Making the Right Choice

If you’re buying or selling a home, a great real estate agent will be a big help. A fantastic real estate agent helps you get the most bang for your buck when buying and maximizes your profit when you’re selling, while handling all the paperwork, negotiations and details of that process. First, you absolutely should interview real estate agents to find out what they’ve sold and how they do it. They’re prepared to wow you, so interview several to find the one who fits your preferences.

Experience with Neighborhood Homes

Ask your real estate agents candidates how many homes they’ve sold and where this homes were located. Most successful agents have an area of town where they’ve had the most success. You’ll want an agent who is familiar homes in your area and is confident in recommending a sales strategy for your home. If you’re buying in another part of town, you may want a realtor who is knowledgeable in that area. We have one area in our town that the homes sell about as fast as they list. You need an agent who is on top of the listings, who gets you in fast to see newly listed properties, so you can make a fast offer.

Past Success Stores

Successful real estate agents enjoy sharing their success stories, so beware if they aren’t sharing any. Ask your friends and family who they’ve used previously. Make sure they’re recommending a real estate agent who helped them buy or sell their property, and not just a friend they know. Folks who just got their real estate license should not be ruled out, especially if you like the way they work. As a real estate investor, our favorite realtor was brand new in the business, so he had time to constantly find properties to show us and make our offers. He now has lots of success stories about helping investors buy and sell properties.

Experience with New Technology

Selling your home fast depends on creating a buzz about your property. That’s often done online using a variety of new technology. Here’s a 3D Virtual Tour for one of our properties. You can see how media like this can help create that buzz that sells your home. Make sure your real estate agent knows and utilizes multiple forms of media for selling your home.

Interview Several Real Estate Agent Candidates

Buying and selling a home is a complicated process, so you will want a great real estate agent by your side. Don’t get lured in by fancy advertising. Follow these steps, and take the time to interview several real estate agents before choosing one. If they are really successful, they’ll ask you to immediately sign an exclusive contract with them. Don’t do it until you complete several interviews – they need to sell themselves, so give each of them the opportunity to do so before choosing one to represent you exclusively.

During the interviews, you’ll learn more about the process, plus you’ll have new ideas of your own. You may have to go back to some of the earlier interviews to ask them about things you learned or thought of in latter interviews. Asking questions now will save lots of time and frustration later.

What are your experiences with real estate agents? What are you looking for in a real estate agent? We’d love to hear your success and horror stories, so please leave a comment below.