How To Choose A Real Estate Agent

You Save Real Estate® believes the best way to hire a top-notch real estate agent is to ask many questions and listen carefully. You Save Real Estate® suggests that you interview three agents so that you get a sense of which agent has the best combination of skills, personality and knowledge to fit your needs. We ask the following questions on our client’s behalf:

Here is a short list of questions that you should ask during the initial interview.

1. Do you work full-time in real estate? There are many licensed agents who work part-time and your goal is to hire someone who has made a career in real estate. You wouldn’t want a part time surgeon cutting on you and we hate to say it but the same thing goes for real estate agents.
2. How long have you been working in real estate in your local market? Here you are looking to understand if the prospective agent has relevant experience to help guide you through the local nuances in the market you are buying or selling. Do they understand why homes one street are priced significantly above or below others that are only a few blocks away?
3. How many real estate transactions did you complete last year? Buy side? Sell side? How many transactions did you complete in each of the last three years? We believe the minimum requirement of an agent is an average of 12 transactions per year and 3 years of experience.
4. What professional designations do you have? Agents who have one or more designations demonstrate a commitment to improving their skills, productivity and knowledge so they can provide a better service to their clients. We only seek out agents who strive to be above average for their clients and you should too. Look for agent who have designations like: ABR, CRS, GRI and SRES. Visit this link at the National Association of Realtors website for more information on designations.
5. Ask them to give examples of how they handle pricing philosophy/negotiations in prior deals with previous clients? This is a touchy/feely question. You want to ascertain how much time and effort they put into the negotiation process. Some agents will hand you the “comparables” and leave it up to you to decide what price you want to sell at/offer and other agents make the extra effort and do the research, complete the analysis and present the facts and actively help you decide. You should try to determine up front what you want and determine if this person will work with you “your way.”.
6. How do you work? When will I hear from you? What’s the best way to reach you? Do you use e-mail? Do you work weekends? Do you have any extended vacations planned? If so, whom will I work with while you’re away?
7. Do you smoke? If you don’t smoke you may home buyers may prefer to ride around in a non-smoking car.

You Save Real Estate® simplifies the process of finding and selecting a “top performing” agent.