How to Find the Best Real Estate Agent for You

Moving can be a difficult time because there is often so many thing going on at once. Most moves require both buying a house and selling a house. Luckily, real estate agents are there to help buyers and sellers manage both these aspects of moving. But how do you find a real estate agent and what makes a real estate agent good or bad?

What a real estate agent does

• Determines asking prices for homes
• Negotiates prices for whoever they are representing
• Sets up meetings with buyers and sellers
• Manages advertising and listings for sellers and searches through listings for buyers
• Finds homes in buyers' price range
• Procures and provides the necessary paperwork for all aspects of sales for their clients
• Conducts open houses for sellers

The Realtor difference

The search

• Going to open houses will cause you to see firsthand how particular real estate agents conduct their business. Not only can open houses help you physically find real estate agents, but they also let you evaluate their performance. Are you impressed by their overall performance in the open house? This is a sneaky way to see just how well a real estate agent will do when faced with potential sellers.
• Local newspapers may have some smaller or newer agents that online databases missed. Newer is not always worse, since more established agents are always juggling multiple clients. It may pay to find a younger real estate agent who has more time for you. On local matters a local newspaper may still be more up to date on new agents than an online national database.
• Getting referrals from friends and family who have recently moved is a quick way to find good agents. You should be able to trust what you hear from your loved ones in regards to real estate agent quality. Just make sure that the move was recent enough so that the agency and agent in question still serve the same area
• You also could simply explore the neighborhood, keeping an eye out for those big bright real estate signs. You can find the agents by using the signage with their information on them. You can also see how long it takes them to sell a particular property by continuing to check the area for signs over time.

• Are you a certified Realtor?
• How much do you charge?
• Do you have any references?
• What would you quickly estimate as the value of the home in question?
• Have you had clients successfully buy or sell in my area before?
• What is the scope of your services and what will be left for me to do myself?
• What type of plan do you have to help us succeed as an agent/client team?