Why Real Estate Experience Is Bigger Than an Agent’s Sales Count

Real estate websites have made it easy to compare agents based on numbers.

Transactions.

Sales volume.

Reviews.

Years licensed.

Those numbers can be useful.

But they don't tell the entire story.

I say that both as a REALTOR® and as a co-owner of NextHome Central Real Estate.

Different Roles Create Different Kinds of Experience

An individual agent may spend almost all of their professional time prospecting, listing homes and representing buyers.

A brokerage owner often has another layer of responsibility.

My work includes my own clients, but it also includes helping agents think through negotiations, transaction problems, contracts, marketing strategies, technology and business systems.

That exposure matters.

Instead of seeing only the transactions with my name attached to them, I regularly get to learn from situations happening throughout an entire brokerage.

Construction Changed the Way I Look at Real Estate

My background also includes more than 15 years working in and around residential homebuilding.

That experience has shaped the way I look at properties.

When I'm walking through a house, I'm thinking about more than countertops and paint colors.

I'm thinking about construction methods, maintenance, drainage, mechanical systems, renovations, inspection findings and the practical consequences of owning the property.

That doesn't make me an inspector, engineer or contractor on a real estate transaction.

It does give me another perspective.

Brokerage Leadership Creates Exposure

NextHome Central Real Estate operates in both Oklahoma City and Shawnee and serves communities throughout Central Oklahoma.

That means our agents encounter many different kinds of real estate.

Suburban homes.

Older properties.

Acreage.

Land.

New construction.

Investment properties.

Luxury properties.

Rural transactions.

The questions that come from those transactions become part of the collective knowledge of the brokerage.

Look at the Whole Resume

If you're interviewing real estate professionals, production should absolutely be one thing you consider.

But don't stop there.

Consider their experience with your property type.

Ask about their brokerage.

Ask about construction knowledge.

Ask about professional education.

Ask how they handle difficult negotiations.

Look at reviews.

Look at industry involvement.

Look at whether they have a network of professionals around them.

Real estate is too complicated to reduce a professional's value to one number.

That's why I've always tried to build my career around a broader foundation of construction, brokerage leadership, education, technology, relationships and direct client representation.

Robert Gideon II is a Central Oklahoma real estate broker and co-owner of NextHome Central Real Estate. His real estate and construction work includes residential property, new construction, acreage and land throughout Oklahoma City, Shawnee and surrounding Central Oklahoma communities.