Homebuying 101: Finding a Real Estate Professional to Fit Your Needs
A good real estate agent can mean the difference between getting a mediocre deal and getting a fabulous deal on your new house. More than that though, a good agent can help you find the home that fits you like a glove. More and more, people are turning to real estate agents as trusted friends, and not just sales people. But, you don’t want to just go out there and pick one at random.
Ask Friends and Family
You might have a friend or family member that’s actually in the business. This would be a good first step in finding a trustworthy real estate agent. Sometimes, people don’t work well with family and friends though, so be conscious of whether you and your friend or family member can safely mix business and personal relationships together. If you can’t try to get a referral.
Get a Referral
If your family or friends own a home, odds are, they used an agent. Most people do. Ask them who they used and what their experience was. They’ll tell you the God’s honest truth. And, there is no referral like a referral from a friend or a family member.
This is one of the best ways to find an agent, because you have personal knowledge that the agent did a good job when it counted. The line of reasoning here is that, if they did well by your best friend, then they should do well by you. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it does most of the time.
That’s because we tend to be friends with people that are similar to us in the sense that we share values with our friends. Those values extend to personal preferences and sometimes even things like personality types. If your friend meshed well with a particular agent, there’s a chance he could mess well with you.
A similar argument can be made for family members who used a particular agent. While you don’t really choose your family, most people do get along with their mom, dad, and other close family members. That could translate into a good working relationship with their agent.
Check The Interwebs
The Internet can be a good place to find an agent, though you’ll be doing a lot of research on your own. Companies, like Agent Harvest, are a good place to start. They filter agents based on your criteria. Similar brokerage sorting companies will do something similar. Basically, the idea is that you can filter out the agents you don’t want by specifying a list of criteria that your ideal agent must meet.
For example, if you want an agent to be a specialist in a certain type of home, be a certain gender, or you want your agent to work exclusively as a buyer’s agent, you can weed out the undesirables and get only the types of agents that you think would best suit you.
Visit Open Houses
When you go to open houses, you run the risk of working with a duel agency. This means that the real estate agent works for both the buyer and the seller. This can be problematic because the agent makes the most money by selling the home for the highest price. This puts you at odds with the agent. While not ideal, you can always ask the seller’s agent for buyer’s agent referrals, and this could end up being a great way to find an agent in your area. You are sure to find someone knowledgeable on home staging and the property market.
Guest Blogger: Phillip Waterman prides himself on his keen sense of the housing market. He greatly enjoys tracking market trends and blogging about the tips and tricks to a great real estate experience.