Trust Essential for Real Estate Sales

As a vice president for Prudential-Jon Douglas Co. and a real estate broker with more than 24 years’ experience, I want to share some tips from the 1,200 transactions I have been involved in, on how to get the most from your agent.

I have found that the most successful relationships between client and real estate agent involve mutual trust. Withholding crucial information from your agent--like credit problems, motivation or buying power--prevents them from fully representing you. You wouldn’t tell your doctor or lawyer only half the story, so you shouldn’t treat your real estate agent any differently. Agents have a legal fiduciary relationship to their clients; rest assured that your information will be treated as sacred in the hands of an ethical agent and used only to benefit you and help you reach your goals.

It is also important to remember that agents are human, too. You wouldn’t go to work for weeks at a time unless you were sure you would be bringing home a paycheck. As agents are paid strictly based on properties they sell, they have to allocate their time accordingly. A seller trying to squeeze every last bit of commission from the agent, or pricing the home unrealistically or giving a short listing agreement in a market where homes take awhile to sell shows the agent mistrust and lack of caring for that agent’s time and efforts. This is not the way to get an agent to work for you. Likewise, a buyer who places unrealistic requests on the agent or who works with several agents without telling each one that there are competitors shows no respect or concern for those agents’ time.

As a buyer or seller, if you feel that you can’t be completely honest, realistic and upfront with your agent, perhaps you haven’t met the right agent whose chemistry matches yours.

RON WYNN, Vice president, Prudential-Jon Douglas Co.