Real estate brokers want their agents to succeed. But how can you best support their success? Education is one of the most valuable investments you can make, impacting performance more than you might realize.
That’s what we learned from our latest survey of Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC) members. Here’s a glimpse inside the data and members’ verbatim feedback on five key topics.
1. Getting Started
While most REBAC members are seasoned agents with 15 years of experience, on average, many remember how their Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) training proved extremely helpful early in their careers:
“Real estate school teaches seller representation well enough, but buyer representation is mostly lacking. ABR® education fills that gap.”
“Working with buyers is the first part of our business and it’s a large part. It’s easier to find buyers than sellers when you first begin.”
2. Building Expertise
Once agents have completed the ABR® training and have a better understanding of what buyer representation requires, they naturally do it better and with greater confidence. Two-thirds of salespeople with their ABR® routinely use buyer-representation agreements:
“I learned how to talk about the value of my representation with buyers and got comfortable asking them to sign a buyer agreement.”
“The training taught me how to hold myself to an even higher level of ethics when it comes to my clients.”
3. Earning Respect with Buyers
As buyers become more savvy about buyer representation, members tell us they’re gaining an edge when competing against other agents:
“The ABR® designation is perceived as a badge of trustworthiness by buyers.”
“It helps support my claim that I take buyer representation seriously.”
4. Improving Results
We all know the bottom line is compensation. On this score, REBAC members reported strong results. On average, an ABR® member closed 13 (buyer-side only) transactions last year, earning more than $73,000 in gross personal income (compared to $47,700 for all REALTORS®):
“In addition to representing my clients better, it taught me how to use a buyer consultation to get exclusive buyer representation and how I could make more money.”
“I can leverage it to increase business.”
5. Maintaining an Edge
We realize that earning the ABR® designation is an important first step in attracting more business, but our numerous member benefits are designed to help buyer’s reps maintain that edge:
