One Agent Can Make or Break Your Deal — And It Might Not Be Yours

One Agent Can Make or Break Your Deal — And It Might Not Be Yours

Most people spend a lot of time thinking about who they hire to sell their home. They ask around, they interview agents, they look at track records. That part makes sense. Who represents you matters enormously.

But there is a part of the transaction that almost nobody thinks about before they are already in the middle of it — and it can affect your outcome just as much as anything on your side of the table.

A real estate deal does not happen between two people. It happens between two full teams. Your agent. The other agent. The buyer's lender. The title company. Every single person in that chain affects how your transaction feels and how it closes. And when someone in that chain is not experienced, not communicative, or simply not doing their job — everyone feels it. Including you.

What the Other Side of Your Transaction Actually Looks Like

Here is something most sellers do not find out until they are already under contract: you have very little visibility into who is on the other side of your deal. You know your agent. You trust your agent. But the buyer's agent and their lender? You are along for the ride.

In a well-run transaction, you never have to think about this. The other agent is professional and communicative. The lender is organized and responsive. Questions get answered before anyone has to ask twice. The whole process moves forward the way it is supposed to.

But that is not always what happens.

I had two transactions close recently — one day apart — that illustrated this as clearly as anything I have seen. Same market. Same timeline. Completely different experiences from start to finish.

When It Goes Wrong

The first transaction hit a wall during the BINSR period. My sellers had responded to the buyer's list of repair requests and we were waiting on their reply. What came back was a cancellation. No phone call, no heads up, nothing.

Standard practice in this industry is simple — you pick up the phone. You call the other agent and say, my clients have decided not to move forward, I am sending over a cancellation. That is a professional courtesy that costs nothing and changes everything for the people on the other side of that deal. That conversation never happened.

My sellers were already checking in with me because they knew we were expecting a response. I had to tell them a cancellation had come in while I was still trying to reach the other agent to understand what was going on. He was unreachable for hours. When he finally got back to me the answer was simple — his clients had decided to walk. A single phone call would have prevented the anxiety my sellers carried in the hours between that cancellation landing in my inbox and me finally getting answers.

We went straight back to work, got the home back under contract quickly, and that second buyer and the team behind them were everything the first was not. Communicative, organized, on top of every detail. My sellers noted it themselves — being under contract twice on the same home felt like a night and day experience. That is what it looks like when everyone at the table is doing their job.

When It Goes Really Wrong

At the exact same time that transaction was running smoothly toward closing, I was working another deal on a completely different property. And it could not have felt more different.

The agent on the other side was not a full-time agent. She was representing a family member, which happens — but the gaps showed up quickly. There were questions about the contract. There were requests for seller concessions that the loan type did not actually allow, which meant back and forth that should never have happened. Every step added friction that did not need to be there.

The buyer's lender matched the energy. Hard to reach. Slow to respond. My sellers were waiting for updates they deserved to have on a timeline that should have been clear. Every piece of information felt like it had to be pulled out of someone.

These two deals closed one day apart. One felt effortless. One felt like pushing a boulder uphill from the moment we opened escrow. The homes were different. The sellers were different. The market was the same. The timeline was the same. The only variable was the people at the table.

What You Can Actually Control

You cannot handpick the buyer's agent. You cannot choose their lender. What you can control is who is on your side — and whether that person has the experience and the communication skills to manage the whole transaction, not just their corner of it.

Because here is the reality: when the other side drops the ball, your agent absorbs it. They are the ones fielding your questions, chasing down answers, managing your anxiety, and keeping the deal from falling apart over something that should have been a non-issue. That is a significant part of the job that most sellers never see — and never have to, when it is done well.

The best agents make the whole process better, not just their side of it. They know how to navigate a difficult counterpart without letting it derail the transaction. They know when to push, when to wait, and how to communicate with you so you never feel like you are in the dark.

Before you hire anyone, ask about their experience. Ask how they communicate when things get hard. Ask what happens when something unexpected comes up. The answers will tell you exactly what you need to know.

The Bottom Line

Selling your home is one of the largest financial transactions of your life. You deserve to know that no matter what happens on the other side of the table, someone on your side is handling it. That is what good representation looks like — not just getting you to the closing table, but making sure the whole process gets there with you.

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