Finding the Right Real Estate Agent
Talking real estate agents today on Charlotte Moves. Specifically talking about how important the right realtor can be for any real estate transaction. Money is involved. Emotions are involved. It can be tricky. I’ve worked with good realtors and bad realtors in my life and I feel the same way about them as I do about our nannies… I don’t think TWICE about the money when I’ve had a great motivated empathic nanny or realtor. But the handful of times when I’ve been working with someone who seems less motivated or less professional… all of a sudden, I’m aware of every fee and every payment. I MUCH prefer the former!
1. Managing the Emotions
First and foremost, selling or buying a house is a roller coaster of irrational capital “F” Feelings. Highs, lows, anger, euphoria… safe to say you’re going to go through alllllll of them so having an agent who you enjoy, you trust, you like… is super helpful. I’m still friends with the first agent I ever met in New York City a decade ago and our current agent is welcome to move in and become a sister wife any time she wants.
2. Keeping Your Eye on the Prize
Home transactions are the definition of “look… a squirrel!” A comment about your dishwasher can make you second guess every appliance in your house. A passive aggressive request to replace the dimmer in the bathroom can bring you inches from blowing up the entire deal. A good agent will remind you that these are all silly in comparison to the GOAL: to buy/ sell a home. This starts with the listing price of your house and trickles down to the punch list for the new buyers and on and on.
3. It’s all about the relationships
I already mentioned YOUR relationship with your agent, but the way in which your agent interacts with other realtors is key! Our agent follows up with other agents after showings. She maintains diplomacy even when we’re discussing whether it’s reasonable to go TP their house. Cool, calm and collected, a good agent will do what needs to get done and be as cut-throat as they need to be… without ruffling feathers or burning bridges.
4. Don’t sweat the small stuff
When we bought our current house, there were maybe three things in our contract for the seller to take care of. One of those things was to remove an empty gun safe that was in the shed. You can’t just call 1-800-junkluggers to remove something like that and we were furious that after putting up with so much b.s. already, this STILL hadn’t been taken care of hours before we were supposed to close. Rather than get caught up on the ‘principle’ of it all, our agent just made some calls and paid someone to come deal with the safe. That was the better solution.
5. Walk the walk and talk the talk
In my opinion, it’s not enough for a real estate agent to love houses. Don’t get me wrong, I want my agent to be enthusiastic and friendly and love what they do, but I have a much longer list of ‘criteria’ than just “I heart houses.” I want an agent who understands the market trends from month to month. I want an agent who knows what can and can’t be done to homes either with construction or simply from a planning and zoning perspective. I want an agent who gets the process inside and out so she can tell us what is ‘likely’ to happen in a week, in a month, or in 6 months. I want an agent who knows us and what we’re looking for. Don’t show me a turn-key split level when we’re looking to find a house with room for improvements.
6. Bringing in the Experts
Our agent is our expert when it comes to real estate, but often it requires lots of other people beyond that! For example, we met our mortgage broker as a result of our agent. Our agent sends someone to take overhead drone footage. Our agent has someone to work with us on staging. Curious how you could add a bathroom to the second floor of that house you just visited? She has a contractor who can weigh in. Oh… and she also knows a guy to come over and remove a gun safe.
7. Dreams vs. Reality
We all have a perspective about our own house and house hunt that is influenced by feelings and our own blind spots. When we sold our first house, potential buyer after potential buyer would comment that the price seemed a bit high given that it needed a new kitchen, etc. In our mind, we thought it was such a great opportunity, but we needed our agent to tell us that it WAS an opportunity, but… the reality was that we needed to come down on our price a bit. That navy accent wall that you copied from House Beautiful? It’s SO CHIC and ON TREND… but 9/10 of the people who walk through the house mention how dark the room feels. Guess what? PAINT THE WALL. That house you LOVE half a mile away? It is in a really tough area for resale… be cautious with upgrades. A good agent will tell you these things.
8. Technology
Gone are the days of posting one ad in the real estate section of the local newspaper and popping a sign on the front lawn. The best realtors have their fingers on a whole host of ways to get the word out there. From setting up a website, to getting a professional photographer in the door to creating a video for social media sharing… the world wide web is the key to distribution and the best agents will know various ways to promote your property and to analyze the subsequent data.
Bottom line, buying and selling a home is most likely to be the single biggest financial transaction of your life. Your agent will make money as a result and you want someone on your side who you fundamentally trust and respect and value. Otherwise it can get icky real fast.
I’d love to hear from you guys if you have any good (or BAD!) real estate agent stories! Without naming names, leave me a comment and let me know!
Do you have an opinion on using an agent who is an acquaintance? My hubby loves the guy, I am not so sure.
I feel like it’s nice to *know* your agent because it’s such a personal relationship. That said… I can see that being too comfortable each other might make it really really hard to have tough conversations. So it’s a non-answer kind of. Our agent cares about us and we trust her emphatically. She tells us the hard truths and nurtures us when the going is tough. I suspect you will be working with your agent quite a bit so if you’re hesitant, that seems like an important inner voice to listen to…
This is some really good information about real estate agent. I liked that you pointed out that a good agent will tell you to keep away from super trendy homes. That is good to know because they might not fit your taste in a few years or even months.
Thanks so much! I think a good agent will work on YOUR behalf so if YOU want a super trendy home, I would hope a good agent would point out some possible areas of concern but then do what they can to make it happen. 🙂 But yes… our agent has pointed out flaws in my idealistic though process on more than one occasion! Ha!
All great points – I like to thin i Know a frw things growing up with Realtor parents 🙂 cant belie my dad is still doing it
Typos galore- phone glitch out!!
Haha! You can do that in all your free time! 😉 xx
I like what you said about having an agent who understand the market that we’re in. It is a constantly shifting thing with lots of other circumstances to consider. Keeping the market in mind when you’re looking for a good realtor is a really smart move.
It’s SO easy to go online and think you now what’s up but only the local agents know how different one neighborhood is to the next… invaluable for us! Thanks!
Thanks for the tip about finding a realtor who’s technologically capable. My husband and are are trying to find a new home, but we’ve been relying on the old-fashioned methods of searching the newspapers or simply driving around to see what’s for sale. I think hiring a real estate agent who knows how to use all the latest technology would really help us in our search for the perfect home!
Good luck!
Thank you for pointing out that how your realtor interacts with other realtors is important. My husband and I are needing to find a realtor to help us find a new house. I’ll have to do some research and find the best realtor in our area.
Thanks, Ellie! Good luck!
My uncle is working on selling his old home, and I think a realtor could really help him out. I like how you mentioned that he’ll want a realtor that is calm and collected, yet effective. These tips will help my uncle find a great realtor, so thank you for sharing this.
GOod luck!
Thank you for pointing out that your relationship with your agent is a huge part of finding a new home. My husband and I are needing to buy a new home and need an agent to do this. Hopefully, I can do some research and find the best agent in my area.
Fingers crossed!
I really liked how you mentioned that a strong relationship between you and your realtor is extremely important. I am moving to a new home soon, and I need to hire a realtor. I will be sure to try and have the best relationship with my realtor so that everything will go smoothly.
I am so thankful for what you have shared about finding the best realtor in town. All of your points presented here are very realistic. Just in case my brother would be asking for my opinion, I’d rather send this to him because I completely agree with your thoughts.
Good lucK!
I really liked your input on why you should bring in experts to help you move homes. My wife and I have recently decided to move, so she can be closer to her parents. I will be sure to hire a professional to help us move, so the moving process will go well.
I like how you mentioned that you’ll want to make sure your realtor is is diplomatic and calm, as this will show that the realtor can be cut-throat without ruffling feathers. My friend is looking to buy some real estate, so these tips will help her find a great realtor. Is there anything else she should keep in mind when looking for a realtor?
It sure got me when you said that agents know a lot of people that can help a lot in the home buying process, like a mortgage broker and an inspector. My mom also told me that because when they bought a house in the past, their realtor is the one that looked for an inspector to check the house. Hopefully, I can receive the same type of assistance from the realtor I will hire when I decide to buy a house.
I like the tip you gave to take care of yourself and manage your emotions while you are working with a realtor to find a new home because it can be stressful and frustrating. My wife and I are looking to move to a condo that is a little closer to her work, so the commute will not take so long. I will be sure to try and manage my emotions during this whole process.
I didn’t think about looking at how your agent interacts with other agents. This seems like a great way to choose a real estate agent. My husband and I are needing to buy a house and want to find the best agent to help us do this. Hopefully, I can do some research and find an agent I love working with.
I really liked how you shared the story about the empty gun safe and how your agent simply made a call to someone to deal with it, and the problem was solved in no time at all. I would like to have someone like that to assist me since this will be my first time to buy a house, and I know that there will be a lot of problems to come my way. Because of this, it is important that I have someone to take some of the burdens from me if needed.