Finding a Realtor

nasagirl29

My husband and I are hoping to buy our first house sometime this year. We've been looking at open houses and went to one today that we liked a lot. We also seemed to really get along with the realtor - a lot of the other open houses the realtor annoyed me but I liked this one. She offered to send us a list of similar houses in the area and show us any we are interested in, since there were several for sale in the same price range in the same neighborhood and I gave her our email address. She is not the agent selling the house we liked at the open house - she was helping another member of her company, so I'm not worried about conflict of interest if we do go with the initial house. We would like to have her as our realtor, but I wanted to do some research first to be sure she was a good one. I googled her name (it's not very common) and all I found was listings she posted, the realtor web site, and her linked in profile. How can I find references or anything to decide? Or is there a better way to find a realtor than meeting her at an open house? Thanks in advance!

brianabrad

Take some time to ask family, friends, coworkers and other in your local area who might be able to recommend someone. A good agent will make or break your house hunt.

DH and I went about getting an agent all wrong and paid the price. We signed up with the Remax website and just went with the agent it randomly assigned us. Worst mistake ever! She was nuts and no help. After two failed attempts to purchase a home, we said good bye and found another agent. 

For our second agent, I asked for recommendations from coworkers then took some time to interview each agent. We went with the lady we liked best and it has worked out very well. Less than two weeks after being with her, we were under contract. 

LarissaB

We found ours at an open house and really hit it off.  We met with him several times before we actually started the hunt, he walked us through the process, we asked him for references and we decided to go with him.  It has been great!  He taken the time to teach us a lot about houses and the process.  I think it all comes down to personality and style and if it fits your needs

MommyLiberty5013

Here is the best question to ask: "How many homes have you sold in the past year?"

Each market has its average, but my rule of thumb is that 20 in a year is a pretty darn good indicator of a few things...

1. This REA is a good communicator. You have to be a good communicator to sell that many homes.

2. This REA is at this full-time. You DON'T want a part-time REA.

3. This REA is motivated to close deals. I'm not talking sharky (you should avoid sharks), but someone who takes a vested interest in his/her clients and would do anything for them as long as it's legal and ethical.

4. People like this REA. If he/she has that many deals, then people are sticking with him/her.

DH and I had two duds before we wised up to this single question. Their answer is very telling.

 

kaylie622

Did you try googling her name with other words? I would try complaint, reviews, worst, best etc. I would see how many of her listings are in your target area. Where we are, real estate customs vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and having someone who really knows the area is a big advantage.

We got our REA by using the referral system - an out of area agent that we knew referred us through the relocation system for her brokerage (it was Coldwell Banker but I think they all have them. The nice thing about doing it that way was that if we didn't like the agent we were assigned, we could call our original contact at any point and ask for a new one. It ended up working out great, but I've read so many horror stories on this board about slacker agents that it was great peace of mind to know that we could ditch her at any point.

I wouldn't sign any sort of exclusivity agreement with her until you've worked with her for a week or so. Make sure that she's responsive and that it's a good fit. If you do sign an agreement, make sure that you sign it with her brokerage and not with her, so that if things do go south you can get a new agent within that brokerage. 

mikepugliese

I think the best thing to do is ask friends and family. I am a Realtor and get most of my business by referral from people. I think in that situation the clients feel more comfortable generally because there is at least some relationship there to begin with. The most important thing though I would say is that you really talk with them and see if your personalities are a good match. I have to confess I am a Realtor so I have a slightly different perspective than a lot of other people responding here.

 In response to comments about not wanting a Part Time realtor, thats not always the case. Where you really can get into a difficult spot is with someone who is so busy they cant show you houses because they have too many other clients. I would ask how many people they are working with and what their availability is like. I myself am part time and never take on more than 3 clients at 1 time so that I know I have enough time for everyone. Its just not fair to be unavailable when someone needs you. One of the benefits of a part time person is that their bill dont depend on them selling you a house.

 

Anyway those are my 2 cents on it. At the end of the day it needs to be someone you trust and get along well with because buying a home is a HUGE decision.

nasagirl29

Thanks for all the advice everyone! She's going to show us a few houses Wednesday that we had been wanting to see and I plan on asking her some questions then to be sure she's the one we want to stick with. We are both new-ish to the area so we don't have any family to ask and most of our friends either haven't bought houses yet or bought them 20 years ago, so we haven't had any luck getting referrals from anyone.