Real estate agents are some of the most polarizing professionals in the world. People will bash the industry as a whole, “I ain’t paying 6% for that guy!” But in the same breath, they will defend their specific agent like a prophet.
But if you look closely at the actual power players in this industry—the agents closing the most complex, high-stakes deals—you’ll notice something strange. They often have completely unassuming resumes. They are college dropouts, immigrants, and some never even stepped foot in a college classroom.
What the heck is going on? Here’s the basics. Let’s break it down.
The Bar is on the Floor (And Brokerages Don’t Care)
First, becoming a real estate agent is stupidly easy. Even in the most restricted states, we are talking about a few hundred hours of class time. In many states, it’s just a couple of weekends and a multiple-choice test.
Because the floor is so low, the market is flooded with bad agents. In fact, there are 2+ Million in the U.S.
Some people think the brokerage is the differentiator. They think hiring Compass, Coldwell Banker, or Sotheby’s guarantees quality. Ask any experienced agent, and we will all tell you the same thing: The logo does not matter. Brokerages will take more or less anyone with a license.
Why wouldn’t they? Every agent is a 1099 independent contractor. It costs the brokerage essentially nothing to keep them on the roster, just as long as they don’t drown the company in lawsuits. The more agents a brokerage has, the more sales they capture. Many of these offices have ballooned to hundreds of agents who don’t even know each other’s names. Camaraderie? Nonexistent.
The Ivy League Trap
Just today, I got a call from an Ivy League-educated agent, which prompted me to write this article. You could tell right away he was book-smart, but his business was struggling. I’m no “agent doctor,” but I spotted his fatal flaw within 1 minute: The man did not know how to think creatively.
He had a close friend who lived in Austin, Texas. They needed to sell their house quick, they needed his help, and they completely trusted him to find the right person for the job. The problem? He’s a Boston guy. He didn’t personally know any agents in Austin.
I asked him how he was going to handle it.
Me: “You may be a Boston agent, but you call yourself experienced, right? You sure as heck should be able to find him someone as good as you over there.”
Him: “I’ll just use the company app.”
Me: “Why?”
Him: “It’s easy to use and I can compare agents.”
Me: “For the sake of the argument, let’s say 10, 15, maybe 20% of the agents in Austin belong to your brokerage?”
Him: “Ten percent seems reasonable.”
Me: “Okay, so when you use the app, you immediately count out 90% of the agents in that market from other brokerages. Is that correct?”
Him: “I suppose.”
Me: “Imagine you need a doctor for an important operation, but you immediately discounted 90% of the surgeons due to some arbitrary corporate decision.”
The lightbulb went off. He paused.
Me: “If this was your family member, would you trust an app, or would you want to evaluate all the professionals to find the best one for the job? Apps are designed to keep deals in house, so brokerages make more money. Your goal is getting your client the best possible representation. Those are fundamentally different priorities.”
He got it.
The “My Cousin Vinny” Moment
I was sitting there feeling like Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny. An app? What the heck is an app anyway? This thing you click on your phone? So what?
You click a button on your phone and trust a multi-million dollar asset to whoever paid the brokerage for that zip code? You just pray the code didn’t break and the data is actually ranking the agents right for your million-dollar home. What if the list flipped to alphabetical order, or even worse, ranked the worst-rated agent first?
That is not how you find an elite agent. You find agents by pulling the raw data. You see who is actually selling homes and moving the needle. You compile a shortlist. You pick up the phone, send out a Zoom invite, and you interview them.
- How do you work for your clients?
- Walk me through a difficult deal.
- What’s something that sets you apart from your peers?
But this book-smart agent was paralyzed because his brokerage told him to color inside the lines and use their app. Many agents can’t think outside the corporate playbook. They treat the brokerage’s internal network as the law, rather than realizing the brokerage is unfortuntaetley just there for back-end support and a logo on a page.
And look, this isn’t to say he’s a bad guy. He’s just institutionalized; he doesn’t think about it. But you have to wonder: if this is how he treats a close friend who trusts him with a critically important transaction, it’s no wonder other parts of his business are struggling.
Why the Hustlers Win
This brings me back to my main point: Why do the most successful agents often have the “weakest” resumes?
Because these people struggled early and had to figure out how to look outside the box to make the business, and life, work. They learned how to fight for a deal in the real world.
It’s worth noting that I went to college, and college graduates can be spectacular agents. Many of the best do have degrees. But the point is that a resume never tells the whole story. We all know that. So we should apply that insight too.
The Find Agents Now Standard
When I help someone find an agent anywhere in the country, I don’t wait for an app to spit out a name. I don’t assume someone is good because of an award, review, social media hype or a piece of paper from 20 years ago. I do the work. I’m completely market-agnostic because I don’t owe a single brokerage a favor.
I don’t keep deals “in-network” just because some manager once told me that’s how business is done. That’s a corporate recommendation designed to protect a company’s profits, not your equity. These systems aren’t built to help you; they are built to keep money in-house. They are built without putting the client first.
You need grit to sell real estate at a high level. It’s impossible to fake. I’ve spent my career identifying exactly what it looks like, and the only way to find it is by getting them on the phone to thoroughly vet their strategy and their track record.
Big-box brokerages—Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s, even Compass—can’t do this. No matter how many millions they dump into tech, they are still just closed networks. They teach corporate loyalty, but they don’t teach hustle. An algorithm can’t measure grit.