The Real Estate Neighborhood Expert Series Introduction

What Is a Real Estate Neighborhood Expert?

Searching Google, here is the definition of the word "expert" from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary:  "having or showing special skill or knowledge because of what you have been taught or what you have experienced."

Many Scottsdale real estate agents are trying to rein in the large areas they cover.  They want to establish themselves as a real estate "neighborhood expert," or the "local expert" in their community. Some consider themselves the local expert in their subdivision or condo/townhouse association. Agents reducing their area of expertise to this kind of extremely specific, smaller area are probably the closest you'll get to a true neighborhood expert.

There is an agent I've read about in a popular real estate social media blogging website that only works in a one-mile radius.  She can walk to each of her listings.  I would definitely consider her a neighborhood expert.  She has established herself as an agent that gets her listings sold so she is trusted as a local expert for that specific area.

Then there are agents that consider themselves the local real estate expert for an entire village. This is where the term fits loosely, in my opinion.  Now we're talking about multiple schools and districts, and specific areas within a village that can be completely different in income, home prices, and other demographics.  The larger a town is, the less "expert" one agent can be.

The bottom line is, the smaller the area, the more a real estate agent in Scottsdale can be considered a neighborhood expert.  Once their so-called area of expertise increases, the less chance there is that one agent can know everything about that town unless they have a photographic memory.

With that said, even a micro-local agent can't give their opinions on the best schools or the best area to live in. Read my post about it here. A good agent will guide you to find your own answers to some gray-area questions. Or an agent would just prefer that you get an answer directly from a school district or city hall. You might have more questions than your agent would. It's best not to play "telephone game" when you can make an inquiry on your own.

For example, let's say a Scottsdale real estate agent claims to be the neighborhood expert for all of Scottsdale.  How can they truly know everything about each school in this town of approximately 217,385 residents (according to the 2010 census)? They might have the skinny on the school(s) their own kids attended, but they can't know everything.  School boundaries change over time and unless an agent keeps up with these changes with all of the schools and district(s) in a town, how would they know? As has been mentioned, an agent would only give you an opinion, which they shouldn't do. If you need factual information, go directly to the source.

I don't think a local politician knows everything there is to know about a specific town.  They might know more than many of the residents, but they don't know everything. With that said, there are agents that live and work in specific areas that they know a lot about. They might not know every little detail about every school or where a new dog park might be in the works for, or what commercial building is going to be razed, but they know local Scottsdale real estate values.  They're not all know-it-alls about their knowledge, and they might admit to not knowing the answer to a question a buyer might have, but they'll try to find out or direct you to where you can get an answer.

The Real Estate Article That Started This Series

I read a post contributed to Inman News by real estate agent and appraiser Hank Miller.  He certainly stirred the pot with other agents that read his article.  The gist of his post was how he felt so-called neighborhood experts were arrogant and weren't working in the best interests of their clients.  He feels with readily available data, an agent outside of the neighborhood can come up with the same conclusions, and with less bias than a neighborhood expert.  Some responses agreed with Hank but the majority did not, including mine.

Generalizations about a few bad apples

What rubbed me the wrong way were these statements:

"The neighborhood expert wants to remain noticed in their circles and takes a listing and prices it to please the owner and others in the circle. Offers continue to come in below list, but the offers can be supported by market data."

My response - any agent that continually does this in a neighborhood is going to create a reputation as an agent that can't get their listings sold. What agent wants their sign out in front of a home for a very long time while other homes in the neighborhood get listed and sell within reasonable time frames?

Taking overpriced listings is a blog post in itself, but the statement above won't help any agent establish credibility and trust in the area.  They won't be considered a "neighborhood expert" for long if this is their listing.

"The neighborhood expert becomes indignant with buyer’s agents presenting offers, and continues to ignore data in favor of their opinion. The neighborhood expert representing the seller continues to respond with, “Yeah, but …”  and “The owner has X dollars into it.

My response - another blanket statement about the few inexperienced agents out there working in any area, whether they're local or not.  Some agents make it "personal" when another agent questions the price, condition, etc. of their listing.  Most agents keep it professional and don't bring emotions to the table.

"The neighborhood expert assigns blame, saying something like, “The buyers just don’t recognize the value … the market this and that,” and convinces the client that the agent is not at fault."

My response - same as above.  This is an agent, local or not, blaming others for their lack of truly knowing the current market, whether it's in their local service area or not. My goodness, if the majority of agents overpriced listings then I could understand the reasoning behind Mr. Miller's tirade.

"The neighborhood agent can argue that they didn’t accept a lowball offer, and can continue to solicit business and say that they “know the real value” of the community."

Another generalization of an uneducated agent explaining their inability to truly know an area or how to read and correctly interpret the data that we have access to. When they cannot sell their listings they aren't able to back-up their claim about being a neighborhood expert.  It will catch up with them.

An article written by a personal experience or two by the author?

I don't like it when an author paints a very broad picture that makes all agents appear to be doing something wrong, even if it's regarding a specific thing - like calling oneself a neighborhood real estate expert.  As in any business, community, family, there are going to be people doing the wrong thing.  We expect service providers to be knowledgeable and professional, but how does a potential client do their homework?  Do they ask friends and family for referrals?  Do they check things out online?

Scottsdale real estate buyers are apt to use the first agent they meet to work with to find a home, based on several surveys I've read. Many sellers will interview more than one agent to get a feel for their personality and expertise.

Some buyers and sellers will call an agent that a friend or family member refers them to, and in most cases that works out.  I get many buyers and sellers that didn't like their original agent for whatever reason and I've received many compliments about how different I am and how much they learn from working with me.  These are clients that refer me to their friends, family and co-workers.

Yes, there are bad agents out there.  But they're not all claiming to be local experts, which is why I had a difficult time with the article written by Mr. Miller.  One of the respondents felt that Mr. Miller was writing this article from his appraisal business experience vs. his real estate business. Appraisers will run into agents that fight them on low appraisals.  Maybe a few agents used their local expert status to tell Mr. Miller he didn't know what he was talking about when he delivered a low appraisal.

My taglines

I use the tagline "Your Scottsdale REALTOR®."  I do not say I am the neighborhood expert in Scottsdale, even if Chicago Magazine calls me a 5-Star Real Estate Agent based on client feedback (2 years in a row now).  I do live in Scottsdale and my brokerage office is located in Scottsdale, so I feel that I can truthfully say I am a Scottsdale real estate agent.

However, you'll also see me say I'm your Cave Creek REALTOR® or your Carefree REALTOR® or other towns that I specialize in because I've had 30 years of experience showing and selling properties.  I would never say "I'm your Mesa REALTOR®" because I've never shown or sold a home in Mesa, even though that's where my parents retired to.  And I don't self-anoint myself as your "Scottsdale Neighborhood Expert", even if I could.

Some agents show and sell properties within an hour's drive time radius from their home or office. That is a large area! I like to keep it around a 30-minute drive, but I will go a bit farther if necessary. Sometimes the area we live or have an office in just doesn't have much turnover with sales. Other times we work with buyers that just have a large range of areas they would consider.

I have stories to back-up how being a local neighborhood agent helped get and save my clients thousands

I'm going to break up my stories into separate series since this is already a long post and I feel each story stands on its own.  I'll link them here:

How I Saved my Scottsdale Sellers Thousands

Real Estate Neighborhood Expert Part 2

Final thoughts

I have nothing against Hank Miller.  His reply to my 2nd response was well written, friendly and even complimentary (he didn't post a reply to my first comment).  I just think he could have worded his article differently.  I think it would have been better to tell some specific stories to back-up his experiences and admit that this happened with a few, select agents.  He doesn't have to name names, but explain that his post wasn't about the majority of agents who claim they are neighborhood experts (and how many agents actually make such a claim - either in print or in person)?

Hank wrote one of those articles that garnered a lot of interaction, which is what blog/Internet authors strive for.  Whether respondents agreed or disagreed, they voiced their opinions, and that was only because the article was worthy of putting our two cents into.  I have to thank Hank for giving me the idea for this series.