Have you ever considered all the hats a real estate agent must wear for collaboration with a property buyer or seller?
This person in whom you are placing your faith regarding your property goals does far more than put a sign in the yard and give you warnings that you need to vacate your home for a few hours while they show your home.
Once you see the daily functions your realtor needs to perform, you might wonder if they could use a clone. Or a team.
What Are Some of the Duties of a Realtor?
A realtor certainly does the marketing and knows how to show your home in the best light when you are trying to make a sale, but they do so much more, according to Kaplan Real Estate Education, including:
- Monitoring regional real estate marketing activity and industry news
- Completes, submits, and files all the paperwork involved with the sale or purchase of a home, including agreements, closing papers, and copies of deeds and other documents.
- Develops marketing plans that involve fliers, newsletters, postcards, and other promotional materials.
- Plans open house events and arranges showings upon request.
With those responsibilities and many others, it makes sense to wonder how one person can perform many functions efficiently and effectively.
The Idea of Real Estate Teams Is Not New
Back in the 1990s, per Forbes, fierce competition led to some innovations in the real estate industry. One of those innovations was creating a team framework built to foster camaraderie — rather than any sense of competition among the realtors within the company — to serve the clients better while keeping their agency ahead of the pack.
In today’s marketplace, home buyers and sellers should explore realtor teams and individual agents.
What Clients Should Look For in a Real Estate Team Model
When you find a real estate agency with a realtor team that works in tandem and with an attitude of collaboration, you will know you have struck gold.
Ideally, realty companies that offer the team model will foster a cooperative dynamic and build teams that feature all the critical components within each team member.
These agencies might break their team down by assigning a marketing professional, a sales specialist with a gift for showing homes and working directly with you, and an administrative expert to attend to mountains of paperwork and assist with daily client correspondence and communications.
When these teams work well, they offer fantastic benefits to the client since their team can stay focused on their specific tasks as they pertain to each client.
The only drawback happens when teams do not work with common goals in mind or lack communication skills.
Before committing to this real estate model, you should ensure the agency’s teams have a proven track record.
What Clients Should Look For in an Individual Real Estate Agent
This traditional real estate agent model offers a more personal relationship with your realtor, providing comfort and familiarity between you and your real estate broker.
With this model, you always know who you need to talk to if you have a question instead of what often happens with a team model: you struggle to remember who works on marketing and who shows the home.
The drawbacks of the individual model are a matter of trying to keep each client’s affairs in order.
If an agent has several clients, they can quickly feel overwhelmed and stressed out, sometimes negatively impacting the client through slower responses or a lack of enthusiasm to market the home.
It would be best to look for a solo agent with an upbeat personality who is candid about their client load, making sure that you are as much of a priority as any other clients.
Which Approach Will Work Best for You?
As with any part of the real estate buying and selling process, choosing a team or solo real estate agent model depends on what makes you feel most comfortable once you explore both options.