A New Definition of the Term Realtor®. A Real Estate Professional can Keep Pele Smiling!

Pele smiling in his new yard.

With this posting I would like to start a new definition of the term Realtor®. I propose that a real estate professional is far superior to a so called Realtor®. There are currently over 500,000 real estate licensees in California. Most of them belong to the National Association of Realtors and are thus designated as Realtors®. You can find the definition of a Realtor® on the National Association of Realtor’s web site. I doubt many of the 500,000+ Realtors® even know what being a Realtor® means.

I recently received a photo from a client who just purchased a home in Oakland’s lower Rockridge district. The photo above is of their dog Pele. As you can see he is one happy dog in his new backyard (might I add that Pele’s owners have an interesting blog that chronicles interesting products for people who are taller than average. It’s called tall order).The photo made me think about the transactions we have had over the last couple of years. As of late, the news media has been filled with stories about real estate and mortgage pitfalls. With all of the market turmoil and increased number of mortgage defaults and foreclosures, you would think that we would find significant evidence of past clients that were in over their heads or unhappy with their real estate situations; but I could not. I have met plenty of Realtors® who have clients that are experiencing break downs with the changes in the market. Why?

I attribute our client’s success to the fact that we serve our clients differently then our other 500,000+ peers. For instance, I often get clients that say, “You must like selling million dollar homes!” Our response has always been, “It’s not the price of the home but what we can do for the individual.” Katie and I do not chase dollars, we assess whether or not we can take care of an individual’s concerns.

So, how do we define a Real Estate Professional? A Real Estate Professional must adequately take care of the known and unknown real estate concerns that their clients have. This means Real Estate Professionals must take an interest in all aspects of a real estate transaction. Many Realtors® are finding they neglected the financial concerns that many of their clients did not even know they had. This breakdown is evident in the many foreclosures and short sales that are currently taking place.

It is also important for Real Estate Professionals to note that all of our clients come to us with different backgrounds. Some of our clients are buying their first home… Some have not bought or sold property in many years, but now need to sell their family home and buy another… Some clients are relocating out of state… Others are constantly buying and selling investment property. As real estate professionals it is our duty to take care of all the unique real estate related concerns that arise so they do not become breakdowns for our clients. Thus, being a Real Estate Professional is quite a daunting task that requires a diverse network of experts who also understand they must act to care for a client’s concerns. The power of a Real Estate Professional’s network and how it benefits you is another conversation that we will address in future postings. Not all networks are made equal.

A true Real Estate Professional understands that a client’s concerns do not end when property closes escrow. Thus, we constantly make ourselves available to respond to our client’s concerns. The art of being a Real Estate Professional takes the emphasis off of sales volume and puts it where it counts, in the unique concerns of each of our buyers or sellers. What defines your Realtor®?