In. Also important in social media are a blog with feed to the site, content-rich articles, and local directories (such as Google Places, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, etc.) and global directories (such as dmoz, yellowpages.com, wcities, hotfrog, joeant, yahoo, Google, etc.)

The social media component adds value to the real estate business only if it takes on the persona of “neighborhood expert.” Instead of sending the message that “here’s my listing”, the agency becomes an advocate for the area about things to do, events, and local happenings. Then throw in a listing here and there, especially price reductions because then people see you for your “value added” features. The primary social media outlet is Facebook. However you can easily set up some automatic feeds so that Facebook sends feeds to Twitter, YouTube sends feeds to Facebook and the website, and the blogs and articles are fed to the website and Facebook. Once the initial set up is realized, the feeds do the “viral work” for you. Blogs and articles will add to the organic search component.

Complementing the real estate business in an ongoing manner for social media requires a key communication checkpoint person within the agency – someone who can lead the effort by posting local events, neighborhood news, price reductions, new listings, new agents, top sellers, e-mail addresses captured at the agency, local chamber website, local Realtor board website, and other local interest news.

Search engine Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is not recommended due to its high cost and limited demographic ability. Some SEO experts would disagree. However, Facebook ads, if written properly, can produce a higher ROI simply due to its low cost (starting at $1/day) and specific demographic targeting component. And it’s well-known how important good photography is for a real estate listing. Website visitors want to see PICTURES of listings (which need to be optimized with tags), and they want to see many of them. Whether the agency invests in some decent photo equipment or hires someone locally for photographs, there is great value in how well good photography influences website visitors to take action (the lead capture). In addition to posting photos with the listing, use editing software to compile the still photos into a video with a smooth background fade-in and out, attaching tags and keywords to the video and photos, and placing these listing videos both on the website (by your webmaster) and on YouTube. Once on YouTube, load each video with lots of tags and keywords so they will also appear high in organic search engines and then link it back to the real estate agency website (again, the primary lead capture model). It may sound simple – and it is – but YouTube has very high search engine rankings and you can accomplish all of this at a much lower cost than hiring someone locally to produce a live video production and then slapping it on the website without an SEO motive.

You can also place some advertising on real estate websites. Facebook ads, Zillow and Trulia offer some options, as does Realtor.com. There are also some low-cost real estate websites with high traffic counts that can be recommended.

One last communication piece is very effective – due to low cost and high ROI. Building a data base of clients through lead capture forms on the site (and other lead capture methods throughout the social media realm) and sending a monthly newsletter is an essential part of a total advertising plan for a real estate agency. The newsletter should take on a tone of neighborhood expert once again, with listings and price reductions subtly interspersed. Repetition is the key – sort of a “Marketing 101″ concept.

Becoming a real estate agent requires dedication and patience. A real estate agent is responsible for bringing the best deal that they could to sellers and buyers. However, there are some characteristics that a real estate agent should posses. Criteria that should be met will be discussed one by one to give aspiring agents a clear view of what are expected from them.

Conduct a self-evaluation exam. Are you a hardworking person? Can you withstand negotiating with different people? Will you be able to dedicate all of the time that is necessary? Are you sure you have good communication and social skills? All of these are important questions that you may need to ask yourself. Be sure that you are positively sure before you say yes to yourself. It is recommended, but not required for you to take short personality development and communication courses. This will help bring out the best in you and reveal those hidden skills you might have.

The next most important thing to consider is your age. In some countries and states, you are qualified if you are eighteen years old and above. Some states will require you to be at least twenty one years old. Try to locate a good real estate school within your area. Make sure that the school that you are about to choose is approved by the state. Is it really necessary to enroll in a real estate school? Definitely it is. There are some terminologies and laws that you should be aware of. Real estate is more complicated than you could have ever imagined. There are a lot of things that you must fully understand and be knowledgeable of before you can ever sell houses.

The things listed above are just the basic requirements for you to be qualified for the job. But, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can become an agent that easily. You also need to acquire a license before you can become a full-pledged agent.

Background checks, state exams, a completed course, (graduate from the short real estate courses) and submission of an application form are the basics on how you can acquire a license. The most crucial part is the background investigation check. Since you are about to handle large amounts of money and confidential information, the RELC or the Real Estate Licensing Commission must make sure that you are someone without bad records.

Say for instance you already passed the exams and gained a license. Congratulations, but what now? You cannot call yourself as a real estate agent, yet. Not until you have gained enough experience on the said field. You have to locate an agency willing to recruit new agents. Go through the yellow pages or online listings. There may be a lot of companies who are willing to hire someone that possess the skills that you have.

Having done all these things, make sure that you practice everything that you’ve learned and have the motivation to achieve and meet your sales objectives.