Perform in-depth pricing analysis designed to give you a winning strategy and have you end up at the closing table with the most money possible in your pocket.
To practice real estate as a full-time professional and do it extremely well? That’s not easy.
The President of REAL Broker, Sharran Srivatsaa, is widely respected for having been named a four-time Inc. 500 Entrepreneur, for having worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, for having run a private equity firm, for having worked in Silicon Valley, and for having grown a company 10X to 3.4 billion dollars in just 5 years.
To quote Srivatsaa, “I have done all these things, and being a real estate broker is harder.” (He certainly means being an excellent real estate broker is harder.)
Perform in-depth pricing analysis designed to give you a winning strategy and have you end up at the closing table with the most money possible in your pocket.
Apply deep contract knowledge in a way that helps you strategically throughout the transaction, whether making offers, countering offers, competing against others, negotiating any new terms to the contract, or navigating any delicate or challenging moment in the contract.
Apply sophisticated strategic thinking at every turn; apply very quick thinking as needed.
Share and apply sophisticated knowledge of what actually matters and what actually works (and what doesn’t) in all aspects of marketing and staging.
Utilize excellent communication skills directly with other agents, with clients, and with the public.
Apply an exceptional ability to dig into details when needed AND an essential ability to think big picture when beneficial to you.
Utilize superb negotiation skills on your behalf at every turn.
Apply an ability to be tenacious on your behalf, when and as needed.
Apply an ability to be diplomatic on your behalf, when and as needed.
Apply the ability to be tough AND the ability to be compassionate, when and as needed in negotiations and at every turn in the process, always on your behalf.
Apply an exceptional ability to be urgent when necessary AND an exceptional ability to be patient when needed.
Apply the ability to think flexibly and creatively— and the ability to think analytically, often all at once, always to benefit you, strategically and practically through to the end of the process.
Apply a thorough understanding of what is timely or vital (and what isn’t) throughout a transaction.
There are many people with real estate licenses.
And yet a large percentage of them have never done many transactions; another large percentage of them have only sold inexpensive properties and have never learned first-hand some of the special demands of a high-end listing; yet another large percentage do not practice real estate as their full-time profession; many have held their licenses for fewer than five years and will give it up entirely before long; a large percentage today have only worked in a fairly good or very strong seller’s market and lack the skills to market a home proactively, beyond just putting the home on the MLS and putting a sign in the yard (in fact, sadly, some who have been in the business for a long time still lack those skills); some inherited or were given their book of business from a relative, or bought a book of business from a retiring agent, and their apparent success may not be an accurate reflection of their actual skills and expertise; many lack the skills to navigate a challenging transaction or to create a sophisticated marketing strategy, specific to each property and actually effective at getting it sold; and one in three licensed agents did not know about the significant NAR settlement and the important industry changes that occurred in August, 2024. (Imagine what else they may not know.)
Any agent in any of these common categories might actually have an impressive-looking social media presence, just as any agent in any of these common categories might be recommended to you by a well-meaning friend, colleague, or neighbor.
Even more surprising, any agent in these common categories might sell a lot of homes.
How is that possible?
Read on, or jump ahead to the section entitled, "Assuming the Big Name or Big Volume Agent Means You'll Have Success," to learn how it’s not only possible, but it’s more common than it should be, as high volume stats can serve the agent but may not serve individual sellers or buyers well at all. *
*(In a nutshell, the reason big volume for the agent can actually be contrary to your individual interests is that when an agent's focus is on volume, their calendar fills with listing appointments to get more and more business, and their time and energy is largely spent on securing what's next for them. If you are going to sign on with a big volume agent, it's vital to recognize where their focus is— and it may be on their own sales volume, not necessarily on serving each individual listing with exceptional work, focus, time, and attention. Your listing will likely sell eventually. But the exact date it sells and the exact price for which it sells is likely far more important to you than it is for a high volume agent, who has "many irons in the fire." Your home might become one more impressive-sounding stat they will quote {as "yet another sale"}, but your individual experience may leave you with time wasted, frustrations you never would have anticipated, and less money in your pocket. These details of your experience are never reported; the mere fact that the high volume agent sold one more property is the stat that will be shared with the world.)
What to know, and how to avoid frustration, wasted time, and a bad result.
Sometimes the real estate profession can disappoint.
The bar to get a license isn’t as high as it is, for example, to get a medical license or earn a law degree. As a result, many people who aren’t even sure real estate for them may end up getting a real estate license and work at it for a while. Or dabble in it for a lifetime.
Some get their licenses practically as a hobby. Some are attracted to the idea of making a lot of money in what may appear to be an easy manner. Those drawn by the lure of the big, “easy money” may lack true passion for the profession and never master the vast array of skills required to become truly excellent agents. And some lack the passion to serve their clients in the manner those clients deserve. Their primary concern is their own profit, not so much any given client's success.
Still others excel at self-promotion and enjoy the thrill of self-promoting, in and of itself. After all, our world today encourages self-promotion on social media platforms to the point that "social media fame" is worshipped as an accomplishment all its own, and it's addictive. Those who self-promote well can and often do make a lot of money by continually picking up more and more customers and clients, but as you can read here, self-promoters may do well for themselves without helping their individual customers and clients do as well as those individuals should.
It's important to know that, while listings can be fun to look at on social media, this is not where homes tend to be sold, even if it is where agents tend to pick up more clients and customers for themselves. Serious buyers who may wish to buy your home are generally looking hard at online real estate platforms that get their information directly from the MLS, or are already working with their own agents, searching in a more formal manner which will lead them to your home independently of social media.
Of course, some exceptional self-promoters are also excellent agents. Yet plenty are not. This is because the truly excellent agent devotes themselves to their profession above all and brings honed skills, deep focus, thoughtful strategy, creative solutions, and genuine devotion to each client, thinking less about self-promotion and self-interest than their clients' interests. In short, self-promotion generally takes a back seat to developing and practicing true professional excellence (as is true for the consummate professional in most other fields as well).
Lisa has an abundance mentality, cares about other agents, cheers them on, coaches and advises them, and always wishes them success. She loves the profession of real estate, and only wants to see everyone in it continually raise the bar for themselves and for the industry. But her first duty is to her clients and, as a member of the National Association of REALTORS®, to the public. If an agent hasn’t properly honed their skills or is too distracted or too focused on self-interest, that can harm their clients and the public.
Periodically during her career, Lisa has fielded calls from frustrated friends in other markets, just as she has held the hands of new clients struggling to sell a home in another state with another agent, for example, before they buy with her. She’s heard some unfortunate stories— and one story of an unskilled or distracted or overly-self-interested agent causing a buyer or seller to get a poor result is one too many. It is only for these reasons that this “bad & ugly” section became part of this website.
What are the potential risks to you, if you simply follow one of the most common ways of choosing your real estate agent?
You could get deep into the process and only then realize the agent is a poor fit. Or you may spend a great deal of time and energy, and only then realize the agent is not up to the task, is making mistakes, is too busy with other clients, or is simply more focused on getting their next listing than on you, your needs, and your goals. You may realize you’ve missed opportunities and wasted time. (You may even be shocked to get a peek at some not-so-pretty realities out there.)
And worst of all? You can go through a frustrating process AND end up with a bad result.
You can avoid these frustrations and a potentially bad outcome by simply taking a little time at the beginning, before you finalize your decision of which agent to hire, and ask the tough questions. (Scroll further down this page for a great list of tough questions that will help you understand an agent's strengths, failures, philosophy, and devotion to individual clients.)
A social connection can be wonderful, but when it comes to evaluating expertise and guaranteeing the outcome you want and deserve, the social connection may not guarantee much more for you than likability. And unfortunately, likability and $10 might get you a good cup of coffee these days.
Here's why you need more than likability: real estate as a profession is often underestimated, and to navigate all aspects of a real estate transaction well requires a specific set of skills, deep knowledge and experience, and a true devotion to the client’s interests. If the person making the connection to an agent for you is not an expert themselves in every aspect of real estate transactions? They certainly mean well, but their recommended agent may or may not be the expert you need to achieve success. Expertise is what you need. You are wise to ask the tough questions before signing on with any suggested agent. (Scroll further down this page to the "Ask the Tough Questions" section for a list of key questions that can help you evaluate an agent's strenghts, skills, philosphy, and patterns of the kind of success you want.)
It’s great to like an agent. Liking someone is wonderful. You may have known them socially for a long time, or you may have met more recently through a mutual friend, or at a gathering, or at an open house, or just by chance, and you hit it off. But just because someone has a pleasing personality does not mean they have all the skills to navigate a potentially complex transaction, evaluate pricing in a sophisticated manner, write a brilliant contract to benefit you, catch important details in an offer or counteroffer presented by the other side, negotiate high-stakes moments to your advantage, or keep sustained, excellent focus on your goals and your best outcome. Nor does having a great personality guarantee a person can pilot an airplane through a dangerous storm or perform a vital surgery without making a life-altering mistake.
It's just being smart. Personality is great. But deep experience and vital skills beat personality all day long when it comes to navigating an often-unpredictable process that is high stakes for you. Ask the tough questions to help you determine their success record.
Just because an agent is affiliated with a big-name brokerage or impressive-sounding firm does not guarantee that agent is excellent, nor does it guarantee that they will be focused enough on you and your success. Big-name brokerages are often franchises with many offices that were merely purchased as profit machines for those who purchased them. No matter how impressive the brand image, the focus of the brokerage office is commonly on sales volume above all, not on your personal dreams or successful outcome. These impressive-seeming firms do a lot of business because that is their focus: a lot of volume.
Remember: volume for the brokerage means more money for them, period, even if individual sales that make up the volume weren’t always happy stories with great individual outcomes. These brokerages specifically recruit high-volume, high-visibility agents, and train and pressure their agents to keep bringing in more, more, more. How much attention any given client gets and how much success any given client experiences can vary dramatically.
The specific agent and how they choose to approach their business matters far more than the brokerage name. Yes, even if there are impressive-sounding brokerage systems, processes, and training. Individual agents will tend to do what they do— good and bad— regardless of the brokerage name. And remember that agents at these firms may be feeling the pressure to keep churning out more and more volume—and that specific pressure and that particular focus may not be in your best interests as an individual wanting or needing your individual purchase or sale to be a success. You’ll uncover much you need to know if you ask the tough questions.
As surprising as this may seem, impressive sales stats do not prove that an agent is as skilled as you might assume. And even incredibly impressive sales numbers do not guarantee that an agent will be a great choice to help you succeed.
You see, once an agent gets a listing, the listing will tend to sell eventually (most do), and this becomes another good stat for the agent. Yet the reality is that this proves only one thing: the agent is a good self-promoter who can win people over to get listings. What it does not prove is how successful the outcome is for each listing for each seller. (Or how successful each home search and each purchase is for each buyer.)
If the agent is primarily good at marketing themselves, but not so great at pricing? Or not great at analyzing a contract? Or is not truly excellent at any number of the other vital things an agent needs to excel at? Or is not laser focused on your best outcome? This is when properties sit too long on the market, when sellers end up taking price reductions in order to get under contract, and when buyers miss out on opportunities.
The possibility that an agent may lack some vital skills? These are serious considerations, as a lack of devotion or a lack of skill in any vital area could negatively impact you, your experience, and your success, dramatically.
Any number of a great self-promoter’s listings may sell for less than they should, or they may sit on the market longer than they should, or both. And for buyers, they may miss opportunities to see great homes, or lose out in competitive bidding, or overpay for a home. These sellers and buyers may end up frustrated or angry or deeply disappointed, or all three.
Or… these sellers and buyers may never understand how differently it could have gone for them if their listing or purchase had been handled better.
Regardless, each property that eventually sells—no matter the real story behind it— becomes another impressive-sounding statistic for the agent.
To get the real story and understand if you could become another disappointed client, you are wise to ask the tough questions up front. And remember: just one expired listing, one unhappy seller or buyer, one home with price reductions, or one home that sits on the market too long can be a red flag. It can mean the agent’s skillset is not all it should be, or their focus is elsewhere (like on getting their next listing, and their next), or both.
You may get lucky with an agent chosen by any of the common methods above— or you may not.
Contrary to what many people assume, these common ways of picking an agent do not guarantee that the agent will have the experience required, the broad skill level required, and all of the many specific, vital skills required to make your important real estate sale or purchase a success. Nor does any of these methods guarantee that the agent will be deeply devoted to and truly focused on your goals and your best outcome.
Sadly, without further vetting, it’s possible you could waste time, get frustrated, and ultimately have a disappointing result. Your best bet for avoiding the surprise of a bad-fit agent can be to ask the tough questions of any agent you consider, up front.
An agent’s self-promotion can serve the agent brilliantly. It builds their brand. “Everybody” knows their name. Their social media might be amazing. And you may see their yard signs “everywhere.” All of this lines their pockets. And it gives them an impressive image and impressive sales stats to brag about.
Yet sometimes, self-promotion is the one skill they have mastered, and yes, it absolutely helps them to keep winning more listings and more clients. But if they have not mastered other vital skills, their clients may not actually be well served.
But the agent still does well, because listings tend to stay with the original agent and, in most markets of the past decade, listings tend to sell at some point— even if the process isn’t great for an individual seller (for example, with too much time spent on the market and too many price reductions along the way). Often, the outcome my not be at all what the agent originally promised.
And buyers may stick with an agent until they finally get under contract and buy a home, not realizing how much better their process and results might be with another agent.
In short, if the agent has mastered self-promotion but not every other vital skill needed to help sell or buy a property in an excellent fashion, the agent will keep building up impressive stats but the individuals who sign on with them may be sorely disappointed with their actual results.
Indeed, if the agent is a great self-promoter who keeps signing on a steady stream of new clients, the agent’s overall sales numbers will still be impressive, as stats they can quote and brag about. But the individual stories behind the stats? There may be frustrated buyers, angry sellers, missed opportunities, and money lost for the individuals.
Big picture, the stats can look great, but the actual individual results may not be great at all, if you could interview every individual client.
The fact is, you are an individual. Not a stat. Your goals and dreams are vitally important to you. Your time is valuable. You want to waste neither time nor money. You deserve to work with an agent who can give you both their focus and all the vital skills necessary to help you succeed.
Be wary of becoming simply another transaction contributing to an impressive-looking agent’s impressive-sounding, big-picture stats.
A self-promotor agent’s total sales numbers can be impressive, as stats they can quote and brag about. But as the prior section explains, the actual results individual sellers or buyers experience may tell very different stories. Numerous clients may in fact have had terrible experiences or bad outcomes, as actual individual results. The big-picture stats for the agent may still look impressive, regardless.
And the high volume and big numbers of the great self-promotors can be the very things that leave you and your individual listing or buying needs on the sidelines. While the agent prospers with all those many listings that do tend to sell at some point, they commonly have too little focus on any given listing or client. (Like a parent with many kids vs. fewer kids. Or a fast-food restaurant with billions served vs. the boutique caterer. Volume is one thing; quality attention for each kid or customer or client is another.)
So if any given listing or buyer could be sidelined, think what this means for you. How much focused attention does this high-volume agent realistically give you? Do they really drop other pressing appointments on their very full plate and do every possible thing they could be doing to sell your listing in a superb fashion? Or to work on your offer brilliantly to help you win the day? The sad fact is, if that agent is focused on getting their next listing and their next client, their calendar is packed with new listing appointments with other potential clients. And you may be wasting time, losing opportunities, and losing money.
And with that distracted or spread-too-thin agent? As a seller, you may miss out on showings (and never know it), or on excellent agent follow-up with prospective buyers (and never know it), and such things lose you opportunities to sell to the best buyer, with the best terms, on your ideal timeline, and at the best price. As a buyer, you may miss seeing homes fast enough, and you may strike out on offers because your agent was thinking more about getting new listings and more new clients than on perfecting your offer and presenting it brilliantly.
As long as your home sells at some point, or you buy at some point, the agent makes money and gets to brag about “yet another sale.”
But how does it really go for you? Do you languish on the market and feel frustrated? Do you get the best price? Or do you take multiple price reductions the agent convinces you have “surprisingly” become necessary because that first price they promised getting you (during their listing presentation) just “somehow” isn’t working in the market today?
If you are a seller, you are wise to understand that the longer your home sits on the market, the lower it will likely sell.
Sellers are also wise to understand this: the longer your home sits on the market, the longer your home helps that agent pick up more business. The sign in the yard. The automatic presence on public websites. The incoming calls the agent receives. These things bring leads to the listing agent, and many if not most of these leads are not actual buyers for your property, but they can become new buyers or new listings for the agent, lining their pockets all while you are possibly losing money.
Sadly, there are big agents with many listings who don’t care deeply whether any given listing sells quickly—not when they have numerous other clients and numerous other listings and therefore something always closing soon to bring them income, and not when more time on market for any given listing means more new business leads for the agent. And so the pattern goes for them. It’s all part of their profit machine.
There’s a term agents use to describe a bad practice out there: “buying a listing.” What this means is that an agent will suggest a high list price to a seller with either an implied or an overt promise that the house should sell for that price, when it’s simply not realistic; it’s simply too high. The agent does this to get the seller to give them the listing. They “buy” the listing by luring the seller with this false promise. It’s a high price the seller is excited about; it’s telling the seller what they want to hear. (Sometimes the idea of this high price can initially come from the seller, and the agent simply agrees, even if they know the price is too high for the market. Same idea: the seller is happy to sign on with this agent who is implying the house can sell for this amazing high price that is, in fact, not realistic.)
Of course this benefits the agent. After all, they can hold open houses and pick up new clients, their sign in the yard will give them exposure and elicit calls from potential new sellers and buyers who may sign on to work with them, and the agent can get their name out there more, build their brand, and gain a presence in the neighborhood. With a price that is too high, the property will likely sit on the market a long time, and this only serves to give the agent even more exposure. (Most people are too busy to keep track and question why the sign is there a long time; instead, they simply keep seeing the agent’s name and then remember it, possibly passing the name along to friends as “the most prominent local agent in the neighborhood.”)
The seller suffers. With their home on the market, they need to remain prepared for showings. They may leave for hours on end for open houses the agent hosts at the home. They are hopeful for the sale, so they are invested emotionally, and they may even begin making plans for “when the house sells.” But if the price is simply too high for the market, they may get many showings but no offers. (After all, people love to look at houses.) Each showing inconveniences the seller. Sadly, the agent may not even attend the showings, and if that is the case, the agent is not inconvenienced but remains happy to have the continued marketing exposure.
Study after study has shown that the longer a home sits on the market, the lower it will sell. (Correct pricing out of the gates is by far the most beneficial strategy for the seller.) Eventually, the frustrated seller may confront the agent and ultimately agree to dropping their price, possibly multiple times, and eventually the home will likely sell—but for a far lower price than the seller ever imagined. The agent gets to celebrate another sale and send out marketing material incorporating this new statistic: yet another property sold!
Of course, some agents simply do not know how to price well—and this may be why they have listings that languish on the market and ultimately have to do price reductions. But other agents do, sadly, knowingly overprice in order to “buy” listings. Neither scenario benefits the seller.
Ask the tough questions to determine if the agent you are considering hiring prices their listings well and sells their listings fast and high. If they sell their listings consistently faster and higher than competing homes, this is a sign that they know how to price well— and that they are not buying their listings. If, on the other hand, they have (or have had) numerous listings that are sitting on the market, and/or have numerous listings that have had to do price reductions, this is a red flag. Either they do not know how to price well, and they are hurting their sellers with their lack of pricing skill, or they may be “buying listings.”
This is one of the most significant financial moves of your life. It can also be deeply personal. It's not just a transaction—it's your future. You need an agent who will fight for your goals, not one distracted by promoting themselves and thinking about "next, next, next."
Treat hiring an agent like hiring a caterer for a once-in-a-lifetime event. Would you choose the caterer juggling too many events at once, or the one fully dedicated to you? Would you choose the big-volume one thinking about the next client they can sign on, or the deeply focused one devoted to you and making your big event as wonderful and successful as possible?
For all agents you consider hiring— from that long-term friend from the gym, to the agent you met at the open house, to the one who was suggested by a colleague, to the one at the big-name firm, and especially for high-volume agents— you ‘ll want to ask the questions about the experiences of individual clients; these are often the questions they don’t want you to ask.
Understand what you want to uncover. You want to get below the surface and understand the real, individual stories behind their sales, and especially behind any impressive-sounding or high-volume stats.
What really happened with each of the clients? You are trying to find out if stats the agent talks up are all quality experiences for the clients. Or is the agent not consistently helping people have great outcomes? Are the impressive stats primarily adding up to quantity for the agent over quality for the individuals?
How long have you been in the real estate business?
Do you sell real estate full time? How long has it been your full-time profession?
What is your philosophy?
How did you get started in real estate?
What motivates you?
Did you ever get a big list of clients from another person?
How do you get new clients? Can you describe your approach, efforts, and techniques for getting new clients?
Describe your typical week.
How many hours a week do you spend on marketing, social media, and any other efforts to get new clients?
Do you ever feel spread thin?
How do you approach your business and run your business?
If others help you, what roles do they play?
What is your primary role in your business?
Describe the experience of the others who help you.
Have you ever had any sellers who were disappointed?
Frustrated?
Angry with their results?
Very specifically, have you ever suggested a sales price that the seller did not get?
Have you ever suggested the timeframe in which a property should sell, but then it did not?
Do you have any frustrated, disappointed, or angry sellers right now?
Have you ever taken price reductions on any listings?
Have you ever had any listings sit on the market longer than expected?
What is the longest period of time your “slowest” five listings took to sell?
Currently, how long have each of the listings you have now been on the market?
For all your listings, what is your average number of days on market?
Have you had listings that went under contract but then fell out of contract? How many?
Have you ever had any listings that expired?
Have you ever had any listings that were withdrawn or cancelled?
Have you and a client ever parted ways?
Have you ever been fired by a client?
Have you ever failed to win the day for your buyers? How often? What happened?
Have you ever had any clients who would not say they had a great outcome working with you? Any recently—in the past year?
In the past two years, have you had any clients who would not give you rave reviews?
Currently, do you have any clients who would say they have been frustrated, disappointed, or angry during your process? (Buyers or sellers)
If I could call every current and every past client, how many would say they are or were frustrated or disappointed working with you or with the results they got?
With your listings, what is your philosophy about showings?
How do you handle showings? Please describe how it works, from the request through to after the showing?
And for the zinger… Ask Lisa for it if you meet with her!
Your agent’s overall excellence in the profession is crucial to your success.
You’ll want to uncover how individual clients fare with any agent you are considering hiring to help you. Their stories may help you understand where the agent lacked skill, or lacked focus on them and their success.
One listing that languished on the market for far too long or didn’t sell at all, one unhappy client, one buyer who kept missing getting the best homes that came onto the market (or who paid too much), or one seller who had to take numerous price reductions… Just one of these means you could be the next client to have the same experience.
Dig for the frequency of poor pricing, uncover the commitment to creating standout showings, get them to reveal their sophistication on marketing, staging, and negotiation. Uncover work ethic, and genuine enthusiasm for putting focused attention on you and your goals, rather than on getting future listings and on self-promotion. (Note: they won’t likely tell you they are focused on getting more listings. You’ll have to figure this out as best you can—but their emphasis on sales volume can be a hint that this is a big focus for them, possibly prioritizing quantity for themselves over quality for you.)
Be aware. Be smart. A real estate purchase or sale is significant. Ask the tough questions so that you are sure to align yourself with an experienced and ethical full-time agent who knows their stuff and puts you and your important goals—not themselves, their bottom line, or their social media image— first.
A real estate purchase or sale is significant. Ask the tough questions so that you are sure to align yourself with an experienced and ethical full-time agent who knows their stuff and puts you and your goals—not themselves, their bottom line, or their social media image— first.
When I think of The Best, I think of Lisa. Lisa is the kind of REALTOR® who makes things happen. She gets results. She has amazing passion and drive. She is a class act who has a genuine commitment to each client and always acts in their best interests—always. This is an all-too-rare combination, and yet it’s who she is, to the core. It’s also why she has such impressive sales results and a track record of consistent success. Of the hundreds of real estate sales professionals with whom I have worked in my career, Lisa is an absolute star. Work with her, and you’ll be fortunate—and happy.
— Lou Paratore, Director of Sales, Old Palm Golf Club
Ready to get what matters most to you in real estate? Helping you do so is Lisa’s true passion. With her expertise, tenacity, and devotion to your goals and dreams, you can experience the success you deserve. Reach out. Talk with Lisa. If it’s a good fit, you can be on your way to getting what matters most to you.
