Yes it does matter. When you're a new agent you haven't established yourself yet and don't have a great track record. You will need to talk about your support and the success and reputation of your office and company.

On the one hand, I agree with Susan that it's scary as a new agent (me, seven months) when things pop up that you didn't ever consider.

On the other hand, we had a little "fun" quiz in our meeting the other day. 25 agents and the owner of the franchise with seven branches and a couple hundred agents working for her.

It was ten questions. A scenario was presented, and a couple choices were offered as the best solution.

Many of the experienced agents grumbled about the "exercise" and the time waste. The test was full of obscure questions on tangential issues.

All said and done, I was the only agent to get 10 out of 10. I'm not bragging. I've sold one property, listed one, and had one deal go bad when a party to the transaction expired. I'm not a player.

After our owner read us the answers, she explained that these were all things she'd had to defend against in arbitration or court in the past two years. She said it was an awful situation every time, and it cost everyone a lot of money.

The experienced agents, sorry the "experienced" agents, were at a loss for words. Many had done pretty well on the test. Several top producers had been wrecked by it.

No substitution for experience. I agree with that. And I don't work with family or close friends. Even though I know and mostly they know they'd be better off if I did. I don't even accept referral fees (came up last week, on a 600k house). Not worth it.

I'd rather go broke trying to do this business right as a newbie than make a bundle doing it wrong.

Mac