How We Vet Agents

Screening on primary income knocks out some genuinely skilled agents. A teacher who lists eight houses a summer can be excellent, and a part-time agent who used to be full-time may know your subdivision better than anyone we would send. We still do not use them, and if you already have someone like that you trust, use them instead of us. We would rather lose the referral than pretend our screen is the only measure of competence.

We also do not screen on closing count, which means the agent we send may have closed fewer files last year than the top producer whose face is on the bus bench. That is a deliberate trade and it is worth understanding why.

High volume is usually produced by a team, not a person. The name on the sign takes the listing appointment, and the file is then worked by a buyer's agent, a transaction coordinator, and an inbox. That structure is efficient and it can produce a fine outcome. What it does not reliably produce is the same person answering the phone in hour three of a problem.

Volume also rewards the behavior that hurts sellers most at the margin: taking the listing at the seller's number to win the appointment, then working the price down over sixty days. A high-volume pipeline can absorb a listing that sits. Your one house cannot.

It predicts availability during business hours, which is the input almost every other outcome depends on. Offers arrive with expiration dates. Inspection objections have response deadlines. Appraisal problems have to be answered with comparable sales before the underwriter moves on. A part-time agent hits those windows around a shift schedule, and the delay does not show up as a dramatic failure. It shows up as a slightly worse number.

It also predicts that the agent's incentive to keep the file moving matches yours. If the commission is supplemental income, a stalled listing costs them very little. If it is the mortgage, it costs them a lot.

Our first written standard is that the agent calls you within 4 hours of receiving the referral, same business day, and that it is a call from the person who will actually handle the file. That standard is the reason the income screen exists. You cannot hold an agent to a 4-hour callback if they are on a job site until five.

The standard is also the enforcement mechanism. If it slips, tell us and we reassign the referral to another agent in the area. Coverage is not exclusive, there is nothing signed with CloseCenter, and nothing to cancel.