What Criteria DO Your or Should You Use when Evaluating a Real Estate Professional?
January 28th, 2009 Categories: Alexandria Dirt, Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, First Time Buyers Club, McLean Dirt, Real Estate 101, Reston Dirt
There are probably a hundred different reasons to give for selecting (and maybe fewer for having an on-going relationship with) your real estate professional. Some seem very rational and reasonable and quantitative, others a little more intangible, qualitative and difficult to define. I’ve been thinking about this for some time and here are my thoughts, at least looking from 10,000 feet:
Things you SHOULD look for:
Friendliness
You might think this shouldn’t exactly be at the top of the list – but I will tell you that friendliness goes a long way. I was recently successful in a multiple contract short sale situation because I was friendly with the listing agent. People WANT to work with people they like – so choose someone friendly – know that they won’t offend someone or rub them the wrong way and most of the time, it will work in your favor!
Availability – Accessibility — Responsiveness
This is really important… is your prospective agent full time? Are they managing a client load that doesn’t allow for them to make time for you? Do they cancel? Are they late? How easy are they to reach via whatever means of contact you’re comfortable with? Do they text? Do they email? How quickly do they return calls and/or emails? Are their priorities straight?
Experience
This is a tough one – I believe even inexperienced agents can do a good job – after all, we were ALL inexperienced at some point in time. But you need to judge for yourself how their experience level matches with your expectations. Are they experienced in the neighborhood that you’re interested in, but not well versed outside of it? Are they great at understanding the contract but don’t have the “systems” down to manage your transaction seamlessly and painlessly? And when contemplating the brand new agent – do they know what they don’t know? Do they know when to say “I don’t know but I’ll find out for you” and/or when they need to bring in an expert to assist? That’s what you need to gain a comfort level with.
Trust
By this I mean many things but mostly how your relationship develops with 
your agent. Sometimes your agent will need to tell you tough things – you’d rather they were honest with you but sometimes it’s difficult to separate the message from the messenger. Sometimes it’s a discussion about the pricing of your home. Sometimes it’s about the market conditions that help determine an offer price. Sometimes it’s their advice about one property over another from an investment perspective. At the end of the day, the decisions and choices are yours, but you’ve hired a professional to assist in the process – heed the advice which you should be able to do if you have that trust.
What’s NOT so important?
How many “For Sale” signs have their name on it in the neighborhood that interests you?
Why should this be important? It suggests that only the agents who have signs there are knowledgeable of the neighborhood – it doesn’t always work that way. Don’t get me wrong, I love a sign call as much as the next girl, but you have to be sure all of the other factors are in place too!
Just because your boss used him, doesn’t mean he’s right for you…
OK, I’m braced for all the flack I’ll get for that statement – again, don’t get me wrong, I love a referral as much as the next girl, but it’s not always a good fit. I try hard to earn every piece of business I get whether it’s a referral, a reader of my blog, a past client, a sign call, someone I meet at an open house, etc… But at the end of the day, all of the factors I mentioned above need to be there…
How many clients they’ve helped in the past…
While this does tie into experience, as I stated above, it’s not the be-all and end-all in determining if they’re right for you.
So the bottom line is… decide what factors are important to you, do a little research, ask some questions and then, go with your gut. It usually doesn’t let you down. I’m always available to chat if you’d like!
Happy (icy) Wednesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
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