If you hear that someone has 20 years of experience in any given field, you might be inclined to trust their judgement on everything in that field.
Real estate, however, is different.
Real estate is only as relevant as the last 90 days or up to six months ago. This is because it’s constantly changing. If a Realtor has been selling homes for 20 years, they have experience in the process- but if they have slowed down or are only selling 1-2 homes, they aren’t familiar with the current trends and what is going on in the market.
This lack of knowledge about current trends can REALLY hurt you financially- we have more inventory right now than we have had recently (about three months of inventory now, compared to one month last year). Buyers have a lot more to choose from and homes are getting more showings but fewer offers in the above $300,000 price range.- BUT- if you are listening to a realtor who doesn’t know about this current change, they will think that the market is as hot as it was last year. If your house doesn’t sell immediately, they might drop your price unnecessarily. Or, they tell you NO updates are necessary because they think the market is so hot that you don’t need to stand out- when in all actuality, currently you DO need to stand out!
So, their success in helping you depends more on their sales record for the last year, not their record over the last 20 years! Pick a Realtor who his currently active!
