Car Dealers and Accountants Will Help You Select Your Next Real Estate Agent, Wisely

July 7, 2015 | Buying

Think for a moment about car dealers and accountants.

Doing so you will help you understand why selecting a real estate agent has to go way beyond knowing how much the agent is going to charge you.

Let’s start with cars and car dealers. Cars are commodities. A given make and model rolls out of a centralized factory and every copy is identical down to the last bolt and wiring nut. A Honda Accord at Dealer A is a carbon copy of the Accord sitting on the lot at Dealer B, assuming they both have the same options.

Since a given make and model is identical from one dealership to the next, price is king. You simply want to find the car dealer that will sell you that particular vehicle at the cheapest price.

Accountants are different than car dealers. Every year as April 15th rolls around, you’ll hear stories of some news organization giving a hypothetical tax return to several accounts. They end up getting vastly different answers to how much this imaginary taxpayer owes to Uncle Sam. The difference from one accountant to the next is often tens of thousands of dollars.

Why does this happen?

Well, the tax code is complicated. Rules can be interpreted differently. Some practitioners understand the rules better than others and may be familiar with loopholes that result in fewer tax dollars being paid.

In other words, all accountants are not created equal. They are not commodities. Each one is a different product. The cheapest accountant may cost you way more than he charges you by missing deductions and failing to take full advantage of the tax code.

Real estate agents are like accountants. They provide a service requiring knowledge, skill and expertise. They don’t provide a commodity, like a car dealer.

You need several different skills from a real estate agent – expertise in pricing, staging, marketing, negotiating and contract preparation. A good agent offers knowledge about the market, including price trends in different areas along with insight on strengths and weaknesses of different neighborhoods, and can use this knowledge to ferret out better deals. In addition, an agent also adds value to clients by having relationships with skilled professionals in areas like lending, inspecting, property repair and so forth.

Weak agents cost their clients money by executing poorly in these areas. Careless pricing, ineffective staging, poor marketing, inept negotiating skills, sloppy contract preparation, lack of market knowledge and partnerships with less than stellar professionals in related fields can end up costing the client a lot of money in excess of the fee that the agent charges.

Good agents are just the opposite – they add value to their clients far in excess of the fee that they charge. Their knowledge and skill add many percentage points to a seller’s bottom line and help buyers make a smarter purchase at substantial savings.

It kinda’ makes your wonder, doesn’t it, why some agents and brokerage firms talk primarily about being cheaper? Flat fees. Discount brokerage. Commission rebates. It sounds like they see themselves as commodities, doing exactly what any other agent does.

Good agents will talk about the way they add value and will make a credible case that their experience and expertise will result in savings to you beyond the fee charged for their services. They show an awareness that you need more than a “car dealer” selling you a commodity. Rather, you need someone more like an accountant that can guide you through a complex process to a more profitable outcome.

Share this Post