Being new in the real estate business, I did not realize that real estate agents had such a bad rep. I’ve purchased and sold 5 houses in my life and had the bank take one back during the Jimmy Carter disaster years of 20% interest rates.

In all of those transactions, I actually wound up establishing good friendships with the agents – even the bank turned out to be a “white hat.” They found a buyer and we called it even, though I still owed a few thousand on the note. A few years ago I placed an ad in the local Park City newspaper to thank my Realtor because he got us top-dollar for our home and into the new house in a smooth process.

In the Danville office of Keller Williams, I’ve met 50 or 70 of the 180+ agents so far and I find all but a few to be genuine people who are very concerned about their client’s needs and wants. And, let me say that the few I’m not sure of could just be personality differences between them and me.

So, what’s up with the bad rep and the client fear factor? People are looking to buy and sell, but it seems like everybody these days wants to accomplish this without an agent??

My sister-in-law, Tracey, loves contracts. She knows where all the “I’s” and “T’s” are. My brother, Craig, is an astute negotiator (came out of the dot com corporate world). They’re both friendly, genuine people who want to bring the best win-win deal to everyone.

Like the real estate agents in my past, we’re oriented around helping the client and reducing the Fear Factor.