The best agents are the ones that know how and when to close. They work on mastering great closing techniques and can never have enough of them. As a matter of fact, they collect closes, so to speak.
There has been a lot of discussion of late on real estate blogs regarding buyer agency and the plusses and minuses of working in a buyer agency-only firm (Exclusive Buyer Agency) versus practicing buyer agency in a brokerage that also includes seller agency.
A bipolar gentleman called me this week to see what it would take for him to buy a foreclosure property. It was kind of sad, having to talk with a man who apparently had been beaten down by his circumstances, but who also had no concept of the homeownership process.