How do you choose a real estate agent?

That is a question I have become quite curious about.  As a REALTOR® we learn lots of things about how to create a good client.  In fact, it seems as soon as we get our state license that is our total focus: gotta’ find me some buyers and sellers!  So I know what we do as agents to “choose” clients.  What I don’t know is how the clients choose a real estate agent.  However they do it, it doesn’t appear to be an exact science.  

Buyers choose quickly!

I was amazed to find out that about 80% of home buyers use the first agent they speak with to help them buy a house.  Why not, right?  Anybody can buy a house; I just need somebody with a key to let me see inside.  And for sure, if I’m buying a new house I really don’t need another agent to help then.  I mean, there will be a real estate agent right there onsite to help me out right?   Since it’s just us here talking, I can tell you that you really need an agent.  In my state, as in many others, you can now hire an agent to work for you directly when looking for a house.  If you hire a buyer’s agent, he will have your best interest at heart; and better yet he will pretty typically be paid by the seller not by you.  And that also works the same with a newly constructed house.  So if you’re buying a new house why not go ahead and have the developer pay your agent who is looking out for your best interest?  Because I assure you the onsite agent is not looking out for you, he works for that other guy across the closing table. 

With all that goes on when buying a house, it seems to me that it would be worth more than one conversation to find an agent to help.

Is choosing a listing agent any more complicated?

If you have sold a house or two over the years, you know who to call right?  I’ll call my agent, old what’s his name…  The official survey says that 80% of people tell us they will use that same agent again.  That makes sense doesn’t it?  We sold the house, I got paid, you got paid; what a great success!  Well it turns out that fewer than 20% will actually use the same agent again.  What’s up with that?  Were they unhappy with the level of service?  I don’t think the stats bear that out.  Did they feel shortchanged in some way?  Probably not.  Maybe it was just business.  I hired somebody, they listed my house, and it sold; I guess I did ok.  Maybe there was just no spark in the relationship.  Sad isn’t it?

That 80-20 stat seems to me to leave some unanswered questions.

Who you gonna’ call?

So what’s the big deal?  Well nothing really, if you don’t think paying somebody several thousand dollars to direct you in the largest purchase you will make in your lifetime is a big deal.  And anyway, you got this house buying & selling thing down right?  After all, nothing has changed in the housing market in the past few years.  Well nothing major anyway, right?  Well, obviously a lot has changed in the real estate and mortgage business in recent years.  And it is still changing.  And I do think it is very important that you hire someone to help you with your transaction.  I’m going to go ahead and say it right out loud: real estate agents work for money!  Yep it’s true; we want to get paid for what we do.  I will also say that one of the things we get paid to do is to take very good care of our client’s money.  So please make sure that you are your real estate agent’s client, we always have one so make sure it’s you.  Call me and I’ll explain.  Of course, sometimes we do all same the wonderful things that we always do and we don’t get paid; but that’s a conversation for another day.

In almost every residential real estate transaction commissions are being paid.  So doesn’t it make sense that since these commissions can amount to a sizable sum that you would spend a little bit of quality time choosing the best person possible to get paid to do this job?  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to find someone pretty capable of handling your giant nest egg of money?  After all, that’s exactly what we’re doing out here; handling your money.  Maybe you shouldn’t just choose the first person who answers the phone to help you buy a house.  Although if you’re going to do that please call me first!  Maybe when you are thinking of listing your house you should really interview three, or even more, agents before choosing one.  You could ask friends and neighbors who they have used before, and be sure to find out if they liked them.  I’m betting based on that 80-20 business, if they can remember them at all they must have done a pretty good job.  Maybe good old LuAnne who has been selling houses out here since ’78 would be a great choice, but I would want to make sure of that.  Or maybe the new guy whose is all up to speed with all those changes we talked about is the guy.  At least he knows how to send a text message; I think.  Or maybe someone in between is right for you, I don’t know who your ideal agent is.  But I do know it’s an important choice to make that can have lasting consequences. 

There are lots of ways to find out about real estate agents today, and there are lots of us agents out there to find out about too!  So look for somebody you can talk to.  Maybe more importantly, look for someone who will listen to you.  Be sure to find someone you can trust, because you will need to trust their judgment.  Find someone who is not afraid to tell you the truth, and be sure it is someone you are willing to accept the truth from.  And find somebody who knows what they’re doing.  They should know their business and all the changes that have taken place recently.  And maybe most importantly they should know your part of town, your neighborhood and should be willing to get to know you.  Do not hesitate to tell them what is important to you.  Things like communication, the ability speak frankly, how they negotiate, your schedule.

There is no reason not to choose a great real estate agent, if you just take your time and do your homework.  Or you can just call me!  Because I’m in it for the money and I’ll take good care of both yours and mine.

Are you a great multitasker?

The word is even hard to read – I read something the other day about multitasking.  It said that only 2% of us are really capable of multitasking effectively.  I think that’s insulting.  I see people all the time driving and eating and texting and talking on the phone and putting on makeup and hardly anybody hits anybody.  Or at least I think that’s true.  I don’t really remember what I saw, but I’m pretty sure I saw it.  I’m sure if there was an accident I would have looked up from entering the address of the next house on my list into my phone.  I would have at least heard it; unless I had my Brian Buffini training CD up too loud.

What were you saying? – It could be that we all are a little distracted by all the stuff we bombard ourselves with throughout the day.  I went to the Atlanta Home Show a couple of weeks ago to see if there were any great new ideas for my clients who were moving into a new home, or maybe needed a good idea to get their current home ready to sell.  Well I tell you what; I saw a lot of this multitasking going on in a relatively small space.  Except I think “multi” may be overstating the facts a bit.  There were a high percentage of these very nice display booths that were manned by folks who I assume thought they were multitasking.  You know the ones, the people standing in front of the amazing and interesting wall of facts and brochures about a great home improvement idea who can’t look up from their smart phones to acknowledge your existence.  I’m just glad I wasn’t paying the guy sitting on the stool in front of the recycling company’s full size truck who we stood inches away from for at least a full minute who never slowed his thumb down long enough to look up.  I think I’ll wear brighter shoes next time.  I believe they thought the “multi” aspect of the tasking was that they were right there if you really needed them, and they were still staying in touch with their FB friends.  Just like all the guys and gals texting and eating in the car that are sure they are pretty much ready to make a move; you know, like if something were to happen.

It can make you stupid – The same article pointed out that we are distracted at work every 10.5 minutes by unrelated online gibberish.  We are so much more interested in everything “else” that is going on around us that we use our smart phones on a date 67% of the time; no wonder nobody’s getting married these days. We even use our phones in church 33% of the time to check emails and to check out the World Wide Web.  We cannot even perform the relatively mundane task of watching TV without layering on another even more mundane task like browsing the internet 42% of the time. They say that doing all this multitasking while working can actually lower your IQ as much as 10% points.  I’m kind of wondering who has time these days to research that number.

Bring it on home – This is a real estate blog you might say, and what does all this have to do with real estate?  Well according to my findings, it is impossible with all of these distractions and interruptions in your lives for you to search for, find, negotiate and purchase a new home without the services of a REALTOR®.  When you can’t even get your work done because you are being interrupted every 10 minutes by a beeping phone that alerts you to an 8.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile or that CNN still has not found any sign of the missing jetliner in the Indian Ocean.  When it is impossible to go to the movies without using a cell phone to antagonize a fellow movie goer to the point of gun violence; yep I saw it online.  When you can’t even go on a full time date and focus for a few hours on the one person who you might want to share those potential mortgage expenses with.  How do you think you would ever be able to find the time in this totally cluttered world in which we live to find the right house, and pay the right price, and get the best mortgage rate, and find a quality home inspector, and obtain all the pertinent disclosure forms, not to mention get some title insurance; whatever that is.  Yep, if it was me and I was you I would hire someone with the time and the knowledge to make I sure get this one right.  Hire a REALTOR® like me today.  And the best part is you can usually get somebody else to pay them for you.  It’s true - Google it.