Choosing Your Agent
May 17, 2010
It is recommended that you have a real estaste agent help you with your transactions. But how do you know which agent to select? The choice can be difficult, but here are some questions to ask during potential agent interviews.
May 17th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
If you bought or sold a house in the last 5 years…How did you choose your last real estate agent?
We’ve all heard of all the ways to find agents, but what I want to know, from people who have bought or sold a house in the last five years… how did you choose your agent? Was it someone you knew? Or did you call off of a sign? Yellow page ads? What? And if you interviewed more than one, what made you choose the one you did?
Like I said, I don’t want the "how you should" I want how you did. I don’t want the name of the real estate company. I don’t want answers from other realtors. I want to know how REAL PEOPLE choose their Agents. I don’t want to waste my advertising dollars on something that actual buyers and sellers don’t care about.
May 18th, 2010 at 2:31 am
Century 21…they haven’t been in business this long for nothing.
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May 18th, 2010 at 2:33 am
I would make sure my agent is honest and she is just not trying to close the deal.Must be in real estate for more than 3 yrs.Can not be part time agent.The company is not important,her knowledge and honesty is more important.
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May 18th, 2010 at 2:36 am
It’s important not to just call an agency because they’re "been around for awhile". These agencies have the biggest recruitment efforts, which means they have a lot of newbies who aren’t that experienced and may not be cut out for sales… which means in six months they might quit. When you call an office, new realtors get to take turns having generic calls ("I want to talk about selling my home", rather than, "Joe Smith please"). So don’t do that.
If you’re selling, you might want to find a boutique firm with a small number of agents that specializes in certain types of property. Make sure the person is aggressive – you want to like them, but don’t pick someone from your church, etc., because they’re your friend. Also, go on realtor.com and search for all homes in your area, then sort by descending price. Call the agents with the most expensive listings. They get results.
If you’re buying, you can use realtor.com or ziprealty.com to search for houses on your own. Tell the seller’s agent you want a cut of the action, since they get the full 6% if you don’t have a buyer’s agent. If this doesn’t work or you need full service, find a buyer’s agent (many also sell houses, so basically just a realtor) who will rebate a part of his commission. This is legal most places as long as it’s not a fee to you for real estate work. Ziprealty gives you 20% of half of their commission, which is a bit low, and they’re not everywhere yet, but if you can’t find anyone else, try them. Also, try posting ad an on craigslist for "realtor wanted". Explain your request for a cut of his commission. You could also call a couple mortgage loan officers and see which realtors they work with. Often they’ll offer you a fixed sum toward closing costs for working with both of them together.
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May 18th, 2010 at 2:38 am
I recently bought a home. It was quite easy deciding on who to go with for an agent as I know him very well.
Don’t waste too much money on mailings, flyers, signs. Those things can help, but they take time. eg. My sister-in-law says there’s a Realtor that farms her neighborhood very consistently. He’s gotten many listings there, but when you ask the neighbors that didn’t list with him why they didn’t, 7 out of 10 times they say they went with a family member, or friend, or friend of a friend, and so on. It took him at least a couple of years of consistently marketing that area before he finally "owned" that neighborhood. That’s a lot of money spent, but it eventually paid off.
Focus on your "Sphere of Influence", ie. friends, family, even acquiantances. If you’re very sociable you will see the returns on simply developing a rapport with people. Make sure everyone around you knows what you do and likes you. BE CONSISTENT! but not pushy.
Good Luck!
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May 18th, 2010 at 2:40 am
My realtor was a business contact. When we finally decided to buy our house I recalled the fact that she was a realtor and got the ball rolling. Everything turned out well.
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