Picking and working with a Realtor
In my previous post here, I described why it's in a buyer's best interest to work with a Realtor. Now, I will offer some tips on picking and managing your Realtor relationship. This isn't an exhaustive list but should be useful nonetheless.
Picking a Realtor:
- Check references, better yet, ask friends and family if they know of an outstanding Realtor
- Ask for examples of specific value-added services they provided previous buyers
- Ask about what they expect from their buyers
- Ask what makes them different from other Realtors
Using a Realtor:
- Work with one Realtor, if you don't like him or her, tell him and stop working with him and change Realtors. Working with more than one Realtor at a time -- especially on the sly -- can often backfire and result in lower quality service and sometimes legal problems.
- Be crystal clear about your expectations, if you're not happy, tell them and be prepared to change Realtors.
- Be realistic and be prepared to make tradeoff's. You will rarely find a property that meets 100% of your criteria. Furthermore, your Realtor's time is not limitless so if you're looking for a $300k condo and he or she has taken you to see 30 or more units, they're definitely gonna lose money on the deal. Moreover, you risk them suddenly dropping you as a client and needing to find and build momentum with another Realtor from scratch. (One way to mitigate this is to go to lots of open houses on your own.)
Hope this helps!
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