Imagine you are a real estate investor either in the USA or Australia, who is in the process of choosing the best real estate agent to sell your property. Then, one of the obvious questions coming to your mind is, how old should a real estate agent be to work for you? In other words, Does Your Real Estate Agent’s Age Matter?
Firstly, I have got a couple of more questions that I would like to ask you to elaborate on my thinking process better.
❖ How much does the age of a real estate agent’s matter?
❖ Is the age a job determining factor for real estate agents?
❖ What are the average and the median age of real estate agents?
❖ Are male or female Realtor more successful?
❖ What matters the most? A Realtor’s age or his experience (and professionalism)?
❖ Can young agents be successful?
❖ What makes a good real estate agent?
❖ What does a good real estate agent do more than an average one?
❖ How to know you picked a bad Realtor for your property selling matter?
If you already have satisfying answers to the above-listed questions, then I would appreciate it if you read my article and share your point of view.
If you don’t know answers to all of the above questions or a little bit about some of them, then I would highly recommend that you read this article. It will guide you in the Real Estate Agent selection process.
And of course, I will try my best that you will enjoy reading this article and you find it informative.
Let’s get into the depth of this topic:
Does Your Real Estate Agent’s Age Matter?
Well, the age of a real estate agent doesn’t matter.
Let me explain to you through an example, you got to know about two real estate agents, one is 40-years old, and the other is 20-years old. Both have just started in real estate at the same time.
Ask yourself, do you really think age is a major qualifying reason to hire one over the other? I am pretty sure your gut feeling will tell you that age plays no role while considering a good real estate agent is what most important.
How Old Are Most Real Estate Agents?
For your better understanding, I have split this section in a further three parts:
· The average and the median age
How old do you think most real estate agents are?
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 95% of real estate agents choose this career after leaving one or two previous careers, so the average age of real estate agents is 50.
Moreover, as stated by 2017, Member Profiles the median age of most agents is 53, but it has come down from 57 in 2015.
· Male vs. female – is there a difference?
Believe it or not, the American workforce is pretty much a woman’s world as more ladies work there, approximately 60% more in comparison to men.
Same is the case with the world of real estate. According to Consumer Perceptions of Real Estate Agents Survey by CoreLogic RP Data, in comparison to male agents, the satisfaction level of vendors is quite high when female sales agents deal with them.
According to the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), there are overall over 2 million active real estate agents in the United States. When 394,000 agents were surveyed, about 57% of them were women compared to 43%, which were men. This tells us that Real Estate is more of a woman’s world than a man’s.
Now you must be wondering whether you should hire a female real estate agent or a male real estate agent?
You will find many articles relating to this matter of whether you should hire a male or female real estate agent. Some people say that females are better, some people say males are better.
Well, my stand on this is that you shouldn’t focus on whether your agent is a male or a female but should focus more on the points I have listed later in this article, as a battle of sexes is not more relevant in real estate.
What do real estate agents expect to make from this?
Let me tell you that the average hourly wage for Real Estate Agents is $17.12/HR
And the expected wage by age is divided as:
★ For 20-24 years age group: average hourly income is $11.63,
★ For 25-54 years age group: average hourly income is $18.08,
★ For the 55+ age group: the average hourly income is $16.42,
★ While 1% of Real Estate Agents and Salespersons are unemployed and this rate is quite below the average of professional, technical and skilled occupations.
Realtor’s Age vs Experience (and Professionalism)
Before jumping into this topic, I just want to make sure that you know who a Realtor is.
A Realtor is a real estate agent who is a licensed member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
While looking for a good Realtor, you might be wondering whether to hire one who is older or one who has more experience. Well, you should definitely choose a Realtor considering his years of experience (who have a great understanding of code of ethics) as a Realtor, not his age.
The reason why I am saying this is because Realtor with more experience have more understanding and can deal with your property matters better than those Realtor who are fresh.
Can Young Agents Be Successful? How Do Young Real Estate Agents Succeed?
Even though I said above that you should choose people with more years of experience I think it’s a great decision if people hire young agents because most of the modern-day real estate investors believe new agents tend to be more diverse than long-time relators.
The only reason why agents do not enjoy success in young age is because people have a prejudice against young agents that they might not be very skilled or experienced in handling their property matters. Thus, they hesitate when hiring young real estate agents.
If you hire young real estate agents, they can benefit you in these ways.
- Young real estate agents will have a lot of time to dedicate to your property matters.
- They know their future in the career depends on the results they produce (i.e. sales), so they will put that extra effort.
- To handle your property better, young agents are able to use modern technology tools.
- Young agents usually have good energy and more ambition to make right decisions and handle your property matters better than agents who have been in this profession for long.
After all, finding a good Realtor is most important than finding the cheapest. Here’s how you can easily spot a good one from an average.
Signs of a Good Real Estate Agent
There are a few practices that separate that differentiate an average real estate agent from an outstanding one.
Here are some signs that you have picked the right Real Estate Agent:
- A good real estate agent will listen to you and understand what you want and what you need. Moreover, he will be an excellent communicator that shows he can help you understand and keep you informed.
- He will definitely be trustworthy, honest, and someone who looks after and values your interest above his own.
- Such an agent will be a hardworking and energetic real estate agent who will always ready to take action for you as a client.
- A good agent will be a tech-savvy agent, and he uses modern technological tools to deliver your work and make the process smooth and productive
- A strong web presence of a good real estate agent is a plus. For example, he owns a website and several active social pages.
- He will be well-informed on financing and exactly knows where the market is going.
- He will be a full-time professional agent, so he can serve you well because he is affiliated with a good company with a good reputation.
- He will be a highly educated agent in the area of sales and property transaction. For example, he will have a high school diploma with a real estate training course, must be licensed in the territory where he works.
- Who is knowledgeable enough to navigate through the sales process and keep an eye on issues that can affect your real estate.
- He will be an agent with happy clients, and it is surely a good point because it gives you the assurance that you can be his next happy client.
Note – Always keep in mind, a good real estate agent is one who is honest with you. He will risk hurting or angering you with the truth even if it puts their work in jeopardy.
How To Spot a Bad Realtor?
How can you tell if your Realtor is a bad one? Here are some warning signs to suggest that the agent you hired is a wrong Realtor choice.
1. Lack of or poor communication
between you and your Realtor.
2. Poor marketing skills or knowledge
as he does not make any effort to reach the right audience (He shows you he does though).
To avoid this, you should conduct online research on your agent’s name and talk to their previous clients.
3. The Realtor is dishonest.
For example, if your Realtor asks you to make a false claim or makes a false claim himself about something.
4. The Realtor is unprofessional, openly or behind your back.
For example, he always arrives late at meetings without a proper reason or dresses inappropriately.
5. Has poor negotiation skills
and can’t seem to make successful deals between you and your client.
For example, although it all starts with a ‘cheap’ quote and high expectations, you end up paying a higher price for ‘poor’ performance for a property sale than you needed to which is a loss in money.
6. They neither ask the right questions, nor do they listen to you.
A good Realtor should ask you questions like how quickly you plan on selling your house or what improvements you have made to it before getting the results.
7. The Realtor is too pushy: he is too desperate to make any deal and forces you to close an offer on a home without knowing the pros and cons of it.
A good Realtor will never make you uncomfortable.
Note – If you spot these telltale signs of a lousy Realtor then make sure that you reconsider working with him or fire him. I mean, do not work with him.
Conclusion
Now you can understand that the “age” of a real estate agent does not matter at all because it is something that anyone can do well in their 20’s and old age as in the ’70s. I have even seen late teenagers doing their initial deals successfully as well as people performing in their 80s.
What is extremely important is: you have to choose a real estate agent wisely, have done your related research work, already checked references and credentials of the agent. By all means, make sure that your hired agent has a huge internet presence and appealing personality and energy. A good Realtor is not just someone who post an online AD and waits for calls to come. He does much more than that…Being a real estate investor, that is what you should be looking first while hiring a real estate agent.
Also, if you come across a situation where you hired a bad real estate agent, or you are not happy with the services and the communication you are receiving from the Realtor you have just chosen, be sure to voice your dissatisfaction.
Always remember there are many great Realtor out there from the neighborhood of the property who can go above and beyond for you (as a client). So, don’t let one bad experience scare you away from hiring or working with a Realtor. We, real estate investors and developers are about growing our today’s experience to do better with the next deal.
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