How To Find The Best Realtor For You

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How can you find the right Realtor?

There are over 2 million active real estate agents in America. Whether you are buying your first house or selling the home you’ve created thousands of memories in, it’s absolutely vital you hire a real estate agent you can trust (unless you go the FSBO route).

So how do you find the best real estate agent for your needs? Do you look on Zillow? Yelp? Instagram?

With today’s technology it can be overwhelming choosing a Realtor. What happens when you book an appointment through Zillow or Realtor.com?

Read on to find out the ins and outs of how to find a real estate agent and what you need to ask before hiring one.

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How To Find A Listing Agent or Buyer’s Agent

Most Realtors you meet can list your home and help you buy a home. But, most agents end up specializing in one or the other. Also, if you choose an agent who is part of a team, their team rules might only allow them to work one type of transaction! Thus, when you’re looking online make sure you take note whether they call themselves a “listing specialist” or “buyers agent”.

There are a number of ways you can find a real estate agent. Here are some of the more popular routes:

Open houses – visit a few of the open houses in your neighborhood. Are you seeing the same agent hosting open houses regularly? Are they friendly? This is also a great way to meet face to face with an agent before committing to an actual appointment.
- Buyers– look for open houses in the neighborhoods you’re interested in! It’s a great way to meet agents who are familiar with that neighborhood
Driving around – Is there one agent whose sign you’re consistently seeing around your neighborhood? This means they have a good handle on selling homes in your area and are already familiar with what works and does not.
- Buyers– you can do this as well but focus on your neighborhood of choice!
Referrals– ask your friends, coworkers and neighbors for recommendations! Chances are they know someone who could help!
Social media – Check out your local hashtags for “[your city]Realtor” or “[your city]RealEstate” and take note of who’s showing up the most. These days social media can be used as a digital resume. You can learn so much about a person just by scrolling through their feed.
Zillow– Zillow is a great database for real estate agents! You can search for agents directly in your city and look over their reviews and past sales!
Realtor.com – this is another database for real estate agents and reviews! You can also look up their past sales here. Most agents tend to focus more on either Realtor.com or Zillow so be sure to check out both in case they do not update one of them.
Yelp– Look past the sponsored ads and see who shows up high in the ranks for your local area! Yelp is a bit harder to use because not everyone’s reviews will show. Yelp prefers showing only active Yelp user reviews so I find Zillow and Realtor.com to be more reliable because any client can easily review on those platforms.

Once you’ve landed on at least 3 real estate agents, do your research thoroughly and look up their past sales (through Zillow or Realtor.com). Look them up on social media to see what kind of presence they have. Real estate transactions are being initiated through social media these days so it’s important your agent has a good handle on using the various platforms. Be sure to also google the agents. A lot of times they will have Google reviews as well and any potential news articles will show up this way too.

Read: What You Should Do At An Open House

What Happens At A Listing Appointment?

Once you’ve settled on 2-3 real estate agents to interview, you can set up a listing appointment. These usually last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and are your time to ask all of your questions!

Here is what the agent should discuss with you:

Their marketing plan – what do they plan to do to promote and market your property? How will they get the word out? Gone are the days of sticking a sign in the yard and calling it quits. Your listing agent needs a detailed marketing plan to sell your home for top dollar.
The best price to list– The agent should pull a few comparable properties and determine a reasonable price to list your home at. The higher you list it above this suggested price, the harder it will be to pass an appraisal and to attract quality offers.
Their past experience– the agent should make you feel confident in their expertise and history with listings.

What To Ask A Listing Agent

Don’t be afraid to ask the listing agent any questions you have! Remember, you are interviewing the listing agent, not the other way around! Here are some common questions you should ask each listing agent:

How long do their listings typically stay on the market?
What experience do they have in this area?
How do they plan on negotiating repairs?
How does the process work?
What is their communication style?
How involved will they be? Do they have an assistant who will take over? If they do, ask to speak to the assistant since they will be the point of contact for you.
Will they be providing professional photography? This is vital! Cellphone photos do a huge injustice to sellers.
What are their suggestions for improving curb appeal and staging?
How much do they charge and what do they offer the buyers agent? The buyers agent needs to be paid a reasonable amount or it might deter them from showing the home.
It can be uncomfortable to ask an agent how long they have been in the business or how many homes they have sold. Luckily, you can usually find that information out on Zillow or Realtor.com as mentioned earlier. This can save you from the awkwardness! If you cannot find this out then by all means ask them!
Read: How To Increase Your Home’s Value

What To Ask A Buyer’s Agent

A buyer’s agent is completely free to use! The seller and the listing agent decide on what to pay the buyer’s agent but it comes out of the seller’s pocket! Some buyer’s agents do charge a transaction fee though so be sure to ask whether your agent does.

Here are some other questions you should ask the agents you meet:

What do they do to stand out in a multiple offer situation?
- (Check out this USA Today article I was featured in for some tips on bidding wars!)
How do they communicate? Let them know how you prefer communicating and take note on whether they can adapt to this.
How often are they available for questions? Real estate is an urgent business and sometimes you need to deal with issues on a Saturday night. Make sure you choose a Realtor who will prioritize your needs.
Ask them to go over the process with you. If they do not seem confident in their knowledge then be on alert.
Ask them what problems typically arise in inspections. (Especially if you’re looking at older homes).
Read: Hidden Costs Of Buying A House

What Qualities To Look For In A Real Estate Agent

A real estate agent can answer every question correctly but still give off a bad vibe to you. Make sure you are choosing someone you are comfortable with and who you trust.

Here are some qualities to prioritize in a Realtor:

Integrity– the agent should be honest and uphold the letter of the law in your transaction. If you feel as if they tip toe around legal issues then beware.
Friendliness– how a real estate agents interacts with you and others is incredibly important. A big part of the transaction is winning the other party over so the agent needs to be friendly and have good sales skills.
Creativity– if you enter a multiple offer situation as a buyer, it is important your agent thinks outside of the box to help you win the deal!
Ambition– if your home is struggling to sell or you’re a buyer and can’t find the right property, it’s important that your agent remains on task and fights for you.
Detail oriented– As a buyer it’s important your agent looks out for alarming details in the home (leak stains, cracked windows, etc).
- As a seller- small details can have a huge impact on the impression your house makes on other buyers!
Healthy network– if a real estate agent has a large network of other Realtors it will help you find off market deals as a buyer or find buyers as a seller.

Most important of all is a Realtor you will get along with. This process is so stressful and you need someone by your side who does their best to make it enjoyable and smooth! Pick someone you would not be afraid of calling up and venting to.

Red Flags to watch out for in a realtor

Like with every industry, there are a few bad apples who can ruin the experience for you.

Here are a few red flags to look out for:

The agent keeps trying to push homes you are not interested in.
They keep incorrectly advising a higher list price when you know your home will struggle selling for it.
They have “commission breath” and keep pestering you to sign the listing agreement so they can secure their commission.
They struggle answering questions about the process.
There is no record of them online and they have no social media presence.
They are never available to meet with you.
They take ages to respond to your calls or texts.
They do not properly explain the process or paperwork to you.
They recommend bad vendors to you.

As long as you do your thorough research and follow these tips you will land on an amazing Realtor who will simplify the whole process for you!

Good luck selling or buying your next home! Save these tips for finding a Realtor so you can access them later!