Many people have run a 10K but very few runners have run the 10,000 meters at the Olympics. Both are runners but very few are elite and at the top of their games. The same can be said for Real Estate Agents. All of them are qualified but only a very few are the best at what they do. Finding the best agent can be hard. It’s like finding a good cantaloupe. You can smell it and squeeze it but at the end of the day you won’t know until you get it home and experience if you made a good choice.

Here are some tell-tale signs that you picked a bad melon as a real estate agent:

1. Your agent blames everything on the other agent. An agent that constantly complains about the other agent is a weak agent. It’s easy to use the excuse that they are working with a bad agent when in fact they are being controlled by the competing agent. The agent’s job is to work to get you what you want from the transaction. If they cannot it’s because they lack the skills to tilt the transaction in your favor. It shows they do not train to be at the top of their game.

2. Your agent is constantly late. Everyone is late occasionally, especially with Dripping Springs traffic, but some people are always late. Lateness is a sign of disorganization. Like an iceberg you only see the tip of the lack of organization. Lateness is a sign there are much deeper issues with the agent’s business. Great agents plan, schedule, and strive to arrive on time.

3. You never hear from your agent. Being a good communicator is a must for the elite agent. If you are chasing them for information, they are reacting to events in their business not driving the events in their business. The tail is wagging the dog.

4. Your agent is more concerned about getting paid than they are about getting your transactional needs met. Agents deceive themselves into thinking clients can’t tell when they are focused on a paycheck, but they reek of misplaced priorities like an open septic tank.

Being an elite agent means focusing on being the best advocate and negotiator for your client. They treat each client the same regardless of how much money they make off of them. Elite agents constantly hone their skills and strengths to be at the top of their game. You deserve the best agent you can hire. Look for the Olympic athlete of real estate and you will have much better results in the sale of your home.