Qualifying and Hiring a Florida Real Estate Agent
Brace yourselves, Florida consumers, I just read that real estate licensee enrollments are on the rise. Apparently, the current one-quarter of a million licensees simply isn’t enough to properly service the sunshine state.
It’s pretty easy to pick on Florida real estate agents for doing a crappy job simply because there are more than a few rolling around out there doing a crappy job. The fact of the matter is they someone how got into the industry and you, the consumer, have to weed the bad from the good if you decide to use one.
So how’d they get in? Chalk it up to how easy it is to get a real estate license. The requirements are a couple of hundred bucks, a few days in class and pass state license test. Boom, anyone who believes “they’re a people person” will be brandishing a license in a matter of a few weeks. No experience is really necessary, no training is required.
Most students look at the state test as an exercise a tolerance. There really isn’t a whole bunch of learned material that gets applied to real life scenarios. If ya hang in there, pay close attention and answer exactly what they’re asking, you pass … and get your own business cards.
The reality of the average real estate agent is far less glamorous than the million dollar listings most newbies dream about. In they’re mind they’re going to Hollywood and becoming a star, baby!
In reality, they’re going to be trying to buy the most inexpensive, garage sale oven for the foreclosure they’re helping first time home buyers purchase because the mortgage underwriter is requiring a “cooking source” in order to approve funding.
Wait until they find out just how thin and sexy a last minute scramble for a well water test is going to make them look.
That’s what separates the good agents from the bad in the real estate industry, the customer service side of the business. Taking care of the ugly things that need to be taken care of in order to get the transaction closed and keep the consumer is happy.
These days there are so many more challenges to transactions it’s more like a hazing for agents. Now with things looking up, there are more getting into the business simply because it’s just so darned easy.
Just a few days ago, I was eating dinner at a patio restaurant while I was shuffling paperwork and the server comes up to me and says, “A contract … I’m going into real estate, too.” I’m thinking, “Do you plan on removing your apron when you’re showing real estate?”
Almost immediately, I stop myself because that really wasn’t fair. He’s got a dream and he’s obviously a “people person” and plus he’s a waiter so he must be able to apply common sense and navigate the intricacies of good customer service. It’s the axis of his very income.
Then right on the heels of me finalizing that thought, he pulls the little plastic book containing my dinner bill out of the back waist band of his britches and tosses it on the table. Color me crazy, but a person who handles food for a living should probably not store such things, in their pants … in the back of their pants.
Ponder for a moment, what sort of customer service he will bestow upon the real estate industry.
Like I said, it’s just too easy to get a license. Consumers be warned. The real estate market tide has turned and it’s rolling in a fresh wave of mediocrity to take your order.
###
Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the center pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.