Swimming with Sharks, Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent Part II
In case you missed my previous post, I discussed in detail the traits of a great commercial real estate agent. See Part One.
6. A good real estate agent has no problem saying “I don’t know.” Most people have trouble saying “I don’t know”. In fact the writers of the famous book “Freakanomics” discuss it in depth. It is impossible to know everything there is to know about real estate. Dealing in real estate covers many disciplines. A good real estate agent will never dispense false information in order to try to look appear knowledgable. Further more even if a real estate agent does say “I don’t know”, a good real estate agent will be quick to find the answers.
7. If you give a good offer, a good real estate agent will know what to do with it. If you trust the real agent enough to give your best offer, and it’s close to the asking price, a good real estate agent will never give it up right away. Often times it is hard to tell what goes behind the scenes of a negotiation, and perhaps you will never know. The best piece of advise I can dispense is, if you give a good offer and the real estate agent quickly comes back to you to get you go higher, he probably did not protect your good offer.
8. Negotiations are intense, especially when there are many areas to the negotiate. A good commercial broker should always plays the role of mediator and not secretary. Now this is where this can dance a fine line, but I will explain this as best as I can. During negotiations, there are points where it can be adversarial. Harsh words can be said about one and another, and those harsh words can be reflected in their respective counter offers. This can lead to a collapse in negotiations, when a collapse was unnecessary. A good agent can play this delicate word dance to accomplish a deal. A quality broker will never communicate verbatim what the other party’s private communications, he will not play the game of “telephone”. He will always massage words and put everything in proper prospective. There is an exception to this. If the parties are negotiating a contract where it starts a long term relationship (like a commercial lease), and if one party acts unscrupulously, then the agent should advise the other party.
There are many other traits that make a good real estate agent, I discussed some of the lesser known traits that are known to the public. Hopefully this will give you a leg up on your search.
If you are currently looking for space in the 5 boroughs you can always call me for advise, call Jon Brooks, agent at 5CRE 212-366-0407, email me at jb@5cre.com..
Disclaimer: Not all information above may be accurate. Please before you use any advise in this post or any other post in this blog, consult with a real estate professional and/or attorney.
