When you walk at the Nordstrom, you’re not the CEO of Nordstrom’s, and you’re calling over sales help, but you’re not hiring them, and you’re not related to it like you’re hiring them. You walk into a car dealership, you don’t feel like you’re hiring someone, because you’re frankly not. You’re just getting a salesman to help you.
That’s a bad idea when you’re buying a house. Why? Because a house is multiple times more expensive than that, way less frequent of a transaction, way more impactful a transaction. It’s way longer. Everything about it is different than buying a new car. Everything about it is different than going shopping at Nordstrom’s, so stop pretending that you’re just going to call over the nearest person. “Can you get those shoes off the shelf?” No. That’s nonsense when you’re hiring a real estate agent. You’re paying them a ton of money. You’re paying them three percent of the transaction, a ton of money. Have that person work for you.
Do you know the most important thing when you are out to hire the right agent for you has nothing to do with the agent and everything to do with you?
The most important thing has everything to do with you and your mindset.
Now, I talk a lot about this in my book, my best-selling book, Shortchanged by Shortcuts: 44 Surprising Ways People Rip Themselves Off When Buying and Selling Their Home. If you want a free copy, i”ll tell you how to pick up a copy at the end.
The most important thing in hiring an agent is your mindset, how you think about the situation, how you think about the transaction, because almost nobody thinks about it the right way. Almost nobody looks at it like they are hiring an agent.
I know most people don’t think about it like they’re hiring an agent, because when you hire someone, you do something really specific. Anytime you’ve ever been hired for a job, you’ve been interviewed. You’ve been interviewed in a systematic way where you knew that the questions you were being asked were also asked of other candidates for the job.
Yeah, almost no one interviews an agent that way. People hire their best friend’s cousin’s neighbor because they’re their best friend’s cousin’s neighbor. What are they going to do? They’re fine.
Maybe they hire the person at the open house. They walk into the open house, and there’s a friendly agent. “Hi, can I show you around? That’s a kitchen. That’s two bedrooms…” and they hire them.
What? Are you kidding? You’re going to hire the Redfin agent because they were the first person that called you, and they’re going to give you $1,500 back? Are you out of your mind? That’s crazy. No, no, no, no.
You’re hiring someone.
Here’s the most important thing. Your mindset. See, I am going to invite you, and I do this in the book. I’m going to invite you to consider that you are the CEO of a company, and your company’s job, the thing a company does is it’s out to purchase something, or sell something, depending on your position in this transaction, but you’re out to buy yourself the most expensive asset this company’s ever owned, and you’re going to hire a COO, a chief operation officer, and a CFO, a chief financial officer, a realtor and a lender.
You need to interview them in a standard, methodical way. You need to get questions. You need to get the answers to the same questions from all the agents. Then, you need to compare the answers. Then, you interview them to see who you like the most. I’m not saying don’t hire people you like. I’m saying hire the ones that produce the best results that you like.
The results people produce are knowable. Success leaves a track record. If you’re the CEO, there are certain things you’re going to do that you’re not going to do if you’re not the CEO.
The questions you can ask are in my book and I’ll get you a copy for free. All you need to do is comment below that you want a copy of the book. I’ll get back to you. You pay for the shipping, and I’ll send it to you. If you’re in Seattle, I’ll even deliver it to you. Comment below. Share this post with friends, and then subscribe to our YouTube channel so you get more frequent updates.
If you have questions about real estate, I’d love to help you answer them. Comment below, and I’ll get to you.