What is the job of a real estate agent? Most people will tell me that a real estate agent’s job is to help someone buy or sell their home. Many will further refer to helping with the paperwork. Ugh. Before I became a real estate agent – I am a real estate broker now – that would have been my answer. These answers are not good answers. What? Our job is not to help a client buy or sell their home? That doesn’t sound like it makes any sense. What do real estate agents do?

So… What Do Real Estate Agents Do?

Well, we do help people sell and buy real estate. That’s true. We help clients buy, sell, and lease real estate that includes homes, land, commercial properties, and more. This is a function of my job that hopefully leads to the desired outcome of buying, selling, or leasing real estate on my clients’ terms. The job of a real estate agent, as I view it, is far more than this. Ohhhhh so much more.

Let’s focus in on the word “agent”. As an agent, we represent our clients and their interests and we perform functions to achieve that end. I say that my obligation – I use the word “obligation” purposefully – as an agent is to maximize my clients’ opportunities and protect them from risk. Real estate transactions come with many opportunities and many risks. So, I educate, I advise, I provide recommendations, I help with planning and strategizing, I negotiate, I stay close by my clients all the way to the end, and I do much more in my role as an agent. This is far more encompassing than simply looking for a home, sticking a For Sale sign in someone’s yard, and preparing paperwork. Far more.

Real estate transactions travel via complex, sometimes complicated, processes framed by laws, regulations, contracts, and sometimes diverging and sometimes compatible interests of the parties. Lay on top of that market dynamics that vary neighborhood by neighborhood and transaction by transaction. Nearly anyone can “find” a home – look on line and drive the neighborhoods looking for the For Sale sign. And, anyone can stick a For Sale sign in the front yard and hope someone looking for a home will see the sign. Maximizing opportunities, protection from risk, and pursuing one’s interests in a real estate transaction is far more involved and requires a good degree of expertise and competence.

When meeting a real estate agent, I recommend conducting that conversation like an interview. Ask questions to learn what the agent will do for you and what that agent can do for you. Pin down details on how everyone is going to work together. Real estate transactions often coincide with significant life changes and involve a lot of money, so clients deserve expert competent help from a real estate agent. Agents interview clients, too. I often turn down prospective clients for various reasons. The interview is two-ways.

The services provided by a real estate agent can vary given that each agent has some prerogative to define the scope of the services they provide. Also, each transaction can vary in what services may be warranted.

Services provided by real estate agents can, and often should, include the following:

Educating and advising on contracts, applicable laws, processes, markets, and more
Research
Providing recommendations on courses of action, decisions, and more
Negotiating
Coordinating service providers (inspectors, settlement firms, title companies, contractors, appraisers, lenders, photographers, HOAs/Condo Associations and community managers)
Forming strategies and plans for preparing properties for sale/lease, advertising, pricing, negotiations, offers, and more
Consulting
Offer and contract preparation (more than just paperwork!)
Lease preparation
Facilitating and overseeing settlement milestones
Evaluating and assessing properties (compliant with clients’ interests)
Researching other parties
Analyzing and assessing markets
*There can be more to include…*

With this post I am hoping to impress upon readers that they should expect far more from a real estate agent than just their help to buy or sell a house. Sure, that’s the outcome, hopefully. The outcome may also be to lease as a tenant, rent as a landlord, invest, build a new home, and this involves residential, commercial and land real estate. But the “job” is so much more extensive. By knowing more about what a real estate agent should do for you, you can have a productive “interview” and select the best agent for you, and then better position yourself for success on your real estate journey. Real estate agents perform an extraordinarily important role. I’m a real estate broker, so I’ll repeat that: Real estate agents perform an extraordinarily important role. 😊 Just like we scrutinize doctors, dentists, lawyers, contractors, and others – well, hopefully we do – we should also be diligent in selecting our real estate agents.