Choosing a Good Agent

After saving up for a down payment and cleaning up your credit score, you set out to find the best real estate agent in your quest to find the perfect home. After interviewing all of the big name offices in your area, you end up more confused than ever. Every agency sounds the same. What's going on?

For starters, you need to get more personal. You want a successful brokerage, but beyond the glossy exterior of the office it's the relationship with the particular agent you choose and how good they are at their job that is going to matter most to you now through closing.

Chemistry between buyers and agents is important. Take the time to meet agents that are good at their job and make you comfortable. The best way to winnow down your list of potential candidates is to ask friends for referrals. Then carefully screen the agents by asking specific questions about their areas of expertise and experience, especially during the previous year.

What You Need to Know

• Request a list of the agent's transactions over the past year. Look for specific information to make sure the agent works with buyers like you.  Check out the area, sales price, and property types of the homes the agent has sold. An agent that specializes in million dollar homes may be a top producer, but might foist you off on an assistant to help you with your $150,000 condo.

• Does the agent work mostly with buyers or sellers? Some agents specialize in listing properties while others prefer to work primarily with buyers. Choose an agent who is tuned in to your needs.  If you are a first time buyer, look for an agent that is willing to help walk you through the homebuying process.

• Get references and phone numbers of recent clients. References should never be a problem. If you can't get the whole list, get a minimum of three. And be sure to ask friends for references; often that's your best bet because they won't steer you to someone who didn't work out.

• What is the office like? Don't be overly impressed by a big office. Many great agents go solo. Others like being around a lot of people. It's a matter of style. They all have access to the listings in the Multiple Listing Service. However, you can tell some things from how organized the office looks. How you are going to be treated is the most important factor, but you do want to know that the managing broker is competent.

• How many years has the agent been in the business? Experience is helpful. However, being in the business a long time does not necessarily indicate the best person for you. Other factors, like familiarity with your market, communication style, or just plain personality may be more important.

• Is the agent a salesperson or a broker? Being a real estate broker indicates some initiative as more education and licensing is required to obtain a broker license. That said, some agents have no desire to obtain a broker license so don't use this exclusively to weed out agents.  You might also inquire about continuing education, like the GRI (Graduate, Realtor Institute), e-Pro (Certification for Internet Professionalism), and others. Good agents keep ahead of the curve. 

• Is the agent available to work around my schedule? A little give and take is a good thing in all relationships, but you don't want to have to cater to your agent's busy schedule. Often the busiest agent isn't always the best. An agent with fewer listings or active buyers may be more responsive to your rime and this may be a better choice for some.  Find out how many open houses and clients the agent is committed to and feel them out about your time frame.

• Ask if the agent has enough time to devote to your quest. You need something now! An aggressive agent should start e-mailing you listings within a day or so and have a plan that allows you to see as many properties as you can handle in your time frame.

What About Rookies?

Everyone says you need an agent with a lot of experience, but you've met one you like who is new to the business. Should you use the rookie?

A new agent isn't necessarily a bad choice.

• For starters, new agents have a lot more time to spend on you. Busier agents may take the time to enlist you, but, as the case in a lot of relationships, the attention can get a little more scarce once commitments are made. A new agent, on the other hand, is going to do everything she can to get a sale, unencumbered by clients who want to spend more money than you do.

• New agents may be more technologically savvy.

• Sometimes new agents have been successful in other fields, and have a proven track record in the business world.

Multiple Agents?

No one is stopping you (unless you signed an agreement with a single agent), but using more than one agent can be a bad idea. It seems like having a battalion of agents out there hunting down your perfect home is a good way to cover a lot of territory in a short period of time, but it really doesn't work that way.

Experienced agents ask you up front if you are working with anyone else and quickly lose your phone number and e-mail address once they find out you are seeing houses with multiple agents. Even if you tell them you aren't, it becomes obvious pretty quickly when you have already seen homes they line up for you.

If the perfect place for you isn't available right now, good agents keep looking till they find it.

Next article: How Buyer's Agents are Paid

Previous article: Where to Find the Right Buyer's Agent

Related Links

• What a Buyer's Real Estate Agent Does
• Use an Agent or Go It Alone?