Agents Don't Want to Reveal Transaction History – Good or Bad?

The CEO of the Houston Association of Realtors was forced to pull the plug on a program which showed how many transactions each agent has done so you can make an informed decision of which agent you would like to hire to sell your home or represent you in a transaction.

Quite honestly, if you dig deep enough, you can find out how many transactions any given real estate agent has done and how long they have had their license, however the information is not readily available at your fingertips in one  quick easy location.

Days after launching this tool in April the CEO of Houston Association of Realtors, Bob Hale received a deluge of angry calls from agents forcing him to reverse course and take the features to view past transactions down.

Some agents that voiced their concerns were afraid that it might make it more difficult for them to win business in a neighborhood in which one or two agents have been working for 20+ years.

This brings up a valid point.  I notice that all too often the easiest agent to call is the sign that you’ve been seeing for 20-odd years because Granny the Realtor has been working in the neighborhood since back when knocking on doors was commonplace and now 20 years later everyone knows her.

While that is nice to hire her, and it sure seems like she must be the person to hire since she knows sthe neighborhood better than anyone else, let’s not underestimate the fact that 1 out of every 10 buyers in San Diego come from the immediate area.

Before you decide that it’s easy to hire Granny Realtor because you have 200 newsletters from her in your house.  Ask, who does she market to?  Is she focusing on just getting business in your area or is she promoting your home all over the internet?

And by all over the internet, I mean that I want to know that someone in London can pull up extensive information on your property over a cup of coffee and easily contact your agent at the drop of a hat. 

We live in San Diego.  People from all over the world want to come here.  This website is searched by 23 different countries, 34 states within the US, and just in California it has received visits from 67 different cities.  People all over the world and US want to know what is going on with San Diego real estate.

If Granny Realtor just relies on her database of people she knows in the area and the MLS, I can’t help but wonder about the other 9 buyers and if something just a little more couldn’t have been done to catch them in the net.

A second item to take into consideration is that each person hires an agent on different criteria.  For one seller it may be more important to hire an agent with a history of selling properties with the fewest days on market, while another may be more concerned with getting the highest possible price.

To be honest, I think that the general public can get ahold of this information anyways, there are already a few websites out there offering quite a bit of info on agents.  It may even keep the honest agents in business and the used car sales people out:)

SEE HOW MUCH HOMES GO FOR BY SAN DIEGO REAL ESTATE AGENTS!