By Chad Taylor, the Taylor-Made Team
You might ask, “What is a Realtor hobbyist?” My definition is simple. A Realtor hobbyist is someone who assists clients on a very part time basis. Certainly, a Realtor who assists six or fewer clients a year would fall into this category.
Before I go any further, let me be clear about something. I am a firm believer that the vast majority of people are doing the best they can with the skill and information they have at the time. I believe that personally and professionally. The challenge in our business is that we are not talking about small decisions. We are dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in many cases, the largest financial investment a family will ever make.
For the last 12 years, a strong seller’s market has created opportunity for Realtor hobbyists. Hot neighborhoods, low housing inventory, and strong buyer demand allowed homes to sell with very little margin for error. Pricing accuracy was not heavily scrutinized because buyers did not have the luxury of being picky. If a buyer paused to question the price, someone else was likely writing an offer while they were still thinking it over.
That grace period is ending.
Today, the market is changing, and we see evidence of it daily. Uncles, moms, sisters, and friends who sell a couple of homes a year are struggling with pricing accuracy. With demand cooling seasonally, for the first time in years, hobbyists are being forced to chase the market by dropping their list price quickly and often. Lack of pricing accuracy leads to longer days on market, which quietly shifts leverage from the seller to the buyer.
Time is the seller’s enemy and the buyer’s friend.
Statistically, the longer a home sits on the market without a contract, the lower the final list price to sales price ratio becomes. Momentum matters. Pricing it right the first time matters even more.
Most future home sellers do place weight on the volume of business an agent handles when interviewing candidates, and for good reason. The more families a Realtor assists in a given year, the sharper their instincts become. I often compare it to choosing a pilot. The more hours a pilot has in the air, the safer you feel. The same logic should apply when choosing someone to guide you through a major financial decision.
What continues to surprise me is how many buyers choose to work with a friend or family member who only sells a couple of homes a year. In most cases, the seller pays the buyer’s agent commission as a concession written into the contract, meaning buyers often do not feel the cost of that decision directly. If buyers were required to compensate their agent the same way sellers do, I suspect the interview process would look very different.
Whether you are buying or selling in a shifting market, understand this. The market is now a moving target. If your Realtor is not actively in the field every day, watching pricing, buyer behavior, and absorption rates change in real time, you are accepting unnecessary risk.
I am not questioning anyone’s intentions. Most people are doing the best they can. The real question is whether “the best they can” is enough to ensure your goals are actually accomplished.
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