Maryland and Virginia Real Estate and Homes Blog

“It is the never ending debate in real estate.” 

Cindy Jones  offers a thoughtful post today proposing that there is some debate over the ultimate value of an experienced agent vs. a newer agent.   I was not aware that there was a debate.  Cindy is an experienced, thoughtful agent and I’m sure we can disagree without being disagreeable.  So, I’ll simply state that I disagree with the premise.  I believe that experience does matter and that it matters a great deal.  We are assisting helping consumers with often the largest financial transaction of their lifetimes.  Mistakes by agents can cost the consumer many Thousands of Dollars and cause irreparable personal and financial harm. 

LET’S GO BACK TO GO.  We all come out of real estate school on a rather level playing field.  We are almost a blank slate.  Of course, some skills are transferable from other businesses to real estate practice.  However, some skills are unique to real estate practice; market knowledge, contract management, inspection processes, closing procedures, mortgage financing to name a few valuable skills or that makes our job easier and enhances our representation of buyers or sellers. 

60 HOURS OF CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION?  The hours of classroom instruction needed to qualify to take the real estate examination for licensure is woefully inadequate to prepare a licensee to actually practice real estate brokerage or real estate sales.  In fact, most states require that newly licensed agents work “under the supervision” of a broker who has additional experience and has passed an additional examination for the pleasure of operating or managing a real estate brokerage.  Many states also require a specific number of classroom post licensing training.  Still, until the agent has sold a few properties, does it really contribute to their overall ability to work with buyers or sellers?   

ONE TRANSACTION AT A TIME.  Real estate brokerage is a very complicated business and the average newly licensed salesperson will gain knowledge and experience through training but the training they remember the best is through actual practice, one transaction at a time.  Until an agent has sufficient transaction experience, they will be learning their business with each buyer or seller client.  If experience were not so important, we wouldn’t have the mentoring systems so popular today.  Nor would we have the post licensing training. 

I DIDN’T KNOW THAT COULD HAPPEN.  I believe that most critical mistakes are made by agents who have simply never faced or experienced a particular scenario.  Once we have closed a large number of transactions, we then have the experience to manage contracts without mistakes, with good advice and will have fewer failed transactions.  I’ve employed and trained many agents over the years and it takes many sales before most agents even have the confidence, let alone the understanding and knowledge to manage transactions smoothly.  Some believe that trust is the basis for a consumer/agent relationship.  Of course, but so many of our buyer or seller clients are meeting us for the first time through our advertising.  It is far safer for a consumer to “trust” an experienced agent to manage their transaction well than to trust a new licensee to learn on the job.  New agents need transactions, but they should also strive to be as good as they can be benefit from the experience gained over the years through actual transactions.  New agents should also avoid attempting to represent clients outside their area of expertise or market area.  Experienced agents know this, usually from experience. 

IMO, nothing is better than experience.   As a broker with many years experience and hundreds of transactions closed and many hundreds more supervised, I can honestly say, “I learn something on each new transaction”.