It can feel like a bit much to see so many ads from real estate brokers saying “Your Local Expert” or “Call An Expert” etc. What does it actually take to become an expert? How does one go about “vetting the veteran”? There are some key ingredients to making an expert:
First, the expert must be experienced. In each field it will be different. In today’s residential real estate market, I believe the threshold is at least 20 years of experience. Why? Because for 11 years (2011-2022), we have only seen good to very good to excellent to frenzied markets. The previous 9 years (2002-2010) saw residential real estate go from boom to bust. If a broker has been around during that entire time, they’ve experienced the ideal sample of “Up, Down, and All Around” market experience.
Second, the expert must have been successful and productive during that time. Just “hanging a license” at some brokerage would not qualify. The expert should have been active and transactional for the 20+ years.
Third, the expert should have evolved and changed strategies with the technology and the times: learning, growing and adapting as the decades rolled by.
Fourth, the expert should have maintained core business values and integrity over all of the years.
The challenge for you, the consumer, is to vet the experts and zero in on an agent who has been in the business for 20+ years, productive all along, has adapted to the technological and marketing innovations, and most importantly, one who has maintained business integrity. The experts will present and advise, you decide!
