First and foremost the greatest real estate agent in the world is not the one you think he is. He isn’t the one who sells the most houses in a given year or the one with the best car. He is not the one who has the highest priced listings or the one who lives in biggest penthouse in Trump Tower. He is not the one who knows all of the best closing techniques or the one who could sell ice to an Eskimo.

The greatest real estate agent in the world is the one who tells the first time home-buyer the truth about the mortgage he is thinking of getting. He’s the one who can tell a Buyer that even though the bank will give them an adjustable rate mortgage to buy the house, he shows them where the payment could go, and explains what happens if he can’t make the payment. He doesn’t tell the buyer that they can always just sell or refinance, because he knows that the market could change and the prices could go down. He knows that just because there are 100% loans today for stated income borrowers with 620 credit scores, that two years from now the loan programs could expire. He knows that sometimes bad things happen to good people and pushing the envelope and borrowing the absolute max has brought many people to ruin.

He’s the one who explains the perils of renovating. The greatest real estate agent in the world is the one who can look at a house and see the flaws that the new buyer might miss. The one who points out the cracks in the foundation or the mold on the floor joists. He is the agent who knows that you can’t necessarily easily add a room in the huge attic of that 1920’s bungalow with 2 X 6 floor joists and 2 X 4 rafters. He’s the one who helps the Buyer not waste $350+ on an inspection of a house that’s going to fail. He’s the one that talks some sense into the 23 year old who thinks he can renovate a house on the weekends on a shoestring budget and live in it at the same time.

The greatest real estate agent in the world understands the pitfalls of owning rental property. He is the one who makes sure that the investor doesn’t have an inflated idea of what a house will rent for. He’s the one who explains honestly what the hidden costs and headaches of owning rental property can be. The greatest real estate agent in the world makes sure that the Buyer is making an educated and informed decision.

The greatest real estate agent in the world doesn’t let a couple with a new baby buy a new house before they sell the old one, even though they think their house will sell quickly and they can afford a couple of months of double mortgage payments. He doesn’t let a buyer moving into a new city buy a house before they find their new job, even if they have great credit and are in a field where normally it isn’t difficult to find a job. Why not you ask? Well because the greatest real estate agent in the world knows that the job market is tight in their city and traffic is horrendous and maybe the only job they actually will find will be a two hour commute from the neighborhood they love!

The greatest real estate agent in the world isn’t the one who makes the most sales, it’s the one who is willing to do what’s best for the clients, even if that means they have to not buy this year, but to work on bringing up the credit scores and bringing down their debts.

The greatest real estate agent in the world is not desperate to sell every house. He takes his client’s well being seriously and understands his fiduciary responsibility. That’s is my definition of the greatest real estate agent in the world.

There is an SEO contest going on to see who can rank highest for this phrase. Most participants are blogging about SEO (search engine optimization) but I thought it might make sense to actually talk about the subject. I first learned about the contest on the Bloodhound Blog and thought, why not blog about the subject and just see how well the content ranks?

One of the rules of the Contest is that we have to share some of what we have learned in the contest. Well I have learned quite a bit from two of the contestants that have been ranking near the top of the group for most of the contest. One is Greg Boser and the other one is Ardell. Both of these participants have gathered quite a bit of interest with their content.

Ardell was the first to grab people’s attention with her fairly astute comment right out of the gate, pointing out that the prize was going to cost the winner after the first year. It was a controversial stance, and generated an immediate storm of criticism from REW’s supporters. Morgan then decided to fix that and offered a lifetime of hosting, but somehow the initial comment kept reverberating and the conflict continued. Even though Ardell said “cool!” or something to that effect when Morgan offered the new prize, the monster was out of the gate and the townspeople had lit their torches and the battle raged. People love conflict…and I think they like it well enough to link to it.

Greg Boser also took a controversial position by pointing out that a contest like this is likely to raise the interest of some Googlers who may go over the contestants sites with a fine toothed comb and cause more problems than the participants may want to endure. Another interesting idea which attracted a lot of attention based on the merit of the thought…a really interesting idea!

But for both of them it is more than interesting content. It is also having inherently powerful sites that rank on their own merit, combined with quality, interesting content that people want to link to. That’s what I learned. I am sure that there is more to it, though, I am a SEO novice.