A career in real estate can be as flexible or as demanding as you wish. You can also do it in your spare time if you’re looking for a flexible second job. While that may work well for the agent, it doesn’t bode well for the unfortunate homeowner that is paying full price for a part-time service. Part-time agents don’t perform as well as agents that devote their entire careers towards real estate. They simply don’t have the time to devote to selling your house like a full-time agent would. So, when you interview your next real estate agent, make sure that this agent does real estate full-time. If you don’t, your house may sit on the market for a long time.
Why You Shouldn’t Hire A Part-Time Agent To Sell Your House
- If an agent is only working as an agent part of the time, then they’re only selling your house part of the time. If they have multiple listings, the time they devote to your house may be even less. While they’re at their primary job, their focus is not on you, your house, or on talking to potential buyers about your house. Part-time agents may be spreading themselves too thin between their main job and their real estate career.
- The question you have to ask a part-time real estate agent is “why are you only working part-time?” If they are transitioning into a career in real estate from their current career, then you may get better service than you would a part-time real estate agent who is just looking for something to do to provide a little extra money. If your real estate agent is only in the business to just get a little spending money then their motivation to sell your house will be low, if any.
- Is this a part-time career or just a hobby to do in their spare time? You don’t want to hire an agent that only wants to “play” agent on the weekends or is looking for an excuse to go look at homes for fun. This is not the motivation needed to sell your house in a timely and productive manner. The longer your house sits on the market, the lower your sales price becomes.
- If a part-time agent doesn’t want to put a lot of time into a career in real estate, then how much time do you think they’ll spend acquiring additional training and education to improve their real estate selling knowledge?
- Part-time agents have a limited amount of time available to setup appointments for showings, open houses or to attend closings, appraisals or inspections. An agent needs to be at all of these events to ensure a successful closing. Most things occur during regular work hours and if that agent is at work in a non-agent, full-time job, then they can’t possibly be at your house to represent your interests. If you’re a buyer, and signed a buyer’s representation agreement with a part-time agent then you are limiting yourself to their confined schedule. This could limit you and your agent to looking at homes only on the weekends. You can also bet that your part-time agent will only be taking their buyers to your house during the weekend too. What about the other five days?
- The worst part is that even though you’ll have all the limitations I mentioned, you’ll still pay the full commission amount. Why would you pay a full price for part-time work?
My Advice To Part-Time Real Estate Agents
- Either create and follow a plan to make real estate a full-time career or do something else. Don’t dabble in our industry. It’s a career not a hobby and should be treated as such. Create a long-range plan to become an agent and start saving up money that you can live on until your commission checks start coming. To be safe, you should save up enough money to live off of for 4-6 months. In the meantime, start taking real estate classes and the real estate exam so that you can become a licensed agent on day one of your future career.
- If you’re only interested in doing this as a hobby or a time-filler then for heaven’s sake, do not represent a buyer client or take on a listing client. Instead, team up with a full-time agent and offer to help them with their clients. Maybe help them host an open house or offer to take a buyer to look at a few homes. Trying to convince a client that you can do as much as a full-time agent is simply a lie.
- Try a career in real estate that doesn’t involve buying or selling a house. Try getting a weekend job with the property management division of a real estate agency or work as support staff for a real estate agent or team. This could provide a good introduction to your real estate career plus you’ll be making connections in the industry that could prove valuable.
Share Your Thoughts
What are your opinions about part-time agents? Do you think it can be done by a part-time agent as effectively as a full-time agent? Do they add value to the industry or help to create a bad reputation that all agents share? When you comment, please let us know if you are a full-time agent or a part-time agent.
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Outstanding article, Bill – and something that I’ve been preaching for many years now. It’s nothing personal against part-timers; it’s simply a matter of professionalism and client care that cannot be developed working part time in this business.
I agree completely. Real Estate professionals attend local association meetings, spend time time touring properties, get designations, follow market trends,they are entrenched in all things real estate. And in our spare time we flip houses and watch endless HGTV!! This is not a part time job. It is a lifestyle.
Purchasing real estate is the largest investment most people make in their life time. I think the consumer deserves representation by the Realtors out there who have a passion for real estate, we wouldn’t do anything else and more importantly we practice real estate as a full time career!
Randy and Jennifer:
I’m glad you agree. I understand the desire to want to ease into the industry rather than quit their job “cold-turkey,” but while that works for them, it’s really not fair to their clients, given their time restraints and lack of total commitment to the industry. I just wish brokers would be more selective when hiring agents and only select agents that were completely devoted to their real estate career and would be devoted to their clients. I guess we can always dream. Homeowners need to be informed that hiring the right agent can make all the difference. However, just being a full-time agent doesn’t necessarily make you a good agent. There are a lot of bad full-time agent too. At least they can work at Really Rotten Realty.
Thanks for the comments and keep them coming.
Bill Petrey
AgentHarvest
Exactly. You have to be available not just for your clients, but to get the best real estate training and education to stay up-to-date with your skills. Part-time agents just don’t have the time or commitment to offer quality service to their clients.
Brent:
There’s no denying the logic that no matter how good part-time real estate agents are, they could be better if they had a full-time devotion to the industry. And therefore, they are not giving their clients the best possible service they are capable of giving.