The Katelayna Insider

That Agent Profile Isn't Their Resume

I was recently trying to pull together a list of my past sales to add to a website. I figured the easiest place to start would be my Realtor.com and Zillow profiles. They're supposed to show an agent's past sales, so it seemed pretty straightforward.

It wasn't. I started going through the transactions and realized a lot of mine were missing. Not one or two. Enough that the sales history someone sees online doesn't accurately represent the amount of business I've actually done. I tried manually adding some of them and discovered I couldn't. So, naturally, I wanted to know why.

What I found made me look at agent profiles a little differently.

We tell buyers and sellers to research their agent. I agree with that completely. You should research the person you're considering trusting with one of the largest financial decisions you'll make. The problem is that we've also gotten used to looking at a number next to "past sales" and assuming we're looking at an agent's actual sales history.

We aren't necessarily.

These websites are pulling information from MLS systems, and what eventually appears on an agent's public profile depends on how that information was originally entered, what data the website receives, how the agent was identified in the MLS and, in some cases, how old the transaction is.

My own history is a pretty good example of why that matters. I worked for a brokerage where every listing had to be entered with me as the co-listing agent. That wasn't based on who secured the business. I could find the client myself, earn the listing, work directly with the seller and handle the transaction, but I was still the co-listing agent because that was how the brokerage structured its listings.

Fast-forward a few years and someone researching me online doesn't know any of that. They aren't given an explanation next to the missing transaction saying, "Amanda actually secured and handled this listing, but her brokerage required someone else to be entered as the primary listing agent." The transaction may simply not show up as one of my sales.

Now take that same issue and multiply it across an entire industry.

Agents work on teams. They change brokerages. They belong to different MLS systems. Some work in multiple states or markets and end up with multiple agent IDs. Listings can have primary and co-listing agents. Teams and brokerages can have their own rules for how transactions are entered. Older transactions can disappear from the history a website displays.

Suddenly that nice, clean number on an agent's profile isn't quite as clean as it looks.

Let's say you're interviewing two agents. One profile shows 120 past sales and the other shows 60. At first glance, that's an easy comparison. One has twice the experience, right?

Maybe not......

What if the agent showing 60 sales spent years working under a team structure where many of their transactions were credited differently? What if they've changed MLS systems? What if older transactions aren't being displayed? What if the agent showing 120 was the primary agent attached to every team transaction, including transactions where another agent did most of the work?

I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm saying you don't know, and that's exactly the point.

There's another problem with treating these numbers like résumés. Even when a transaction appears correctly, the number doesn't tell you what the agent actually did. It doesn't tell you who brought in the client, who wrote the offer, who negotiated when things got ugly, who caught the problem before closing, who answered the phone at 9:00 at night or who actually guided that client through the transaction.

It tells you that a database connected that agent's name to an address.

That's useful information. It's just not the same thing as knowing someone's experience.

So yes, look up your agent. I actually think you should. Read the reviews, look at their sales, Google their name, look at how long they've been licensed and see whether they actually work in the market where you're buying or selling. Just don't stop at the number a third-party website puts on their profile.

Ask the agent what they've actually done. Ask how many transactions they've handled. Ask whether they worked independently or on a team. Ask what role they had in those transactions. Ask how much experience they have with your type of property or situation. A good agent shouldn't be bothered by those questions.

I started this because I was trying to find a list of my own sales. I ended up realizing something much more interesting: if I know my own online sales history isn't the whole story, I'm probably not the only agent whose profile doesn't tell the whole story either.

And if you're using those profiles to decide who gets your business, that's worth knowing.