How to Hire the Right Realtor

Whether you are buying or selling a home knowing how to hire the right Realtor is the key to having a successful real estate transaction. This is especially true if you are going to be selling your home.

If you are thinking of selling your home, then you must hire the right Realtor to get the sale fast and for top dollar. Having the wrong Realtor can cost your thousands of dollars.

Let’s face it, not all Realtors are good, and some are just bad. Even out of all the good ones out there not every single one of them will be the best fit for you and your home.

Therefore, you need to know how to hire the right Realtor.

If you are buying a home or selling a home, you will see and talk to your Realtor quite a bit during the whole process (that is if they are not a lazy agent). You and your agent need to work good together to help you reach your goal or buying your dream home or selling your own home.

I will show you how you can know with out a doubt that you are going to hire the right Realtor.

1. Interview the Realtor(s)

This is the most important step of the process of hiring the right Realtor.

I don’t think that you absolutely must interview more than one Realtor, but you should consider it. If the first Realtor you interview is perfect, then by all means go right on and hire him or her.

I have developed a Realtor Interview Questionnaire. Please look it over, print it out and use it. This will help you to determine if the Realtor you are interviewing is the right one for the job.

Remember that the Realtor works for YOU! You are basically hiring an employee make sure the employee is the right candidate for the job.

2. Make Sure the Realtor is an Expert

If you are going to hire the right Realtor, you need to make sure the Realtor you are going to hire is an expert in your specific case.

Very few real estate transactions are the same, there are too many variables involved but you need to make sure your Realtor has experience in your specific property and situation.

If you are selling a luxury home, you need a Realtor that understands how to market and sell luxury real estate.

Your Realtor must handle so many parts of your real estate transaction. IT gets overwhelming and sometimes it seems impossible, but you need to have a Realtor that is an expert in every step of the process.

3. Make Sure the Realtor has Successful Experience

Having experience doesn’t automatically make you good at something but having successful experience does.

You want to hire a successful Realtor, right?

When you are meeting or interviewing your Realtor you need to ask questions that tell you if he or she is successful as a Realtor. Successful at selling your type of property.

Having experience is extremely important. The more time you have put in doing something helps you learn. The more you learn the better you can be.

The more transactions a Realtor has the better the Realtor can be. You want to make sure your Realtor has experience and that he or she has successful experience.

4. Make Sure You Like Your Realtor

Like I mentioned before, you are going to spend a whole lot of time talking to your Realtor, you need to make sure you like him or her.

You want the Realtor that you hire to work really hard for you and go the extra mile for you therefore you need your Realtor to like you. If you and your Realtor have a great relationship and have a mutual respect for each other then you will see your Realtor work harder for you.

Most buyers look for about three months before finding their dream home. After they find their dream home it takes between 30 and 60 days to close.

A seller can meet with a Realtor and get their home properly listed in about a week. If you are working with a great Realtor, you could possibly get an offer in a day or two and it will take 30 to 60 days to close.

As you can see your relationship with your Realtor can last a minimum of just over a month and may be as much as six months or more for this reason alone, I suggest that you hire a Realtor that you like.

5. Make Sure You Trust Your Realtor

Interviewing your Realtor may be the most important step to make sure you hire the right Realtor, but I feel the second most important step is trusting your Realtor.

A Realtor is held to very high standards by his or her own local, state and national board. This being said, this does not guarantee that every single Realtor is trustworthy.

Your Realtor is going to be the expert you trust to help you either save thousands of dollars on a purchase or make you thousands more on the sale of your home. Your Realtor will also have detailed information about you and your situation so you will need to be working with a Realtor you can trust.

I don’t want to paint a bad picture here; the vast majority of Realtor are great people and very trustworthy. I would say that less then one percent are the ones you may have to worry about.

Conclusion

Don’t just hire the first Realtor you meet or the first one that sends you a letter. You need to take steps to make sure your hire the right Realtor. It could make a huge difference in your being able to reach your goal.

If you are looking to sell your home read my article “How to Sell Your Home Fast”.

If you are thinking of buying a home soon you should understand every step of the process, I have written an article, “Path to Homeownership”, to help you better understand the process.

As a Realtor I would be more than happy to talk to you more about how to hire the right Realtor. Feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email.