Finding a prospective real estate agent has evolved from randomly choosing one from a list of agents on the local yellow pages to asking for referrals from professional agencies. Today, there are many real estate agents who can fulfill your needs and budget by adjusting their service accordingly. This information is to help you select the best agent for your home selling or buying project and weed out the rest.
A single meeting with your prospective agent can help you find all about the agent’s credentials, experience, knowledge and other traits that match with the real estate business as well as ask questions. You are looking for someone who can demonstrate their ability to serve your needs through past performance or current promises. For this, you need to ask the right questions. Start with, “How long have you been an agent in the real estate industry?”. It is always best to select an agent who has at least three or four years of experience and more and is working full-time. More than a decade of experience is excellent; it means they have weathered upward and downward movements of market conditions.
“Do you have a broker’s license?”. If the answer is yes, you don’t have to deal with an invisible entity who is going to perform the “behind-the-scene” tasks during house sale. A broker’s license is an added benefit in the sense, the person is also responsible for some of the issues arising out of legal matters during the selling process.
“How often are you available for house showing?”. If you expect the agent to be present all the time during the open house, four times a month, you are expecting too much from a busy professional. Be moderate in your request. As much as you want an agent with reputation to handle your house sale and be present at most of the open houses instead of sending their assistants, they have other clients and obligations to fulfill. Ask for their availability schedule and set up open house accordingly. Better yet, fit in your house showing only when they can commit to the task fully without distraction. Sometimes, the agent may be required for other tasks related to the real estate sale, like any ranch land real estate auctions. Additionally, as mentioned above, eliminate any agent who is not working full-time as a real estate agent. You don’t want someone handling a serious business like this working part-time or as a hobby. Some real estate agents do this job as a side gig to earn extra money especially when the market is in the upward motion.
“Do you only handle certain type of property?”. This is a good question. Unless you know that the agent has handled many properties similar to your house and in the same price range, you don’t want to approach them. In essence, you don’t want to face a situation where the house is sitting in the market for too long or the agent is not sure what he or she is doing.
