Sales Awards vs. Reviews When Choosing a Real Estate Agent (BLOG)

When selecting a real estate with whom to work, you will likely be presented with a lot of info on which you can make your choice. A lot of that info is important such as areas covered, years of experience, etc. Many agents will also provide you with information on office sales awards they have won as well. This is common and meant to impress. I wanted to provide a bit of insight into these office awards and suggest an alternative to look for which I think is much more meaningful.

Awards are given away like candy at your local parade. Winning an award of some type at a real estate office is EASY! Real estate companies make money by keeping agents around, and when you give them an award they are more likely to feel valued and stick around.

The problem is, different offices have different awards so it is nearly impossible to know what an individual award even means. Some awards are based off of sales, while others are based off of numbers of deals closed or total commissions earned. They all come with impressive sounding names like Pinnacle, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Platinum, etc. regardless of the meaning behind the award.

So if you are sitting in your livingroom with a perspective agent and they are giving you a list of their awards, I don't blame you for feeling lost.

I have a much simpler way for you to wade through all of the info being thrown your way and truly focus on what truly matters. All you need to do is ask the agent for reviews.

I use the term reviews with the term testimonials interchangeably now. I know clients go on-line looking for "reviews" of hotels, movies, eating establishments and more. The term is en vogue these days.

So why are reviews so important? Simple, reviews not only tell you that the job WAS done, but they also tell you HOW the job was done, and that is often the thing that matters most to a client.

In my opinion, a good review on a real estate transaction is much harder to earn than an office award. And it is also far more telling.

The award does not give you any feel for how the agent works, how they treat clients, their temperament, response to phone messages or whether they treated the client with respect or not. A well written review can tell you all of those things. An award winner can be successful in terms of sales but also be a huge jerk at the same time. The huge jerk will not likely have many reviews to share with clients, or if they do, they will be short and to the point about how they got the job done. They will not be of the glowing, can't say enough about you, variety.

So, next time you are looking for an agent, go right to the good stuff and ask to see their reviews. In my opinion, these will tell you all you really need to know.

Mark Chater is a licensed agent in the state of Iowa. To learn more about Mark and read his reviews, please check out MarkCharter.com