#RealEstate - Boston Real Estate - Is this Agent Good or Bad

Super Agent Man or Super Waste of Your Time? 
How to Tell if a Real Estate Agent is Worth a Phone Call

Hundreds of real estate offices in the Greater Boston Area. Thousands of agents. You may not know this, but its possible to get a real estate license within a week. College education is not prerequisite. Only the most basic math and verbal skills will earn you the moniker Salesperson. Its not necessary to know how to drive well or park well or talk well or even think well to earn that first-level junior broker's license. Of course to last longer than a month, you've got to up your rating in these categories. And of course senior brokers with full Brokers have much more experience and ability than Salespersons.

Of the Salespersons, both the Pareto Principle and The Law of Averages suggest that about 80% of these agents out there are going to be ho-hum average, 10% will be complete jack ass losers, deserve to be fed to the lions, because they make quite a poor name for themselves, which becomes a name that good agents have to apologize for.
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Only 10% of the thousands of agents out there are of the genuinely, all-around good rating. These folk are usually are booked solid all of the time. They are busy tending to years worth of repeat and referral network business.

When they do take on new clients, the best agents guard their time-value. They employ many layers in their client qualification screen.Yes, that's right---an agent can tell you to hit the bricks if he or she thinks you are what's called a stroker.  If you don't know what I mean, then don't worry---you're not one---I mean if you haven't been told to hit the bricks yet then you're not a stroker. If you have been told to hit the bricks---then, unfortunately, you are a stroker and you should work on that right away. Because there are many business-wise and legally sound methods a real estate broker has in the arsenal for separating the wheat from the chaff. Not needing your business in the slightest way is only one of the more powerful tools. Anyway, if you've been booted once or twice, then you know what I'm talking about---good brokers can be just as picky about theirs clients as clients want to be picky about their housing selection. Pickiness is the pride of excellence.

My office has this going down in what's called an Ex Officio fashion. Every week we somehow manage to generate  more than100 inbound new business inquiries for every agent here---every week!! Can you imagine that? And this is just new business leads---then there are our established friends, current and former clients. All told---there's only enough time in the in every week for each agent to host a maximum of 20 appointments. So, it just happens the way it happens. The Pareto Principle applies.

#RealEstate - Apartment Searching: Do It Yourself or Find a Real Estate Agent?

Do it Yourself or Find a Real Estate Agent?
Where to Start Looking for Apartments

It is true that you can find an apartment on your own without help from a real estate agent. However, if you use an agent you will significantly reduce the time and energy spent doing it yourself. You also reduce the likelihood of being taken for a ride by a slumlord. They are out there and we know who they are.

But, if you insist on being a Do It Your-Selfer, here are some tips you'll need along that path. If you are like most of the clients I've had over the years, you are going to want to see more than one place before you decide to rent one. You want to survey the market and see what your money will get you.

Broker's Guide for the Do It Your-Selfer

You may have specific needs and desires. You may have a limited budget. You may have a pet. Maybe not-so-good credit history. Maybe you're highly allergic to mold. Maybe you've had it up to eyeballs with New England snowfalls and have vowed you'll only use covered parking.

Whatever your specific scenario is, without extraordinary luck, your housing search will take you at least two weeks, and probably three weeks, to conduct on your own. And you will learn after one week of "looking" (i.e. combing craigslist, emailing landlords and subletters back and forth, etc.) that the first or second place you saw was, in fact, the right one. However, and this always happens, when you call the owner back you learn that it has already been rented.