A matter of experience

Even a bevy of buyer’s agents won’t be much help if they don’t have top-producer-level expertise to draw on. Sachs Wong emphasizes the importance of developing a knowledge base to help clients, a process that she says requires substantial legwork.

“You have to be prepared to go to broker’s openings, look at what is new on the market, look at what’s gone under contract,” Sachs Wong says. “Stay totally current with everything so that when you’re speaking to people, you can speak in an educated manner. If you’re talking to someone at a school function or at a bar, people want to talk to you about real estate and the more you know, the better.”

Leonard has has chosen to pursue real estate designations as indicators of her expertise. She has earned the e-PRO online certification and the Certified Distressed Property Expert designation for working with short sales and foreclosures.

“I think people definitely appreciate the experience they show,” Leonard says “Someone who is going through a hard time appreciates that we have the designation for distressed properties, and someone who is younger appreciates the online certification.”

Montro uses his insight and experience with various grants and government programs to help his clients buy homes, a process he finds fulfilling and one that echoes through the local market in an unusual way – the most common profession among his clients is real estate agent. He first saw the value of this emphasis on practical knowledge when he helped a single mother buy a home early in his real estate career.

“She was told by her banker that she couldn’t get a house because of that [being a single mother], and she believed him,” Montro says. “This was back in 1993. It’s amazing that they would talk that way then. I just realized that I could help people and I built my whole business model around helping people. I help buyers by looking for the highest form of value that I can bring to a buyer or seller so that they will do business with me.”