What do you look for in a RE agent?

[Sage Jankowitz]

In a couple of weeks I'll be getting my RE license and I look forward to jumping right in. After spending a year in the wholesaling world and working with a bunch of agents, I learned more about what I don't want in an agent, than what I do, but here are some qualities I hope to bring to the table:

1. Reliablity -- I dealt with this time and time again. Agents that didn't return phone calls or emails, were late for meetups, or simply didn't show up at all. I want to be that agent that picks up the phone every time, returns every call and email promptly, and go by the mantra "15 minutes early is on time, on time is late, and 15 minutes late is YOU'RE FIRED!!"

2. Knowledge of specific RE niche -- I found many agents I worked with thought they were experts on everything: investing, home buying, home selling, commercial, green properties. Instead, I got a jack of all trades who was an expert in NOTHING. I'd like to focus on one or two areas (i'm thinking residential home buying as of now) and become the go to guy in my area.

3. Knowledge of the area -- Similar to #2, I had many agents who were willing to go to any area. While this opened up my options, it also limited the knowledge a lot of these agents could bring to the table. I'd prefer someone who knows a couple of towns inside and out, and can keep up on the ever changing RE landscape.

4. Attitude -- I found many agents had a really disturbing sense of entitlement. They felt if they showed me a bunch of properties, I owed them something. IMO, your job as an agent is to figure out what your client wants and attempt to give it to them. If they don't like what you show them, treat it like peeling away layers of an onion, until you can get to the core of what they're looking for. This is something that I ALWAYS wanted in an agent and have never been able to find.

Those are a few thoughts off the top of my head. Anyone else care to add to the list, please do!