It Takes A Team

Real estate is an interesting gig. Most Realtors go get their license, they hang it at the first office they find and they expect to start selling houses. They forget about lots of the other parts. The prospecting, the continual learning, the let downs, the fact that almost everyone already knows at least one Realtor. They also forget to build a team around them.

Now I'm not talking about the "team" concept that some Realtors use where there is one "superstar" Realtor and a bunch of other Realtors under that person all using his or her name. I mean a team of professionals that support the transaction in a variety of roles. A good real estate team should consist, at a MINIMUM, of a great lender or 3, a great title company or 2, an excellent home inspector, a small army of contractors in multiple fields--including at least 3 or 4 reliable "handy men" and an insurance expert.

Realtors have to have their "go to" people in all these areas. They need to be able to trust the service providers to ALWAYS deliver to at least the same standard as they would themselves. When the Realtor refers that service provider, the provider is, essentially, an extension of the Realtor. If that provider messes up, it absolutely looks bad on the Realtor.

Does your Realtor have a team? Can your Realtor get anything done? Does your Realtor get stuff done? Is your Realtor the person to call when you need a great referral for some type of service? If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then you should reconsider sticking with your Realtor.