About Santa Fe Real Estate Company

Santa Fe Real Estate Company is operated by me, Jim Ratchford, one of the longest serving Santa Fe New Mexico real estate brokers.  I've been an active, full time, and successful Santa Fe New Mexico real estate agent for past twenty years (March, 1984)

     I learned early on that the best way to make money, in the long run, is to genuinely act in the best interests of my clients, regardless of what that means to me. I absolutely never "pressure" anyone or use sales "hype". My way of working really does pay off and many of my clients have become quite good friends. I'm a little bit of shy introvert, of an intellectual bent, majored in philosophy, and people have often commented how different I am from their expectations about sales people. 

I'm not unique though. Something similar is true of most real estate agents. Most are pretty nice people. On a nation survey, real estate agents in general, were not held in high esteem; except for the respondents own personal real estate broker. They were wonderful; very honest and really worked in the best interests of their client. In fact the people being interviewed often said their particular real estate agent was a pretty good friend. 

  I try, quite hard, to listen more than I talk and use my considerable knowledge of the area to help people find their "fantasy" property. I cull hundreds of listings to give my buyers a short list of properties they can cull further, through a process of eliminating what they don't want, until they have two or three places that they find attractive.

  The purpose of this site is to see if I can interest you in using me as a "Buyers Broker"  to help you find the real estate your looking for in New Mexico. It costs you nothing, at any time, even after you've closed on a property. The sellers pay us and it use to be that we were always working for them. But now, with a written agreement, we can have fiduciary responsibility to you, if you wish, or not, which requires us to operated in your best interests at all times, including honesty, loyalty, disclosure, reasonable care and strict accounting. We are also obligated to help you through all aspects of your entire transaction (see Basic Licensee Duties)

I've worked with several of the largest companies (at the time), including Santa Fe Properties and Santa Fe Agency, was acknowledged as a "Top Producer" and received a trophy and a write up in the New Mexican as such.  

The following is more that you ever wanted to know:

I live on a ranch with four horses and a little, friendly dog and have spent a lot of time in the wilderness areas of New Mexico, sometimes by myself but often with good friends from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.  I've spent many years on horseback and foot in the mountains and deserts of New Mexico and know the state intimately. On occasion they have hired my horses and me to pack wildlife biologists into the Pecos Wilderness to relocate bighorn sheep and cutthroat trout. I love New Mexico, it's breathtaking beauty and wonderful people.

I have two precious daughters that I'm very proud of. 

 My academic background is in English literature and philosophy. 

  I started Santa Fe Real Estate Company, after fifteen years of working with the largest companies in town, when I finally realized several things:

1.) My clients chose me for their own reasons and it nothing to do with the  company I was affiliated with, and 

2.) most importantly, the only selling involved in real estate is SELLING THE SELLERS! The real estate sells itself. If the property is in the Multiple Listing Service, one of the hundreds of realtors will bring a buyer if there any at all. 

3.) Advertising doesn't sell the real-estate being sold. I've never sold a property off the add for it in twenty years. Advertising gets new buyers for the agent placing the add when you call about the add, you will find out that the property is not right for you. But the agent you are talking to now has someone on the line that is looking for real estate. A buyer for some other property! 

4.) Advertising real estate gives the seller the illusion that somehow this is going to sell their property and the "company" is doing a good job, never realizing that the add is only going to get more buyers for the agent answering the phone, for other property and they way the seller's property will be sold is thru the MLS by one of the other thousand or so realtors.

   The adverting wars, which only makes the papers money, big offices with hundreds of agents and staff, is all about selling sellers to use our services and list their property with us. It creates an illusion of a large company in the eyes of the public when, in fact, you are never dealing with anything more than one sole proprietor. Each agent is a company in them selves. We are all independent contractors that pay the "company" to provide us with services including the most important one; giving the illusion that we are part of a big company and you some how have all those agents harmoniously working for you. The service you get has very little to do with the "company". It has only to do with the quality of the individual agent you are working with and every agent in the "company" is competing with every other agent  just like they are with every other agent in every other "company" in the area. The company consists of nothing more than the owner and the salaried office staff. That's it!

We pay twenty to forty or even fifty percent of our earnings, plus other fees, to create that illusion and work off the public's (and the new agent's) lack of knowledge about what a "real estate company" really is.

 The very best "old timers" in the business, inevitably go off on their own and start their own company, by themselves, often with their name in the title because they have such a good following.

Because the public often has a stereotype of sales people as being aggressive, pushy extroverts, the small handful of realtors who are like that, often do quite well at getting listings, or "selling the sellers". The seller thinks "that's what I want, an aggressive, in your face sales person that will convince someone to buy my house even though they don't really want it." I know a couple of realtors who are very successful at selling sellers, but they don't work with buyers because they are so aggressive they often alienate them. Selling real estate is not about convincing someone to buy something they don't really want, contrary to popular opinion.

Although the people that sell the sellers, and get the listings, are often aggressive, in your face types, the people who actually sell the real estate are often quiet, sensitive, intelligent people who really listen much more that they talk. Although polls have shown that the public has a low opinion of realtors, they always say their own realtor is an exception who they like very much and they are convinced their personal realtor is different that all the rest of us.

  Not true. Most successful realtor are nice people. They are honest, good human being that really do care about their clients and take their needs very seriously

Advertising doesn't sell the real estate that's being advertised, it get buyers for the agent that answers the call about the add and they help the person find something else because, inevitably, the property they called about is not right for them. 

But the seller sees their property in the paper and thinks something wonderful is being done to sell their property. The seller is sold! The number one secret of success for Santa Fe New Mexico real estate brokers.

 

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