Agent-ting-What's an Agent Do?

In this episode of our podcast, we break down the real role of a real estate agent—beyond just showing homes and putting up “For Sale” signs. From guiding clients through complex decisions to negotiating the best possible outcomes, agents play a much bigger role in the buying and selling process than most people realize. 

The living you podcast is a conversation about life, real estate, and the journey of living you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, welcome back to the Living You podcast with Jess Milletto and Richard Santos. Why did I say Richard? Uh Rich. I go by Rich. I think it's because my license name, Jess, is Richard. We have to go by our legal name on our licenses. So that's how I always speak on the phone. But then I or like text someone, I'm like, this is Richard Santos. Here's my text, Jess. When I start talking to like a customer or a client, I'm like, this is Richard Santos with blah, blah, blah, my broker. And then by the end of the text, I'm like, thanks, Rich. So I clearly I'm trying to set the tone of like I have a legal name and a license name, but then I I deformalize it immediately as soon as I possibly can. However, not everyone catches on. And then I've worked with clients for like two years and they're like, Richard, uh, what do you think about this? I'm like, bro, we've had like barbecues and stuff. Like, I'm rich. But uh anyway, intro interesting uh intro. Jess, what is it like to be living you with this fine day?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I mean, well, just to piggyback on that, I when people say Jessica, I just hear my childhood and I'm in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah, oh Jessica too.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I I I'm just Jess. And then at some point people migrate over to Jesse. Like when they really start to like me, all of a sudden we haven't gotten there. No, you you probably won't because you're kind of a straightforward kind of guy. Um nickname guy. You're not a nickname guy. But sometimes people all of a sudden one day they're like Jesse, and I'm like, ah, they made it, they've arrived. So that's what it's like living you as Jess.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Do you do the same thing though? Do you introduce yourself as Jessica at first? Or you I mean, I think you use Jessica more than I use Richard. Like I what I'm trying to say is I prefer to pivot immediately to my colloquial nickname and not my legal license name.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

That's right. Yeah, no, I do introduce myself as Jessica, but I do not want you to call me Jessica.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, weird names are weird, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

And people default to Jess, though. They they kind of just know that I'm a Jess. So yeah. So that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I was always a nicknamer of people or a shortener of names. So for me, nicknames make a lot of sense. Um, like my daughter, her name is Abigail, which I love the name.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

I love that name.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

She goes, she, you know, I go, we call her Abby, but I don't even call her that. I call her Abs. I'm just like Abs. So she's even less than her name to me, like so three letters, you know. Um, but when I was a coach, you know, co teams uh have nicknames and all the guy no one ever went by their name. You went by, you know, some some derogatory thing that we could pick out about you, and and you that becomes your nickname. So speaking of pivot. Um no, we were we were uh offline, we were chatting a little bit about so full context, just you you were only relatively recently back in full production, as we call it, as a as an everyday agent. You had a a more administrative leadership role for a long time prior. And so you've been experiencing the the day-to-day of you know agenting, and again, this is within our our local area, but you we can we can expand conceptually a little bit. But we were having this little conversation about like in the midst of talking about evolution, uh, now we're in this this phase of you know AI is starting to be everywhere, and and there's all kinds of tools and things that you know are making our lives on some levels easier, more productive, but also we still have to spend time interacting with the whatever, the AI or the device or the tech. And so anyway, we got this little conversation of like what is what is an agent anymore? And and what are we supposed to do? What are we what are we seen as being? What we're we were kind of getting at like what is what does the public think we do? What what is our value, right? Because classically we've had this kind of value proposition, what do I bring to the table as an agent? Why would you want to work with me? Why pick me over anyone else? And I think that our inner perception as agents within brokerages and companies and and the the sphere of that industry is probably different than what the public thinks in general and and what we do. We see posts all the time, like, why do you need an agent? What is an agent even do? And so we I we had this little dialogue we thought it'd be worth hashing through uh on the back. So yeah, I don't have a direct question for you, but I mean you're interacting with agents. We you and I to couch this on a basic level, and I'll let you speak for a bit. I'm I'm handling all the speaking at the moment. But like we hope and and try our best to be pr very professional. We provide we think we provide a high level of service, uh, both on the individual level, the strategic level, the the preparation level, the the how we present our listings to the world, how we talk about things, what we know in the background, how we can, you know, negotiate and and handle different personalities. There's a whole lot that goes into it. Um so we think we're professional, but uh on an everyday basis, I'm not gonna say like we're better than anyone because that's not really the case. It's just asking you. Do you have a high level of what you consider professionalism or or what makes I don't know, what makes an agent nowadays?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Yeah, I I mean it's so broad because I think it comes down to who you are authentically, which we we do try to cover as one of our pod topics, right? Like living you. What's it like to live like Jess or live like Rich? And part of that is, you know, what is it like, you know, working you as an agent? Um I think that I think generally speaking, there are tasks, there's transactional pieces we have to walk people through. But I have actually found um just for me personally, that my style is really to be like a full service problem solver more than anything. Like, yeah, I'm gonna get you through the steps, but there's things that happen in between steps. There's conversations, there's nervous questions, there's, you know, things that you may second guess or things that you don't understand. And everyone's very different on their understanding level of what the process actually is. So everyone's gonna pick up on something different. I've noticed that some people are go through the steps so seamlessly. They're it's so easy. They're they just they get it, or they're just very trusting, which is which is okay. Again, when you have someone that's really I do have a buyer right now that he's like, yeah, just whatever you think. And I love that, and I have to have that gut check and go, I'm thinking for two people right now. He trusts my judgment. That is not a light amount of responsibility, that is a huge responsibility. But I do want to be trusted and I do want them to take my advice, my guidance, but they need to be able to make decisions for themselves. So everybody's very different. Um, some people want a lot from me, some people don't need that much from me. Um, and I really just kind of enjoy people and what they can't put on here's what an agent does, or here's what AI does, right? That could replace us. There's you'll never replace peopling relationships, me going to an inspection yesterday and meeting with my buyer, walking through the house with him, like listening to his concerns, asking him, is this gonna be your room or is this your guest suite, or where are you gonna put your table? I'm sorry, but that is a huge amount of value to have somebody next to you through the entire process to bounce. We were sharing decor ideas. I was showing him stuff on my Pinterest board, which would be cute in his room, which he loved. He was like, Oh my gosh, that's so cute! Like he totally got into it. You can't put a price on that, you can't put that on a checklist, you can't quantify that. It's literally just being there for somebody through everything, um, transactionally, emotionally, spiritually, um personably, um, and just kind of have like your butt your best bud there with you for the whole ride.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yep. I I I never so I should do more of this. I don't I don't have a ton of reviews, uh, which is a it's a big and important thing. Um, but in the beginning of my career, especially, I wasn't very active at collecting reviews after transactions. And um, I shouldn't even say transactions. That makes me sound transactional. But um, but one of the first reviews I got, it was just this great great client, and he was like, you know, working with Rich was like working with a friend. It didn't ever feel you know, it didn't ever feel pressure-y or salesy or anything, just like, hey, this is my buddy, but my buddy happens to know a little bit more than I do about this and got me through it.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

So anyway, that was kind of a cool, a cool sensation.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Um I mean, that's what I shoot for. That's what I want them to say about me at the end. Like they felt like they had their friend there who knows a little bit more about real estate than they do. That's a perfect review for me.

unknown 8:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Um so you took that question a little differently than I than I thought we were gonna go, which is 100% fine. You went, you went into how who you are as an agent, which I love. Um, you're you're definitely, by the way, more friendly than I am. I uh I'm I'm a good person. I think I'm a quality human being, but I'm not nearly as personable or like I don't I I I have never shared a Pinterest uh you know couch with someone uh uh and said this would look great in your house. That's zero, zero times. Um so you just do things differently. That's fine. I've probably pointed out like septic systems that you haven't pointed out. So we have different skill sets.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

That's what we have an inspector for. Right. We were at an inspection, so that's that's his job.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Uh but regardless, what I what I was wanted to couch this in though is so the the landscape of real estate in the modern world is i talking going back to evolving is evolving. So you still have agents who are largely running their own solo enterprise and they're doing almost everything, A to Z, and they are the agent from from taking the first call to all the steps. And then, however, as time has gone on and maybe the role has broadened, a lot of agents have turned into teams or groups or or almost like companies within a company where you have your you know your team lead, and then you might have a uh person that does the paperwork. We call them a transaction coordinator, that's a paid position or paid per transaction or whatever, but they basically handle that part. You might have a professional photographer who does all your photo and video, you might have an editor who does that, you might have a showing assistant who opens the house and and actually walks people through it. You know, there's so many things. You might have a social media manager, you might have so I guess what I'm saying is there are some agents who are part of a group and they maybe have a role within the group. Um, but there are some who are also doing it all, doing it all. And I don't know, I'm not saying one is better or worse. I'm just saying that again, from that sort of sort of public side, I don't know if they know what they're getting, like what they're interacting with. And so I think part of what I'm we you and I maybe will lean into more in the future is kind of explaining how our operation works and what what they are getting with us because I think it does again, not that one is better than the other, but like, hey, this is the part of it that I'm gonna be the best at and help you with. And then trust me, we got the paperwork dialed in because like you you don't want me filling in the check boxes um because I might mess up, but this person excels at this and does this every day and loves checking the boxes.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

So loves checking boxes.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

You know, I I don't know. I'm just I think it's interesting because I think that that changes a little bit of what the agent does and and their I don't want to call it their autonomy, but you know, it's like with every you know, you don't go to a factory, for example, and the same guy that is running the the pallet jack is not the same person mixing the paint, right? They have different jobs because they're they're different skill sets, and so or the girl, you know. So uh it's sort of like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, I mean I can definitely respond to that. So, you know, coming from the agent side, obviously, you know, was an agent for about eight and a half years before I went into leadership, um, and then being in liter leadership is what actually gave me that peeking behind the curtain of people's businesses. Um so you definitely have the agents that are solo and they do everything, they do everything from their paperwork to typing up their own listings and doing their contracts and doing their own photos. I mean, they do literally everything. Um and those agents tend to hit a ceiling. Um, and they tend to get a little busier. So sometimes they, when they start getting too busy, they'll take less business. That's fine. That's their choice. They can say, well, listen, this is this is how many deals I can actually do myself. This is where I'm comfortable with my business being. And just I don't want to grow anymore. I'm like, I love that. So they they can do 12 transactions or 20 transactions by themselves. They don't want anybody else, they don't want to hire. I like doing my paperwork. Fine, I don't want to grow a big business. I want to take the people that want me, and I want to work on those, and that's it. So again, it's gonna be a preference. Then you have another agent that, and I'll use you as an example, where you were good at this, you like this, and then all of a sudden you start getting more and more people, and you're like, wait a minute, so there's things I'm getting busier on, and here's some things I dislike that maybe I could leverage out to somebody else so I can continue doing the things I like from my clients. That's a very natural and organic step that happens to busier agents. So you can either make the choice, you know what, I'm gonna play this cool, I'm gonna play this small, I'm gonna just do what I do solo, and I'm good doing everything. Or the next level would be organically growing and saying, okay, so now, and my conversation with an agent is what do you not like doing? What do you want to get off your plate? And usually it's paperwork. And some of them like paperwork, can keep paperwork, I don't care. What is it that you dislike doing? Well, I'm really dropping the ball on my social media. Great. So let's talk about what that looks like. Who can we hire and bring in? Everybody's business is completely different. And the way I would quantify it, and I'm I have my coach, my real estate coach hat on right now, which is another you know, level that maybe you didn't want to get to, but um, but everybody's business and how I quantify it to them is where did you spring a leak, right? What's getting missed? Because there are things you should be doing as well. There's kind of vanity items, I should be doing that, that would be better. And then there's things you have to do transactionally. Um, I think everyone, again, is just got to make that call. In terms of consumer facing, if you have multiple people that are going to have roles within each transaction, that's again an equally um respectable, you know, professional business, just like the solo that does everything. You can also have an amazing transaction coordinate, like we said. You can have someone that's doing all the vanity items. I'm emailing listings, I'm doing database stuff, or I'm scheduling events, or I'm doing all the social media. Yeah, we don't really have a lot of time for that when you're busy and actually taking care of people. So, what are you leveraging out? And then how are you saying that to your customers so they really understand who they're gonna deal with at what time and what your role is? And that gets defined differently for everybody, depending on what they hate doing. Like, I will never stop doing open houses. I freaking love open houses. I love putting up a new listing, putting in an open house and being there like, hey, welcome to my listing. Let's do it. I that's the most exciting thing in the world to me. But there's other things that I definitely don't like to do, you know, like just following up and calling people. Are you ready? Are you ready? No, no, no. Give me the now business. I won't I'm ready to go now. If someone's ready to go now, then that's perfect for me. But the that's very unique, and some other agents may hate open houses and want a showing assistant that does all their showings, and then they're just a guide in the background, moving their team through the steps and being the point of contact for the it's it's all different as long as you are disclosing to your client and they know what to expect. Because if they think they're gonna talk to me and then all of a sudden they're talking to Timmy, they're like, Who the hell's Timmy? Why am I getting an email from this guy? Just set them up. Expectation is everything. So if you do that right, you can have any kind of team you want.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, I like that. That's that's just put people where they're strong.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did have a strong. Put people where they're strong.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

You did have your your kind of coach leadership hat on there for a few minutes, but I will say, so here's I was gonna ask a question. So, what if let's play a hypothetical? Let's say I I I see myself as a listing agent, you know, I this is what I excel at. Um, but I also love to take my own photography. I think I'm a great photographer. Turns out that my photography isn't that good. I mean, it might be okay, but it's not nearly the level of like what i if you see yourself, you think you're on some level, and then but if I'm if I'm the agent uh and and I you just said you know do the things you love. Well, if I love shooting the photos, but at the end of the day, those the quality of that product isn't where it needs to be for what I'm trying to achieve for my client. Do how do I put this? Do you think I mean this is a po I'm trying to do an analogy that you know is kind of silly, but you know, would that person be uh either self-aware enough to know that this is not my jam, this is not the thing I should do, or um or would someone be like, hey, psst, by the way, like you you'd think your photos are good, but really I mean, this is you know me, this is a hot topic for me, and primarily because I have a creative background, the aesthetic is important to me.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

How things look, I mean, I can straighten stuff on my shelf for a year and it won't be like the aesthetic, and that's just me personally, is is important how things look. I also happen to have a photography background. I literally have a degree in photography, so I appreciate the power of a beautiful image. Um, I think because you can take your own pictures, it's easy to just take your own pictures. I think because there's a cost involved with hiring a professional, you know, and and then it's outside of your control a little bit. Like people don't want to take costs, especially up here where we are, there's a lower commission threshold. You know, you make a little bit less per deal. So do you want to be paying $300, $600, $900 for all the bells and whistles on every listing? No, probably not if there's a lower end listing. But I will say, I will say that your customer deserves to have the best marketing possible. And you have to be very self-aware that if your photos are not flattering the place or not helping the listing or not getting eyes because people are just flipping past this crapola, you're hurting your seller. So you should just know that. You should, you should just, and maybe your pictures are fine. Not everybody's in this category, but the ones where you've got other people in the photos, or you didn't really stage it, you left a basket of laundry, like you can move things. Uh, the lighting is weird, or your reflection is in the bathroom mirror. Just be aware. If you have to take like an online photography course, do that because the iPhone can take beautiful pictures, but learn how to do angles. Don't stand on like a thing. I see people stand up and at the ceiling and shoot down. I'm like, what are you doing? So maybe ask for help and see how you can hone that skill a little better if you can't take the step to go professional. Please take a step because your client absolutely deserves to not have their listing get skipped because your photos are terrible.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

I I can't say that any night. I tried to be nice.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Well, I think which we'll probably record another another one on on like presentation, maybe specifically.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Um on another podcast.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Maybe we'll revisit that. But I wanted to I just was gonna pivot to something else super quick, but but related. Um, oh, so I had this idea just as you were talking. So I mentioned earlier about how you know AI is becoming very powerful in in everyone's world. And but then I also talked about how single agent and you said they might get to a certain point where they're very, very busy doing all the things in the spectrum of agenting, right? So then you hit a ceiling, maybe your your your numbers kind of stall a little bit. So then I said, yes, that's why these these kind of larger teams came about because of specializations and and that. Do you think, now this might be harder to answer because we aren't AI experts, but do you think that there's any going to be any pull back from kind of like I I might not need a team anymore if my if my kind of my my team of bots or my my AI system can do a lot of that heavy lifting, right? I mean, I'm not trying to lever like leverage out, you said leverage a lot of times, but I'm not trying to take those the qualities of those humans that are doing those roles out of it. But all but honestly, are we or or will we soon be at a point where a solo agent could keep increasing their numbers because they have a system in place that handles a lot of that background stuff? I don't know. What do you think on the about that? Yeah, I um I actually will we see less team, big teams, and more like, hey, I what is the team really doing when my little five dollar subscription can do it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 21:37

I think what you'll see is the team structure change. Um as people are listening, they they probably know that we're with Keller Williams, and a lot of my leadership training and conversations are kind of through Keller Williams and the MREA, write the Red Book, they call it. Um, which by the way, just for my own self, I want to say Gary Keller didn't write it, he interviewed. A million other people and then collected their data. Because you said, well, that's just what Gary Keller would do. No, it's actually what all the top agents at the time in the country were doing, and he just collected it as best practices for us to use as a guide, and it is still very relevant today. So I would highly recommend that book, regardless of company that you're with. But they have a very um, you know, a very straightforward kind of organizational model, it's called. And over the years, um, you know, Gary has and Keller Williams at large has updated it and changed it, and it's exactly going in the direction of it's a solo agent with a bunch of admins. And admins is a broad term, but admin can also now kind of be a little bit of chat or whatever AI tool they're using. So a single agent with three or four admins or systems or tools like that in place, yeah, can can actually run a pretty solid business, take more business on than they could if they were just solo and doing everything. 100%. And they may not need other agents at all to fill in those gaps. If they like the peopling part and they want to go to the appointments and do the showings, and the other systems are handled on the back end by admins or by tools, um, 100% that has the organizational model has been updated and has changed over the years to 100% allow for that and it and and consider that because that that is happening.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yep. Yeah, it's interesting. It's I don't I don't think there is a that's a great answer. I don't think there is a s a single answer for that, but I I just in the little bit of, you know, I read stuff and I and I watch I'm I'm in the in I'm in the no in the industry, at least I try to be. Um, but it does seem like these tools are getting increasingly capable of, you know, high like pretty high high level operations. And that's not a surprise to anyone who's living in in you know spring of 2026. This is you know, AI is everywhere. But um it's you know it's helpful. But I just I guess part of the topic, and we uh it was like I hear this, I read this stuff like do what does an agent even do? Like, what is there do I need an agent? Why am I even paying an agent? Like, what are they doing?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

We definitely need an agent.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

And at the end of the day, you what you're saying is because we are looking out for you, man. We we know uh we know the bare minimum stuff. We care about your decision to be the right one for you. We you like I don't have to be someone's best friend just to be good at helping them. Because I really want to help you. I don't have to be your best friend and like get like Christmas cards every every year, even though that would be better for my business. But at the end of the day, I still I can care about getting you through that phase of your life in that moment, understand your context, and and protect you from making a bad decision. I think a lot of it is foresight, seeing what might end up being or going sideways in this situation or what might happen that might, you know, not get you to the result. And I think a lot of what I see as my role is hey, wink wink, these are the things that are gonna come up later on. Let's be aware of them and get ahead of it and and and have a plan for when it does come up, how are we gonna navigate it?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Um I think you have to you have to find the agent that fits who you are. Um so I really like part of the reason why I like open houses is because people walk in, I get to talk to them, they're a captive audience, they have to laugh at my jokes just to be polite. Um, and I start kind of, you know, answering whatever any questions, but a lot of times I'm just friendly, so I'll ask them about themselves, their search, do you live around here? Blah blah blah. And nine times out of ten, they'll they'll say, Well, hey, do you can you help me look at other stuff too? Because I kind of like your vibe, and yeah, this is, you know, you made me feel very comfortable. And then there's people that just don't want to answer my questions, they go right past my face. Like they, they're like, Yep, just looking at the house, and I kind of get that vibe, and I leave them alone and let them look, and then they leave, and then we never interact ever again. Um, I think it's just if you're connecting with someone that fits you, you should do that. So, as a buyer, even as a seller, go to open houses, schedule showings, like have multiple agents kind of go through your world very early on. And, you know, use your gut, use your head, obviously, ask questions, but find the agent that just fits you because we are all so different. We do bring our personalities in. Some of us are gonna be much more transactional and price per square foot, and here's the steps, and that might be exactly what you need. Then there's gonna be someone like me who's ushy gushy, and we're gonna have a shared Pinterest board. That might be what you need. But I would highly encourage buyers and sellers to just to interview a lot because most people just interview one agent and they go, Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Yeah, statistics have borne that out for for ages and ages. That really you you talk to one person, and the first person to call you back is kind of your person. Like, that's kind of how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Kind of how it goes. And you know, and I'm as an agent, I'm not afraid of that. So recently I I won a listing um where the seller is actually going through a relocation uh company, so she has to meet with several agents. And after we met, I was actually the fastest one to call her back, the first one to go to the house, and she was like, You're my girl. And I said, I love that, and you have a process to go through, which she did. And after you know, meeting and talking with other agents, she still was like, Nope, my original gut was right, you're the agent, that's gonna work for me. And but going through that process of meeting other people, interviewing other people, she saw right away how different her experience was going to be, just depending on, and just for us, we connected. Um, but for someone else, the other agent she spoke to will connect with someone else. And that's also why I say no one's no one's in competition with me. No one can do what I do. And Rich, no one's in competition with you either. No one can do what you do. I'm not afraid of a client going and speaking to five people and then deciding, because if they don't decide on me, then there's a reason. Then we are not a fit, and I need them to be a hundred percent comfortable. So I am not afraid of people interviewing multiple agents and getting out there. If still at the end of the day, they feel, you know what, I feel like Jess has my best interest, she's got the skill set I want. I I believe in her knowledge, I think she's really gonna help me, she cares about me. If that's important to you, then come back to me. If it if someone else can do that better for you, please go to that person. Like just hear me. It's okay for you guys to have more choice in the marketplace, and you should. Because people go with the first agent, they pay a commission, and maybe they're not happy, and that's why you have these commission disputes. I have literally never had someone said, I paid you too much. I literally have had clients say, I didn't pay you enough, you don't get paid enough for everything you did for me. Yeah. So there's a lot of going with the first dude, yeah, you're paying a lot of money. So make sure that you've got the dude that that makes you happy. That fits you.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

I think you're right. I think it has to fit your your communication style, your communication expectations too. Um, some people need a lot of touches, some people don't. And and you uh we have to kind of learn the person we're dealing with as we go. But you're right, you will resonate with someone. For example, just we both I think we both generally see ourselves as like seller-based agents. However, we also still both work with buyers because guess what? In the process, you meet people, and sometimes you're just like, this is a cool person, and they've got something they want to solve, and I'm a solver of things, so I want to help you figure it out. And then you do. And there's zero part of me that feels like any of that working with a buyer that that ends up being in that process for me is like, why did I take this on? No, it's because I liked the person and I wanted to help them fundamentally.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Yep. So yeah, because we get to choose too. It's a it's an interesting point. We get to choose too. Um, because there are people out there that are just difficult, and that's okay. Um, they're not in alignment with you. It's okay for an agent to walk away. If you have a couple of agents that have walked away from you, you might want to look at that. Um because most of the time we want to take the business, right? And I'm willing to put up with a certain amount of you know, crap to to take the business as well, because I still have to pay my mortgage too. But I'm not gonna be disrespected. Yeah, and I'm yeah, and I'm not gonna like deal with somebody that is I just know it's gonna be awful for both of us to work together. It's not worth it.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

I just want to clarify, Jess, you're not saying because there's a difference between a difficult situation and a difficult person, right? So I think what you're saying is uh we're neither of us are afraid of difficult or complex situations, either selling or buying. We we actually kind of like I just said I like solving stuff. You really like that, you're really good at it. Um, but but being a a hard to work with person is a challenge, right? And and we also as agents we ha interact with some other agents on occasion who are also somewhat difficult to work with, and you're like, he this process could be a bit smoother. Um, you know, if whatever. And I'm not I'm not saying I'm always perfect, by the way, but like i i if the agent is sort of like harming the process, you're like, what are you even doing?

SPEAKER_01 31:21

This is another one of my hot button issues, as you know, but I literally had someone say to me, like, like, oh yeah, like I I would like to work with you because just the way you showed me this house, like I want you to show my house like that. And they were telling me they had another agent that was like mean to them, brought them out to see stuff, and was actually like mean and rude and picking the house apart, and like the energy was just they were like, you know, it wasn't even like a pleasure to like yeah, yeah. Don't the agent should not be in the way of a transaction. Don't be in the way of the transaction, like because how how you make people feel in the house at the showing, that's gonna stick with the house. So if you're showing a house and you represent the seller and you're um you're being rude or you're mean to the other buyers' agents, they don't want to work with you now. And they just they skip the house. It's worse than bad pictures. They'll skip the house.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yeah, we talk about first impressions of a house, but you're 100% correct. The the wrong if you bring the wrong energy in whatever way, that can impact everyone around you, the perception of the property, 100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

It's happened, and I say it from experience. I've had buyers say, I hate that guy, I want to leave. And I'm like, No, the houses, they're like no, Jess, like nope, we there's other houses, we're good. Like that guy doesn't need to be rude like that. We're moving on. And I'm like, Interesting. And I'm very I'm also very proud of my buyers. I'm like, well, good for you, sticking up for yourself and your standard on how this should go. But I'm like, but I can make it work, I can fix it. They're like, you can't fix that guy, Jess. Because my job then is to, if the other guy is a jerk, I can't say, wow, that guy's a jerk, like I don't want to work with him, and then kill a potential deal for my buyer. So you got to keep yourself out of it. You have to keep yourself out of it. You gotta be nice as pie, you get more flies with honey, and people have to want to do business with you as well. You can be transactional, you could be very you you could be very direct, you can be very rigid, you could be a very, you know, quick communicator. You don't have to fluff it like I do. Don't do that, but don't be mean. You don't gotta be a jerk. There's no reason for that.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Yep. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

I know I can't. These are the things that you don't see on a list of what does an agent do? Because that's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Make you feel like what does an agent do? You don't see that, have compassion.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

I will be kind and courteous, right, in the process to everyone, to the inspector, to your mortgage guy. I mean, my buyers are like, oh, Jess, I have to send this to the the lender. I'm like, no, no, no, just give them my email, just and I'll do it for you. And I'm nice as pie to the lender. What do you need? How can I help? Is there anything else? I don't care if that guy's a jerk. How do I take care of my client right now? Oh, this is a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

I'll give you a small, a small anecdote and then maybe we'll wrap this one up, Jess. And this isn't exactly perfectly right in dovetailing with what you're saying, but when I was when I in my in my first couple years of of being an agent, I was working with more buyers and I was actually selling quite a bit of just raw land. So, you know, sometimes as you get into the industry, you kind of start there. It's it's somewhat well, it's different than how anyway. I don't want to get into it. But I I would have oftentimes a buyer would inquire about some land, I would set them up on a search, we'd have four or five land parcels they'd want to look at. They would come up on usually they're they're from not local, right? So they're coming driving a couple hours at least to into the area for the for the day. And I would I would map out the route, and I was all proud of my route, and I had it all dialed in, and then but what I didn't think in the beginning was how they had already driven two or three hours, right? And they and and everyone is different, and you might not have met them in person yet, so you don't know their whatever abilities or how how so budgeting time in those situations was hard. I just remember a few times where there would there was probably a long loop of properties to see, maybe five, six, seven. And I had the route perfect, and I had like 30 or 40 minutes at each property. Perfect. It was pretty on paper, it was a great painting on the highest level. But but in practice, you know, in the moment, they're like either they felt rushed to some degree, because I'm like, well, you know, we gotta be we gotta be there at 1.30. Uh, and we have a 35-minute drive, so it's wrapped. I wasn't being a jerk, but but under the surface, you could tell, like, this should be there. This they should be driving this train to some extent. Now, if you're showing a house and you're setting a strict strict appointment and a seller is leaving, that is, you do kind of want to be at that time. But I but there was times when I was like, well, we don't have time for a snack break, and and you know, make sure you use the restroom before you meet me because we're like, I got three and a half hours of on the go and 27 minutes at each piece of land. And it's like, what are you doing, man? Like, just chill a bit. Uh I realized you know, to build in a little bit more breathing room or a little bit more flexibility, or just put myself in their shoes of hey, we're we're not just looking at property, we're we're driving the roads, we're seeing the settings, we're learning, we're driving, we want to go slow through the town, or maybe get a coffee, or things like that. That I was like, you know what, this is more of the experience that the the consumer wants to have. It's not just about me cramming in seven parcels to look at in one day. Anyway, it was just it took me a little while to learn that, but and I'm still a little bit, you know, scheduly, but yeah, I at least built in I build in a little bit of humanity in my process now.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

I mean, you you you definitely have to be scheduly. I am scheduly. I create a Google Doc, I put maps, I put links to the listings, I put my notes after I talk to listing agents, like I put all the you know, access information, like I literally and I share it with my buyer, I'm like, this is this is what we're doing. This is a schedule, look at it, you know. And and a lot of times I find that we're not on the schedule at all. So as we're going, if my buyer takes longer, I have nothing to say to them. I'm texting the next agent. Hey, we're about 15 minutes behind. I don't even say anything to my buyer. And then there's times where my buyer walks in and they're like, What's that smell? We're done. We're out of here. Can we go see the next one? I'm like, hey, is it okay if we come a little early? I don't say yes, no, or anything to them. I'm like, whatever they want to do, they're 100% in the driver's seat. They know there's a schedule, and I do set the expectation. These are the appointments. There was one of them that they were like, hey, we need at least another 10 minutes. So start outside, no problem. So we're like, we walked the land a little bit before we did the house. Yes. So you have to be, you have to be scheduled. Um, you have to be, and and yeah, and you've gotta, you've gotta let them have that experience um for sure. So, but that's another thing that agents do that is not on the freaking list. I will I will send you a Google Doc. Uh, I mean, with like everything you need to know about every single house before we go. And you get to tell me no, and I'll put this is the one, this is Jess's pick. Like I'll say, you know, send in the MLS. They pick the houses they want. And then they won't pick one or two that I'm like, mm, they they need to see that. So I'll say, here's your pick, and here's here it is on the schedule, how it kind of lines up on the map. But I'll put Jess's pick, Jess's pick, Jess's pick. And they they're always like, Oh, I love that one. I didn't even realize I didn't see that. Well, yeah, you're right. So there's part of there's value in that too. I don't always have to find their houses for them because now that information is out there. And I think a lot of times people think agents, well, they're gonna find my house.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

What agents do?

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Yeah, I'm probably not gonna be the one that finds it. Yeah. But I am gonna be the one that schedules it, that susses it out, that gets you through the process, helps you negotiate. I'm a negotiator. Like I'm a bulldog with that. I will get you a deal, and I'm gonna get this to the closing table step by step. And any issue that comes up, you won't even know about it until it's resolved. Like you're gonna have a very easy, you're gonna be sipping by the pool drinking iced tea, and I'm gonna be sweating trying to figure out how to get your deal done. But that's that's what an agent does that you don't see.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Yeah. Yep, that's that's so well said. Um, this is a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a let's put a let's put a bow on this one, Jess. Let's just let's just uh say uh agent role continues to evolve, uh, because we started with evolution, and uh that um it's it is still fundamentally a human enterprise, and it's about uh the connection, the guidance, the advising. I will say this until until I'm out of the industry, but I cannot stand the name of our license because it calls me a salesperson, Jess, and we talk about this all the time. I don't feel like I'm selling you anything. I feel like I'm helping you figure something out, and does it make sense and and can we can we achieve this objective? And that feels like a coach or a guide or an advisor, much less than a salesperson. I'm not at a cashier desk checking up, you know, ringing things out. Anyway, that's my conclusion. Do you have any parting words?

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Well, also, I I kind of agree with I don't like our title, but I do want to say from my real estate coach background, if you're in New York State, please don't say you're a real estate advisor or you're a real estate professional. You must use licensed real estate salesperson or licensed real estate associate broker. You must use one of those titles. Please don't make shit up.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

And that's why we started with our full names today, because that is that is our licensed name.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

You've got to be in compliance. Um, I mean that it here's the bow, too. Like, sure, you can be friendly and you can be nice and you can do all these things and schedule and bring snacks for your people, but are they ethical, right? Which we kind of covered, but are they compliant? Because that's the other thing. I've had people tell me, I've never seen this form before. I'm like, what do you mean you've never seen an agency?

SPEAKER_00 41:01

I've been looking at houses for months. I haven't signed anything.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

No one's ever given me this form. I'm like, why not? I don't think I have to sign that. I didn't have to sign it with the other guy. I'm like, what? So yeah. Also, make sure that your person is actually knowledgeable on what's not gonna get us sued today.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Yep. Cool. This is a good discussion, Jess. Thank you for your time on uh agency and the uh the your thoughts on this.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Yeah, absolutely. No, this was great, and it's probably also an evolving topic that we can come back to. And I invite anyone listening, if you guys have comments, if you want to share an experience, if you have questions about agenting or anything, just let us know. Communicate, um, because we're happy to address anything too that you guys want us to cover.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Yep. All right, until next time. Thanks, Justin.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

See ya.