As a follow-up to last week’s article on “Should You Get Your Real Estate License,” here is this week’s blog post over at BiggerPockets.com:
Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent
Take a look and feel free to leave comments either here or there…
Enjoy!
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Scott
I’m curious why your view of “Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent” includes being a good photographer. Is that like believing a car salesman should also be a mechanic.
I’m a professional real estate photographer and virtual tour producer and there is not one Realtor in Albuquerque that can produce photos and virtual tours even close to mine for quality and I only charge $69 for 15-18 photos of a house and $129.95 for a virtual tour.
Do you also think the Traits of a Good Realtor should include being a Plumber, Carpenter and Electricion, since some repairs are usually involved in the sale of a home. I’m still a licensed Realtor who doesn’t sell anymore (I make more as a photographer) and every resale I was involved in had some repairs.
Doug Aurand
Hi Doug,
Clearly I hit a nerve with my suggestion that a real estate agent should be good at taking pictures…
While hiring a great photographer is often worth the money, you can argue that any part of a real estate agent’s job can be outsourced to others who are more skilled than the agent. The marketing fliers, the listing copy on the MLS, the open houses, the marketing for buyers, the negotiations, etc, can all be outsourced to other “experts” if the agent really wants to provide the absolutely highest likelihood of selling the property. Unfortunately, outsourcing all those things can get very expensive, very quickly. And buyers often don’t want to pay any more than the 5-6% that they’re already paying.
Instead, I would highly recommend that the agent learn to become a good photographer. Learning the basics of good real estate photography isn’t an unreasonable aspiration for a good agent, and the rewards are substantial.
Lastly is the issue of finding a good real estate photographer. Personally, we haven’t found anyone (in our area, at least) who can do a better job than we can for a reasonable price. There are some professional photographers who want to charge exorbitant rates, and there are some not-so-good photographers who don’t do as good a job as we do. For us, after evaluating the trade-offs, we’ve decided it’s better to just do it ourselves.