I love being a mentor to new agents starting their career; I get so much from this experience. Today I reviewed a new agents first offer. I remember how exciting, nerve racking and overwhelming this experience was. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to know what everything meant and feared my client asking questions and not knowing answers. We are taught how to write contracts and it is explained to us in great detail; however until you are writing a real offer with the intent that it be accepted, the desire to comfort and make sure your client is satisfied and confidence you are doing the best job you can to communicate exactly what your client wants communicated. You want to be able to give good solid advise instilling confidence and trust to your buyer that you are representing them well.
As I reviewed the agents offer I was impressed in how well it was written and proud of our training program. I remembered the compliments I received as I sent my first offer in for review. I also remembered that all though it was well written I did not understand every part of it or why it was written with particular wording or how certain clauses and contingency were designed to protect the different parties to the contract. So I took a moment to call the new agent and say "wow what a great job, you did a wonderful job", and then address her questions all great questions that give me the confidence that she has the desire to understand and do the best job possible. I was assured that it was important to her that her client was being well represented and that it was important to her that she could assure them of this. Even though through our extensive and detailed training I did not assume it all made sense to her on this level. now that she had a person and a property to relate to and an expected outcome this was real and not just an example or wording. As we went through it things also start clicking for me things i may not have understood completely until trying to explain and make sense of it for someone else. This is how mentoring is SO valuable to me. It helps become a better agent. The best way to learn is through experience and I get to have the experience of all my own transactions as well as the agents I mentor this experience is priceless. I feel I already have more experience then an average agent doing the average amount of business because I am getting my hands on sometimes up to 4 times the transaction in one month. I am searching for more answers to more questions, running into more hurdles and helping solve more problems then I would if I were simply focused on my own transactions. I am working with agents that although they are new to real estate they all have their own backgrounds and wisdom to offer me and continue to encourage me to think outside the box. I often don't know the answer until they help me work out by really communicating what the end result needs to be. Being a mentor is the thing that keeps me growing and learning and always working towards becoming a better agent.
When we were done reviewing the offer and satisfied with moving forward to meet with the buyers for signatures and confident that we could explain the process and answer questions or know when to say "I don't know that answer but I can find out and get back to you" I was then excited to offer some advise on communication that I have learned through experience. Such as... after you get the buyers signatures put your self in their shoes. they are excited and eager for a response. It may be very important to them to know what to expect for the next few days. Let the buyer know how the process goes from here, when you will submit the offer, when it may be presented and when you expect to hear back. when submitting the offer ask the selling agent for the same communication, example Hi selling agent here is an offer on your property located at... please confirm when you have received the offer and when you hope to present offer to seller so I can let the buyers know what to expect. why this is important, making an offer is a very big and scary decision. Waiting for that phone call saying your offer has been accepted, rejected or countered is a very anxious time. if you are able to help your buyer understand the process and give them a good expectation of timeline this can eliminate much of there anxiety and all the tricks our brain does when we are waiting for news. your buyer may think 3 days is a long time and will start assuming and mentally preparing for the worse case. But if they realize that the seller may not even be able to see the offer for 24 hours and or need to discuss it with someone else this can ease the anxiety as well as the anxiety of the new agent. Communication is one of the best tools a real estate agent can have and can truly help you stand out from all other agents.
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