Greg Nino is an agent with RE/MAX Compass in Houston.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their Short List, a collection of tips and recommendations on an essential topic in real estate. This week, we talked with Greg Nino, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Compass in Houston, about how agents can keep busy in a slow market.

8. Consumers in America want what they want and they want it quickly. It’s a Realtor’s job to respond quickly and accurately to all of their clients. By and large, one of the most valuable attributes in a Realtor is their ability to communicate effectively. Agents should strive to return phone calls, text messages and emails quickly.

7. Learning to listen and knowing when to keep one’s own mouth shut can be the difference between a happy seller and one that’s ready to lose it. Realtors aren’t typically licensed therapist, but the more successful one’s are wise when not to interject.

6. Customers service skills include being completely knowledgeable about what technological tools are in the pipeline. Before fax machines, Realtors delivered offers by hand. Today electronic signatures, portable scanners and rendition software can make or break the harmony of a typical real estate transaction.

5. Realtors can offer stellar customer service by removing their own egocentric personality when working a deal with another deal. More often than not, your challenges can come from the cooperating brokerage. Buyers and sellers should never be harmed financially because the people they hired to help them are acting like thick headed fools.

4. Wanna make your seller smile ear-to-ear? Strive to never over-promise and under-deliver.

3. Every Realtor can provide better service by simply treating their clients exactly how they would like to be treated. Sellers and buyers are more educated today than ever before. The Internet puts countless tools and information in the hands of our clients. Treat every as if they have done their research.

2. Treat all clients the same. An $85,000 seller should be treated with the same courtesy, respect and due diligence as an $800,000 seller. Not all $800,000 sellers make it to the closing table. Odds are you’ll close more “small deals” anyways. The people who you close will remember you.

1. Excellent customer service can be achieved by being brutally honest. Buyers and sellers know when they’re being sold to. The general public wants help, guidance and insight. Our clients want the good, the bad and the ugly. At the end of the day consumers want professional and direct dialogue.

Greg Nino is an agent with RE/MAX Compass in Houston, and has been working in residential real estate since 2004. He focuses on re-sale, new construction leasing and property management, and covers Houston, Cypress, Katy, Spring and all of Harris County.