At Home in Berks October 2017 - 27

What to Expect from
Your Real Estate Agent
T

o be successful as a realtor one has to enjoy working
with people and be committed to being available to clients. Most realtors don't work Mondays through Fridays
from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and expect to have every weekend off.

There are home showings and open houses and meetings
around clients' kitchen tables and more home showings.
But, realtors are people who also have families and kids and
kids' activities and meetings and homes to maintain and
meals to cook. So, what is reasonable to expect of your real
estate agent when you're buying or selling a home? Should you
expect 24/7 service, or is it your responsibility to work around
your realtor's schedule?
We weighed in on this topic and others with two seasoned
Berks County realtors: Chris J. Weikel, realtor/broker with
Weikel Realty Group, LLC in West Reading, and Bonnie Eshelman, a realtor with Re/Max of Reading.
Cell phones and texting make it easy for a realtor and client to
stay in touch, Weikel said, and there are many advantages to
that. However, it is not reasonable for a client to assume that a
realtor is available late at night or very early in the morning.
"A realtor should establish guidelines as to when it's too late
or too early to call or text," he said. "Nobody wants to start a
dialogue at midnight or 6 a.m. via texts."
Weikel and Eshelman agreed that it's reasonable to expect a
realtor to be available from about 8 a.m. until about 9 p.m.
"When you are in a sales profession, you really do need to make
yourself available when your clients aren't working, Eshelman
said. "We need to make ourselves available outside of normal
business hours to become successful. If you are in sales and
do not expect calls after 5:30 in the evening, you may want to
get another job! Consumers normally work 9 to 5, and, not all
of them have flexible employers who let them have personal
phone calls at the workplace. The only times some clients have
to talk to you are before or after working hours, or during a
lunch break."
However, they agreed, it is unrealistic for a client to assume
that a realtor can drop everything at any time to meet or answer questions.
"In our group, we certainly make ourselves available as much
as we can, because we get paid good money to provide great
customer service," Weikel said. "But we feel that holidays and

Sundays are relax days, and we expect that courtesy from our
customers unless there's an emergency."
Regarding how many homes a client should expect a realtor
to show, Eshelman and Weikel agreed that the number varies.
However, if the realtor asks the right questions and gets a good
idea of what type of home the client is looking for, the client
usually decides on a home after looking at between five and 10.
"I ask a lot of questions before house hunting so I know what
their 'dream home' is like in their minds," Eshelman said. "But,
I've had many clients tell me they want a two-story, and then
they end up with a split level or a ranch. The entire 'feel' of
the interior and exterior of the home and its surroundings are
what make that decision."
If a client shows no signs of closing in on a home after a great
many settings, a realtor may have to ask some questions,
Weikel said. "If a client is running the agent around and it's
getting up to showing more than 20 or 30 homes, then at that
point, the realtor has to revisit what the expectations are and
think about whether the relationship is a realistic one," he said.
Eshelman noted that, in a very busy market when fewer homes
are available, it's not unusual for clients to look at only one or
two homes before deciding that they want it.
The average amount of time that a home in Berks County is
on the market before its sale is pending is 62 days, according
to Eshelman. However, she noted, it often won't take that long
for a home in a particularly desirable area to sell, while in other
areas it will take longer. "The process from start to finish is
generally from two to three months," Weikel said.

Buying or Selling?

Better Call Bonnie!

Each Office Independently Owned and Operated

1290 BROADCASTING ROAD
WYOMISSING, PA 19610

ESHELMAN HAS ...
 Experience  Energy
 Enthusiasm
 Education (Legal Background)

Bonnie Eshelman
REALTOR®, ABR, CSP, SCES®, CDPE

BEshelman@GoBerksCounty.com

OFFICE: 610-670-2770
CELL: 610-207-4716
www.BonnieSellsBerks.com
October 2017 AT HOME IN BERKs

27


http://www.BonnieSellsBerks.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of At Home in Berks October 2017

At Home in Berks October 2017 - 1
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 2
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 3
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 4
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 5
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 6
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 7
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 8
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 9
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 10
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 11
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 12
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 13
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 14
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 15
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 16
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 17
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 18
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 19
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 20
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 21
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 22
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 23
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 24
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 25
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 26
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 27
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 28
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 29
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 30
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 31
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 32
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 33
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 34
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 35
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 36
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 37
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 38
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 39
At Home in Berks October 2017 - 40
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksFall2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksApril2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeinBerksFall2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeinBerksSummer2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksWinter2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeinBerksWinter2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksJune2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksSpring2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksFebruary2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksDecember18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksOctober2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksAugust2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksJune2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksJune18
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksApril2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksFebruary2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksDecember17
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksOctober2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksAugust
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerks_June2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerksApril
https://www.nxtbook.com/hoffmann/athomeinberks/AtHomeInBerks
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com