Working as a Massachusetts Realtor for the past twenty four years, I have seen just about everything. For Gods sake when I started in the business we carried around a huge MLS book with all the listings that was almost as heavy as an encyclopedia. There was no Internet back then.

In fact in the mid 1980’s we did not even have the modern convenience of a fax machine for a while. Back then when you needed something signed you had to hand deliver it! In many respects things are a lot easier today.

While there have been quite a few changes over the years in the Real Estate business, the one thing that continues to amaze me is how consumers go about picking a Realtor to represent them in the sale of their home.

I am going to bet that most top producing Realtors that are interviewed probably get the listing somewhere between 85-90% of the time. What about the other 10-15%? How many times have you done a presentation for someone selling their home and you did not get the listing?

While monitoring the daily updates for new properties hitting the market you notice the home which you interviewed for has just been added to MLS. You check to see who has listed the property and your immediate reaction is ….WTF??? Sorry to be so braizen but it’s true!

If you are a Realtor reading this article you can probably empathize with me.

You look at the Realtors name and you either have never heard of the person before or you know they don’t do a lick of business.

Just to torture yourself a little further you check out the listing and see the following:

- There are only a couple of pictures of the house posted in MLS.

- The quality of the photo’s absolutely SUCKS. It is obvious to you the agent picked up a disposable Kodak camera on the way to take pictures.

- You read the description of the property and there is barely anything of value. It clearly looks like the agent didn’t care and just wrote anything to fill the space. Of course there is also either bad grammar, spelling mistakes, or the use of abbreviations that buyers have no clue what they stand for.

At this point you may have steam coming out your ears but you decide to go to Google the agents name. Clearly you are expecting to see at least a website the agent owns that markets their listings to potential buyers. NOPE…you see nothing…ZIPPO.

You don’t even bother but you know if you head over to some of the most visited Real Estate sites on the internet like Realtor.com, Zillow.com or Trulia.com, the agent will not have done anything to “enhance” the listing by adding extra photos and having detailed descriptions showing off all the best features of your home.

This is what happens in the 1st week of your relationship with the Realtor you just chose because they either did one of the following:

1.) Lied to you about the value of your home and you believed them.

2.) They charged you 1/2 percent less on the commission everyone else was quoting you. You think you saved money but you just cost yourself BIG TIME because you always get what you pay for in life.

You see a REAL good Realtor doesn’t need to do these things to win business. A true professional goes the extra mile in everything they do. They have a passion for their work and it shows.

So if you are going to be selling your home and meeting with a Real Estate agent you better ask good Realtor interview questions. Don’t get stuck with the Realtor clown above! Do your home work. I can almost guarantee you things are going to get worse from here.

I think most would agree having a burger from a steakhouse is better than McDonald’s. It works the same way picking a Realtor as well. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ About the Author: The above Real Estate information on is your Realtor a clown in disguise was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.