Agents on Agents

Speaker 1: [0:09] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. My name is Christian Nossum, with the Awesome Nossum Group here at Wilson Realty in Seattle. And joining me today are the wonderful … Speaker 2: Charlotte Reynolds.

Speaker 3: [0:20] Jason Saldarriaga. I'm Sarah Kate Davis.

Speaker 2: [0:24] Oh, I wish I did a cool voice now. Yeah,

Speaker 1: [0:26] I know. Geez. Oh, I

Speaker 3: [0:27] thought you had it.

Speaker 1: [0:27] Ooh.

Speaker 2: [0:28] Ooh. Jason, shots fired. Ow. We're

Speaker 1: [0:31] being fiery today. Anyways, today's podcast is all about pulling back the curtain, and really just kinda exposing the secrets of the real estate industry. Uh, as both a buyer and a seller, you are going to get a lot out of this. We've been wanting to do this for a while, just because there's so much BS and kind of fakeness out there, and we don't really like that. So we wanna just expose the truth, and that's what today's all about. So, um- Get Jesse. Yeah, get Jesse. Uh, one of the things that I think I wanna talk about first is open houses. What is the point of an open house, guys? Like, is it to sell the house?

Speaker 2: [1:10] It's to get clients.

Speaker 1: [1:11] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [1:12] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [1:12] Explain that

Speaker 2: [1:14] Well, people, especially newer people in the industry, they'll, like, actually reach out to listing agents and say, "Hey, can I host an open house?"

Speaker 1: [1:21] So is it their listing that they're-

Speaker 2: [1:22] No, it's not. Well, typically, it's not their listing. I think maybe the listing agent will do maybe one or two open houses when they first list it. Mm-hmm. But generally after that, they'll recruit other agents to do it.

Speaker 1: [1:31] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [1:31] And most of the time, they're more than happy to do it, because again, that's a good way for them to get leads without having to cold call people or knock on doors.

Speaker 5: [1:39] Yeah, you literally open the front door and you have p- potential buyers walking through your door. It's pretty nice, so it's an easy way to take advantage of that situation. But you don't realize walking in that the, uh, the agent is not the listing agent. They're trying very likely to represent you as the buyer.

Speaker 1: [1:56] Yeah. They're trying to find buyers, which makes sense. I mean, you put a big sign in the front that says open house. All these potential buyers walk through the door, and as an agent, you're like, "Cool, there's a bunch of buyers walking through that sometimes they have an agent, sometimes they don't, but I'm gonna try and convince them to work with me." That's kinda the whole point of an open house.

Speaker 2: [2:16] There's- That's why they follow you around like a little lost puppy dog.

Speaker 1: [2:19] Exactly, yes, and make you sign in.

Speaker 2: [2:22] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [2:22] Which, yeah, they're just trying to get your contact info.

Speaker 5: [2:26] Yep. So what do you do if they have a sign-up sheet? What do you do?

Speaker 1: [2:30] So if you are already truly working with an agent, you can just tell them, "Hey, I already have an agent. Um, uh, like this is my agent's name. Um, I don't really feel comfortable signing up." Sometimes- They

Speaker 5: [2:44] should, once they find out you have an agent, they should kinda take a backseat- Yes … um, because they then are walking a fine line. If you feel like they are soliciting-

Speaker 1: [2:55] Mm-hmm … Speaker 5: um, their services, you know, that's against the MLS rules. So generally, when agents find out that you have an, that you already have an agent, a lot of times they kind of hide. Yeah,

Speaker 5: [3:07] they, they- And it's, like, awkwardly … they fall back But that's why. Yeah. That's why, because, "Oh, oh, I don't wanna solicit, say anything," and then they come back around that, "I was soliciting you," so.

Speaker 4: [3:16] I've had people come through an open house with their agent's cards to say- Yeah … "This is my representation."

Speaker 1: [3:22] Yeah.

Speaker 4: [3:23] You know, and it's nice to be able to match the agent with the potential buyer as well, so then if you-

Speaker 1: [3:30] If they, if offers

Speaker 4: [3:31] do come in- … the offers come through- Yeah … you know you met them, and you know- Mm-hmm who's representing them, so.

Speaker 5: [3:34] Yeah. Yeah, and that brings up another point. Um, when you're looking at houses, you know, we just said that a lot of times the agent that's doing the open house is not the listing agent, but generally speaking, whatever is said, it'll find its way back to the listing agent- Mm-hmm and through them, the sellers. So be careful. I've had clients not shoot themselves in the foot, but almost, because they go to an open house and they say something, they realize that they wanna pursue the house, putting an offer on the house, and, uh The sellers already know now more than, um-

Speaker 1: [4:08] They've lost some leverage, basically you'd want them

Speaker 5: [4:10] to. Yeah.

Speaker 1: [4:10] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, kind of play coy while you're there. Don't,

Speaker 5: [4:14] don't- Don't insult-

Speaker 1: [4:15] Don't insult the seller … anything. Yeah. Don't insult the house, but also if you love the house, don't always necessarily show that. I think we, uh-

Speaker 4: [4:24] Keep it in your back pocket and talk to your agent later.

Speaker 1: [4:26] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5: [4:27] I like the people who go through the open houses, love the house, and they're like, "Oh…" They see somebody else walk in and they're like, "Oh, honey, wow, I can't believe that water damage out back." Yeah,

Speaker 4: [4:36] exactly. Shady.

Speaker 5: [4:37] I remember, you know, this used… I, I think the previous people who lived here were, um, I don't know, they, they concocted some super fund, like, contamination. The soil, there's always a weird smell

Speaker 1: [4:50] coming. Isn't this the house where that person died and they didn't know for, like, three months? Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 5: [4:55] This is haunted.

Speaker 1: [4:58] All right, moving on to the next one. What if you are at an open house, or anywhere, and you happen to run into the listing agent, so the agent that represents the seller, and you're a buyer, and that agent is trying to convince you to work with them by saying, "Hey, if you work with me, I'll give you a deal"?

Speaker 4: [5:16] False news.

Speaker 1: [5:19] False news, not fake news. And you're

Speaker 2: [5:20] speaking about the house that they're listing.

Speaker 1: [5:22] Yes. They're the listing agent. So they're listing the

Speaker 2: [5:23] house and they want to represent you as a buyer.

Speaker 1: [5:26] Mm-hmm. As well.

Speaker 2: [5:27] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [5:27] So they'd be trying to represent both sides.

Speaker 4: [5:29] Yes. I think that's hard because then where does your loyalty lie? Who are you gonna go to bat for? I think it puts agents in a little bit of a compromising situation and…

Speaker 1: [5:40] Well, it's like this. Would you hire an attorney that's w- working both sides?

Speaker 4: [5:44] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: [5:45] No.

Speaker 4: [5:45] No.

Speaker 1: [5:46] And-

Speaker 4: [5:47] It's not necessarily in your best interest. I mean-

Speaker 1: [5:49] Yeah … Speaker 2: like, most brokerages, too, don't allow that. Some still do.

Speaker 4: [5:52] Some still do.

Speaker 1: [5:54] Some still do, yeah. But yeah, most don't. Yeah. And what they'll do, too, is they, they won't say that they represent you. They'll still represent the seller. They'll have an agreement s- that says, that the buyer signs that says, "I do not represent you, I represent the seller." But that's saying something. Mm-hmm. They're telling you one thing, but the contract is saying something completely different. So if they're trying to say, "Work with me, I'll get you a deal on this house," that's often a lie, and that's really just them trying to be shady and, uh, and get the house sold for the seller. 'Cause really, their, their allegiance lies with the seller. Their goal is to- And make two paychecks … represent the seller. Yeah, and then they get paid twice. Not, not cool.

Speaker 5: [6:36] Yeah. Our agency definitely frowns upon that.

Speaker 1: [6:39] Yeah.

Speaker 5: [6:40] For sure.

Speaker 1: [6:41] Yep. Um, let's talk about how, speaking of getting paid, let's talk about how buyers agents, I guess they're technically called the selling agent, how they get paid. So that'd be if you're representing a buyer, if we represent a buyer, who pays us? Who wants to go with that one?

Speaker 2: [7:00] The seller.

Speaker 1: [7:01] Yes. Correct. So buyers do not pay, uh, to rep- or for their representation generally. This is 90, I don't know what, some super high percentage that that's the case. There are rare occurrences where Potentially there's no commission written into the listing agreement for the buyer's agent. In that situation, you then work out some sort of payment with your buyer's agent, but that is extremely rare. I couldn't tell you the last time I've seen that, if I've ever actually seen it in my- I know I never have … 15 years in the business. So it's, it's extremely rare, but it could potentially happen. But the mass majority of the time, the seller is the one that pays for the buyer's agent. So when you are choosing an agent to represent you as a buyer, choose the best. I mean, try and find the best. Might as well. You're not paying for them.

Speaker 5: [7:56] Speaking of getting paid, a lot of people, uh, wonder why we get paid, what we get paid, where the money goes, to what, what happens, all of these things. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about that for a second.

Speaker 1: [8:08] Okay. So like for instance, when, when we're representing a seller to list a house for sale, we have a bunch of pretty much fixed expenses for marketing a home. We have to hire a professional videographer, a professional photographer. Uh, we have staging that we often have to pay for. We do custom for sale signs that we print up for each house. We got the sign rider, the pole that the, that the sign has to be hung up on that sticks in the ground. Uh, there's actually companies that install those. Um, there's the, the flyers, the mailers, online ads. We create a custom website. Uh, we often coordinate and spend our time, uh, speaking with and coordinating with like the cleaners, uh, window washers, um-

Speaker 5: [8:54] Oh, yeah. There's a lot of, uh-

Speaker 1: [8:55] Any repairs that have to be done, we're l- meeting them at the house, letting them into the house. Yep. Um, there's, there's a lot of, a lot of costs. I mean, those costs right there just s- looking back at a recent listing that we had, I mean, that's somewhere between 6 to $8,000 just for those fixed costs right there. Um, and that's just the sunk cost. If we sell that house, we get that money back, but if we don't, we lose all that money, so it's a risk on our end.

Speaker 5: [9:20] Yeah, for sure. And another thing to consider, if you're gonna go and sell your own home- Mm-hmm … these things that we listed, y- you're most likely gonna have the same expenses because you are gonna be marketing your property most likely in a, in a similar way, and so-

Speaker 1: [9:34] Or you're gonna attempt to. You're

Speaker 5: [9:35] probably- Or you're gonna try to.

Speaker 1: [9:36] Yeah. But you're not necessarily gonna know all of the referrals and who to call to get the job done that does it right. Um, you're relying on us for those- Exactly … for those people. So- You might actually end up paying more to do it on your own. Plus, you're spending all your time, so you gotta factor in what your time's worth.

Speaker 3: [9:54] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [9:55] Um, in addition to that, there's just a bunch of, you know, base costs that all agents have to pay throughout the year regardless. Uh, like we have continuing education that we have to do. Every two years, we have to renew our license. Um, we have, we have to have a higher base car insurance, uh, because we're driving people around. Our office re- our brokerage requires that. Speaking of brokerage, we have to pay the brokerage a portion of every single sale.

Speaker 5: [10:19] Yep. ' Speaker: Cause they have overhead for the building, the signage, all the- Insurance … insurance, all of the state required things that they have to deal with. Um, there's no benefits that we get. We have to pay for our own health insurance. There's no retirement. Um, oh yeah, and that one big, giant 25 to 30% one of each sale transaction that we get, our commission check, is taxes. Yeah, they don't take any taxes out of anything. We have to, we have to save that every single paycheck. Um, I mean, there's just a lot, and this isn't, I'm not saying all these things to, for a pity party. We just wanna kinda, we're always transparent. We wanna shed light on really what our expenses as agents are, so you understand. Every business has a cost of doing business. If we were a manufacturing business, we'd have to pay for the goods and the manufacturing tools and all that stuff. Here, we have expenses as well. Continue down that path, that would- Okay … which is great. So, uh, there is a lot of money that flows through this market. Yeah. I pulled some, some numbers and I was actually really fascinated by this. The Northwest MLS is really good about supplying a lot of different, like, databases that we can peruse as agents. And, uh, so I just wanna throw some stuff out at you. I thought this was interesting. In 2018, we're gonna just focus on King County. Great. We had $23.1 billion in sales. Um, that's a lot. That was 2018. Just in King County. That was last year. Yep. Now, this is what I found very fascinating. 16,000 brokers in King County.

Speaker 1: [11:52] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: [11:53] And only 24,000 sales. So- S- that's less than two sales per agent. That's it, yeah. And a lot of agents, almost one- Yeah … per agent. So a lot of agents do hundreds. Not a lot, uh, but there's a, a group that do, like, a, an exceptional- Mm-hmm … amount.

Speaker 3: [12:12] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: [12:12] Most agents do a handful a year, and then there's a huge bulk that do one to zero a year. Yeah. Um, I'm sure y'all, everyone sitting here, but maybe not the people listening, when we became real estate agents, it's shocking how many people… The bar to become an agent is really low. It's

Speaker 1: [12:29] extremely low. Incredibly low. It's stupid low.

Speaker 5: [12:31] Yeah, shockingly easy.

Speaker 1: [12:32] You take a 90-hour course, you pass a test by the state, and then you're a licensed agent.

Speaker 5: [12:38] And y- you meet a lo- depending on how you get your license, you might meet a lot of poten- other people doing the same thing if y- if you go to, like, a class or something instead of doing it online. Yeah,

Speaker 1: [12:47] an in-person class. Yeah.

Speaker 5: [12:48] Um, and I know in my experience, a lot of people, you know, I did mine in Bellevue. Mm-hmm. Which is, uh- expensive, more expensive than Seattle. And so a lot of people in the class, their idea was just, "Oh, I'm gonna have, like, one listing in Bellevue a year, and I'm gonna have, make, like, three times what I make now working f- 60 hours a week," and-

Speaker 1: [13:07] Yeah

Speaker 5: [13:08] Um, and they're not doing real estate anymore, let me tell you. Yeah. They didn't last. So i- I think the statistic, it's something like 80% of people, I don't know if, if this is true, but this is what I was told at Rockwell, 80% of people who get their license, you have to renew after two years, 80% of people don't renew. Yep. Um, I, again, I don't know if that's true, but it, it is a stat- They gave me a similar stat as well- Yeah when I was

Speaker 1: [13:30] there. Yeah, that sounds

Speaker 5: [13:31] right. Mm-hmm. And that feels about right. So many people, they, you get your license for, like, one transaction or- Mm-hmm … on a whim almost, and you think you have these high hopes of kind of the idea of the open house. You open your front door and p- buyers and sellers just walk in. Just wandering in and- And that is just not how it works.

Speaker 1: [13:47] Yeah, it's hard. So. This job is very hard, and it, the perception is that it's simple. It's not simple. There's so much that goes into it. Yeah.

Speaker 5: [13:56] Yep, and don't, you know, when, if you're thinking of getting into, uh, real estate in terms of a consumer, do not hesitate to be very direct with agents and ask them direct questions. Mm-hmm. How many sales have you done total? How many- Yeah … have you done this year? What's your volume? Which, uh, what percentage is listing versus buying? Mm-hmm. Um, all

Speaker 1: [14:20] these

Speaker 5: [14:20] things are helpful.

Speaker 1: [14:22] And also, like, how many clients at a time do you work with or do you limit yourself to?

Speaker 5: [14:26] That's a big one. ' Speaker: Cause it's the opposite of what you might be thinking, like, "Oh, I need to find out if these people actually do any business." But sometimes some agents have too much business. So with that, l- let's touch base about, uh, h- why did we become real estate agents? What was it that got us to bite the bullet and jump in this crazy world?

Speaker 2: [14:49] Uh, you guys all know this, but my dad is a builder.

Speaker 5: [14:52] Yep.

Speaker 2: [14:53] And so he had clients of his that were looking to purchase and flip properties, so he was like, "It could be a good idea to get your license. Maybe they will decide to go with you." And I did help them Buy a nice little house over in Bellevue, Newport Hills. So-

Speaker 1: [15:10] Mm-hmm … Speaker 2: um, yeah, thanks, Dad. I'm still here doing it, so. Shout out to Dad. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [15:16] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [15:16] But I think you only did a couple with them.

Speaker 2: [15:18] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [15:19] And but the rest has been, and you've done quite a few.

Speaker 2: [15:22] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [15:22] Um, the rest has just been- Yeah, the rest has been- … you know, from our classes and- Yeah … past clients and things like that. So, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [15:29] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [15:30] They've

Speaker 2: [15:30] all been great.

Speaker 1: [15:31] Yeah, exactly. Uh, Sarah Kate, how'd you get in?

Speaker 4: [15:34] Uh, similar to Charlotte, my dad owned his own construction company with my grandpa back in the day, and I just remember doing little stencils and building my own houses, and I loved, I just loved homes, and I loved the design process. And, uh, then I had a girlfriend growing up, her mom was a real estate agent, and we used to go tour homes with her and hop in her little van, and she would kind of teach us about these homes that we would go see. So I've always been really fascinated, and when I decided to leave, uh, you know, aesthetics and makeup, I thought that that would be a good next step for me.

Speaker 1: [16:10] Mm-hmm. And you've excelled.

Speaker 4: [16:12] Thanks. I'm trying.

Speaker 1: [16:14] Jason, what about you? What's your backstory?

Speaker 5: [16:16] I was born in 1986, and my mom always said I would be an actor, singer, dancer, real estate agent, or- … interior decorator. I was one of those kids. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, my mom w- uh, I grew up in Austin, and Austin was going through a crazy construction boom, and so we would spend all our free time, she would, like, drive up to these houses under construction, trespass, thr- open a window, throw me in, uh, like…

Speaker 1: [16:44] Literally.

Speaker 5: [16:44] Lift you. Li- like throw me. No, lift me into the house. Lift you. And I would, like, run around the house and open the back door And, uh, and yeah, and I, uh, had a career before this in tech in- the tech industry. And, uh, I got to a point where it was time for either a promotion or something else, and I had kind of, uh, you know, the next promotion I wasn't too excited about, and I wanted to continue helping people. And so what better way than to get into real estate? And so that's, that's my little story in a little 30 seconds. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [17:18] Yeah. And then for myself, I was a weird kid. I liked watching This Old House and Hometime, and stuff like that on- You still

Speaker 2: [17:25] love watching

Speaker 1: [17:27] This Old House. I still, I don't… Yes, it's true. Um, but instead of, like, cartoons, that's what I would do as a kid. And, uh, and then, and I was always a little hustler, and I always had, like, a paper route and do odd jobs, and whatever I could do to earn money. And I would use that money to buy those late night infomercial How to Buy a House with No Money Down tapes and VHS, and eventually CDs. And, uh, and I'm, like, 12. 'Cause that makes sense.

Speaker 2: [17:57] That is not normal at all.

Speaker 1: [17:58] Yeah. And then, uh- Yeah, and then I helped my parents when they were going through a divorce sell their house. Um, they were gonna lose their house to foreclosure. I took my savings, which wasn't a lot 'cause I was in college, uh, used my savings to pay off their back mortgage payments, fixed up their house, sold it as a for sale by owner, which knowing what I know now, we could have easily gotten screwed. Uh, but we didn't, thankfully. And, um, and yeah, and that kinda catapulted me into actually helping people. So at that point, I thought I was gonna help other people in similar situations, where they're losing their house to foreclosure, um, going through divorce, some sort of life change. Uh, for whatever reason, people didn't trust a 20-year-old baby-faced kid, uh, to help them sell their house in that situation, so no one would let me help them. So I was like, "Well, I'll get my real estate license. That'll give me some credibility." Then my roommate at the time wanted to buy a house, uh, so I helped her buy a house as a real estate agent, and I said, "Whoa, this is way easier. People actually trust me. I'm gonna go down this path instead." So-

Speaker 2: [19:09] There

Speaker 1: [19:09] you go. Here we are … that was 15 years ago, and yeah.

Speaker 2: [19:12] I never knew that story.

Speaker 1: [19:13] Really?

Speaker 2: [19:13] No.

Speaker 1: [19:14] Oh, wow. Yeah. That's my story, sticking to it.

Speaker 2: [19:18] Just made it all up.

Speaker 1: [19:19] Yeah, it's all fake.

Speaker 5: [19:20] It's all a lie. So now that we've been in the industry, especially you, Christian, for quite some time, but I want all of us to kind of give our opinions. What are some things that, uh, surprised us that we were, we had a preconceived notion that we were proved wrong?

Speaker 2: [19:36] Going to real estate school does not teach you anything about being a real estate agent. Nothing.

Speaker 1: [19:40] Nothing at all. Zero things. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [19:42] Yeah. It's, I mean, like Christian said, it's a 90-hour course. You can do it in three weeks. Yeah. It's like 500 bucks, and they basically teach you how to pass a state test.

Speaker 1: [19:51] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [19:52] And as long as you pass the test, you can be an agent, and I-

Speaker 1: [19:56] And it's really how not to break the rules- Exactly … the laws. Yeah. That's really all it's going over.

Speaker 2: [20:00] That and real estate math.

Speaker 1: [20:01] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [20:01] I was gonna say- … real estate math. Hey, shout out. I didn't

Speaker 4: [20:05] mind that one.

Speaker 2: [20:07] Uh, so yeah. That's my biggest one. What do you guys have?

Speaker 1: [20:10] Hmm.

Speaker 4: [20:14] I guess I just didn't realize how much work it was, like we were saying. Mm-hmm. It does look easy, but knowing some people in the industry, I knew it wasn't, but I still kind of went in with that, with that feeling. And, um, once I started working in the business, I realized it's a lot. Yeah. It's a lot, and I love it, but yeah, it's not, it's not easy. There's a lot more, um, like, finer details going on behind the scenes that you don't really realize until you're in it and working on transactions and working with clients.

Speaker 3: [20:42] Yeah.

Speaker 5: [20:43] Yeah, this is something I knew before, but it's just, I just see this day in and day out. The percentage, the top percentage of agents do so much of the business. Mm-hmm. It is shocking. I've been doing this now for two and a half years, and I've worked a couple times with mul- with the same agent already.

Speaker 2: [21:05] Yeah. Yeah. I had two transactions at the same time- Yeah … with the same broker.

Speaker 5: [21:08] Exactly. Yeah. I had one, the day after it closed, I had another buyer for another one of their properties. Yeah. Yep. Her properties. You know, it, and, and it's just shocking how convoluted it is. Well, and that kind of goes

Speaker 1: [21:20] back to- It's very lopsided … what you were saying earlier, with the number of agents and the number of homes sold. Really, at the end of the day, the top probably 10% of agents, we all work together over and over and over again. And then there's this other 90% that maybe you work with them once, and that's about it. Uh, and that's just how the, the business works. It's kind of like the, the Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule. It's very similar, um, if any of you know who that, what that is. But, um, yeah, I think my, my perception getting in was somewhat similar. Like, this is gonna be easy. There, there isn't, it's not that hard, and you get paid a lot, and that was definitely not the case at all. I mean, it's extremely hard. You are working every day, all day. If you wanted, if you were really hustling, you could literally find something to do every hour of the day. You could not sleep and still not get enough done. Like, it's hard.

Speaker 2: [22:19] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [22:20] So.

Speaker 5: [22:21] Which brings me to the next point, uh, the spectrum of agents. Mm-hmm. So everybody's, you know, we might all be agents out there, but we, our day-to-day is qu- can be quite different, depending on how the, the team is built or lack thereof. Mm-hmm. The kind of, uh, if you're working for Redfin versus a tiny, like, neighborhood brokerage, quite different. So can one of y'all discuss the spectrum of agents? Because I think a lot of people are very surprised by how- Different … what, different it can be when you're looking to buy or sell real estate and you try to get a representation.

Speaker 1: [22:54] Spectrum of agents goes from a solo agent, that literally you only work with that one agent, and if that one agent is on vacation or out of town, you are kinda SOL.

Speaker 3: [23:08] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [23:09] And on the complete opposite end is r- uh, Redfin, where every single step of the process is someone different, where you never probably see the same person twice literally showing houses. It's someone new every single time. Mm-hmm. They know nothing about you. When you wanna write an offer, it's someone new. Once you get your offer accepted, it's someone new. Um, it's just someone new every step of the process, which is very impersonal. Right. Uh, and then there's, there's in between, where there's teams, and some of the, the real estate teams are larger than others. Some teams are… They call themself a team, but it's really more like a brokerage where they don't really work together. They just are under the umbrella of one, one name. And then there's down to the spectrum of, uh, a smaller team like us, where there's four of us, really five of us, but four agents, and w- we're all working together every single day. Everyone knows about each other's clients. We know if one of us goes on vacation, we know ahead of time, and we know to plan and, and how to step in and, and assist the clients when they need support while, while that agent's gone. Um-

Speaker 5: [24:18] Yeah, I think, uh, m- we're not alone in realizing that a team is the way to go.

Speaker 1: [24:23] Yeah.

Speaker 5: [24:23] Um, it's not as common as it should be- Yeah … but I think, you know, it's kind of the best of both worlds. We're able to be the best agents we can be because we have a good work-life balance. Yep. 99, 95% of my clients only work with me.

Speaker 1: [24:38] Yeah,

Speaker 5: [24:38] exactly. But, uh, the 5% when I'm out of town or- double booked and I can't- Yeah for whatever reason, m- uh, d- you know, show two clients the same day, whatever it might be. Mm-hmm. Um- There's only one of you … you know, we… Yeah, there is only one of me. Although I try to-

Speaker 1: [24:57] You know, that

Speaker 5: [24:57] go- … duplicate that.

Speaker 1: [24:59] Yeah. Um, you did bring up working with two clients at once. Let's, let's kinda go over that. So as a team, we do work with a lot of buyers at the same time. Um, uh, and there's, with the lack of supply out there of homes, there are sometimes, not very often, but occasionally, where, you know, the same house will pop up, and it meets the criteria of, of two potential buyers of ours. How do you guys… I mean, I'll answer this, kinda, 'cause I've had this happen before, where, in that situation, the buyer… And we get this question a lot, too, when we're showing houses. Like, "Hey, if I like this house and another one of our, of your clients like this house, too, how do you deal with that?" The beauty of being on a team is that we can put up a Chinese wall, which is a term that lawyers use to basically say there's no communication about, between the two agents that are now gonna work on this home together. Um, there's no communication between those two home, or n- those two agents, uh, those, about those two buyers wanting that one home.

Speaker 5: [26:01] Yeah, you'd be surprised. Uh, I thought this would be a thing that we'd encounter a lot-

Speaker 1: [26:06] Yeah … Speaker 5: because a lot of our clients, um- Have similar

Speaker 5: [26:10] criteria … have similar needs and stuff. Mm-hmm. And it really actually hasn't been much of an issue.

Speaker 1: [26:15] Um- I don't think

Speaker 5: [26:15] it's

Speaker 1: [26:16] ever actually

Speaker 5: [26:16] happened … it almost happened- Almost happened

Speaker 1: [26:18] once … Speaker 2: with, with you It almost happened to me once- Yeah … as well. Yeah. Yeah. I, I showed, I showed one client, and I had another one inquire about going to see it, but it had- Mm already gone pending. Yep.

Speaker 2: [26:28] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [26:29] The, the, I think the reason why, even though it matches the criteria of different buyers, that one house doesn't always work.

Speaker 2: [26:38] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [26:38] Just because it matches the criteria, location, beds, baths, price, that doesn't mean that it fits their style. Yeah. Doesn't mean that they like the neighbor hood, the, the homes next door- Maybe the floor plan's not great or the floor plan. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So it, it's actually very rare that it ever does happen. But if it does, we have a system in place to, to help Um, let's talk about, I think, how long ago was that, when the buyer's agent's commission got posted online? It's just a couple months ago. Yeah,

Speaker 5: [27:06] like a month and a half ago maybe.

Speaker 3: [27:08] Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Pretty recent. Yeah, September.

Speaker 1: [27:09] Yeah, September. So in September, for those that haven't heard, um, it was, it sent a slight shockwave through the Northwest MLS agencies, brokerages, where, for whatever reason, some people freaked out and thought this was gonna be the end of the world. It really was not a big deal. All that happened was, uh, the commission that buyer's agents were paid or are paid, as we said earlier, the seller's the one that sets that commission rate. So if it's 2%, 3%, whatever it is, that's preset. Now, in September, that was changed to be public data, so now that is on all the websites. Buyers can now see what that buyer's agent commission is. I don't know why this really freaked out a bunch of people in the business, but it did. I don't know

Speaker 5: [27:58] why it wasn't this way in the first place.

Speaker 1: [28:00] I don't know why it wasn't either. It doesn't make any sense. But, um, there were, Seattle Times, there was one article specifically that really didn't make a lot of sense, but in there, they talked to one broker at some, I don't know where. I've never heard of his company, never heard of him. Uh, but he said that he knows of agents that will purposefully not show a house because the commission is too low. And I was like, that's… Yeah, I mean, maybe there's slimy agents out there that do that, but that is- I'm sure there are … that is just stupid. Yeah. So yeah. Anyways, agent commissions are now posted for the buyer's agent, uh, online. It's not a big deal. It should've been like that from the beginning. It's just more transparency, which we're all about, so.

Speaker 5: [28:48] Yeah, so knowing everything that we know now as real estate agents, what would you advise clients to ask an agent if they're looking for representation? Coming from the other side, being an agent, what kind of questions do you think are important?

Speaker 2: [29:06] Well, you mentioned this earlier, but I think making sure that they actually have a solid background in the business and, you know, asking them- So how do you,

Speaker 5: [29:14] how do you find that out? Like, what kind of

Speaker 2: [29:16] questions? Asking them, like, "What, how many transactions have you closed? What kind of volume have you done?" Mm-hmm. Things like that.

Speaker 1: [29:23] Do you work on a team? Are you by yourself? What's your company like?

Speaker 5: [29:27] What happens if you go on vacation?

Speaker 2: [29:29] Yeah. Mm.

Speaker 1: [29:29] Yeah. That's a big one. That's a big one. Um- How many clients, like we said this one earlier, how many clients do you work with at a time? Do you limit yourself to a certain number or do you take any and every one that comes around? I mean, that's a, that's a big one.

Speaker 5: [29:44] Yeah. Um, how they are planning on marketing your property.

Speaker 1: [29:48] Yeah, if it's a listing agent, yeah. If you're trying to hire someone to help sell your home, that's the big one.

Speaker 4: [29:53] That's huge, yeah.

Speaker 1: [29:54] Um, because there's a gigantic variance between how you can market a home.

Speaker 5: [29:59] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [30:00] You could say you're gonna get professional pictures, but pr- photographers can range as well. There's a giant spectrum there. Mm-hmm. There are some really, really good photographers out there that cost a lot, um, but they do a fantastic job and they don't make it look fake. They just make it look the best it possibly can. Then there's another side of photographers that will put crazy filters on it, and they'll Photoshop out cracks in the wall, which is in my opinion just not cool. Um- There's some agents that will pay for virtual staging. So instead of actually having staging furniture in the house, they'll pay a company to put fake furniture, digital furniture in the photos.

Speaker 5: [30:44] And generally you can tell.

Speaker 1: [30:45] Yeah.

Speaker 5: [30:45] You've,

Speaker 1: [30:46] we've all seen those pictures. It just does not look good. But that's, some agents will, will consider that staging, and they're like, "I'll pay for staging." But that's what they mean, and it's like, that is super cheap and very lame.

Speaker 5: [30:55] Yeah, and all this stuff, I mean, their results should speak for themselves. Exactly. So, you know, when you're asking, it all comes back to their performance. How many transactions have they done? What kind of, uh, you know, are they buyer focused, seller focused, whatever it may be. Asking those questions and they can even pull up those trans- trans- transactions on the MLS and really show you.

Speaker 1: [31:18] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5: [31:19] I constantly will hear agents boast about their performance in one way or a- another, and I can go on the MLS as an agent and test and see if they're right. Like, just

Speaker 1: [31:31] look up a-

Speaker 5: [31:31] Yeah … literally pull that data.

Speaker 1: [31:32] Look the legitimacy of their claims up.

Speaker 5: [31:34] And m- the vast majority of the time they are very much misconstruing, if not- Yes flat out lying. Yeah. Stuff like, um, you know, I'm only a high-end luxury agent.

Speaker 1: [31:44] Well, there was, in your Rockwell class when you were getting your license, wasn't there someone that, or is, was that where it was? Someone that was like, "Oh, my aunt's an agent, and she only does million dollar homes on the east side." Sure. "That is all." Yep. "And she's one of the top 1%."

Speaker 5: [31:57] Yep. And I, I pulled her up, and, like, no, the highest she's ever had is a million dollars. Yeah. The average- One … yeah, the average was, you know, 650 or something, like, which is kind of the market average. I mean-

Speaker 1: [32:11] Yeah … Speaker 5: you know, so we, it's easy for agents to boast, and you hear this and you see this constantly, but the data speaks for itself. Yeah. That's why I always refer to the data. So ask for the, ask for the data. The numbers don't lie. We say that in our home buying class a lot, the numbers don't lie, so.

Speaker 5: [32:26] The flip side of that, though, is, I can speak from personal experience, don't disregard somebody who might n- be newer to the industry- Mm-hmm or not have as many sales as somebody else. Uh, established agents a lot of times aren't the best agents. No. They might have the most volume, but that does not mean that they're the best. So there's other factors- Yeah … but that is definitely, you know, they should not be misconstruing or lying to you.

Speaker 1: [32:49] I have seen numerous agents that have been in the business, you know, 10 to 20 years, that are now just super lazy.

Speaker 5: [32:58] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: [32:59] And that is extremely common. So having a newer, more hungry agent that's willing to work and, and show you houses whenever you're free, and work around your schedule, is huge.

Speaker 2: [33:12] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [33:13] And that's something that you definitely can't disregard. So yeah. Also, the team aspect. A newer agent joining a team, it's similar to when I joined Wilson Realty Exchange 15 years ago, even though I wasn't on a team, I was surrounded by agents that had been in the industry 20 to 30-plus years. And I sat next to them in the office every single day, heard how they negotiated, heard how they talked to clients, um, witnessed how they would work, and I learned more in my first year than I guarantee most agents learned in their first five years. I just… It was like a gigantic- You were a sponge. Yeah, I was just a sponge. And that's what you guys all are getting working on this team.

Speaker 4: [33:59] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [34:00] Um-

Speaker 4: [34:01] Yeah, we're sponging.

Speaker 1: [34:02] Yes.

Speaker 4: [34:02] Thank you. We're sponging off of you.

Speaker 1: [34:05] And so yeah, even though you guys, some of you are newer, uh, it's not like you're, you're not experienced, 'cause you guys have done a good amount of, of business. You guys know a lot more than, than normal. Uh…

Speaker 3: [34:18] Why, thank you.

Speaker 5: [34:19] I'm brushing my shoulders off.

Speaker 1: [34:23] Um,

Speaker 5: [34:25] yeah, I thought, uh, I hope that kind of, uh, cleared some s- some un- confusion, some uncertainty out there, that we kind of just touched upon the points that we hear a lot of questions from clients about, things that surprised us as we were getting into the industry. Um, you don't hear necessarily agents talking about agents all that often, and we thought that it would be beneficial to have an episode about it, so- Yep … thank you for listening to Agents on Agents.

Speaker 1: [34:50] Agents on Agents. That's gonna be the name now.

Speaker 5: [34:53] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [34:53] I thought it was gonna be Secrets of the Real Estate Industry, but eh, maybe not.

Speaker 5: [34:58] Agents on Agents.

Speaker 1: [34:59] Sounds, sounds dirty for some reason, though.

Speaker 5: [35:02] It can be muddy out there.

Speaker 2: [35:06] Yeah, it's been raining quite a bit.

Speaker 1: [35:07] There are some slimy agents. Also dirty. Ooh. All right. Well, thank you very much for listening to this episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. Please, if you like this episode, like us, subscribe, and give, share some love. We would love that. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2: [35:23] Thank you. Adios.

Speaker 1: [35:24] Bye.