Choosing the Best Real Estate Agent
In my earlier article, Why Real Estate Agents are more important than ever, I had written about the increasing prominence of real estate agents in today’s changing world where other service industries are struggling to stay relevant. Today I am going to speak about factors that will help you decide on the right agent to work with regardless of whether you are a home seller or a home buyer.
Right at the very beginning you must understand that most top real estate consultants working in your city tend to specialize. Some agents are focused on helping you buy a home while others focus on selling. In this article we are going to focus on seller’s agents. The most common question heard in this business is –
How do I find the right agent who can help me sell my property for the highest price in the least amount of time?
Home Sellers pay the agent a good amount of commissions so the stakes are quite high for sellers when it comes to choosing the right real estate consultant to work with.
Proven Track Record
As a property seller when you are looking for the right real estate agency to sell your home, its just common sense to find a professional or a real estate agency with a proven track record. If a real estate agency or person helps sell a lot of properties every year that is a good indication that they can sell your home too. Not all real estate agencies are created equal. Some agencies sell a large number of homes every year whereas some only sell one or two homes at the utmost. So first things first seek out the Super-Sellers who are the most visible in the online space. Search for terms such as ‘top real estate agents Mumbai”, “best real estate consultants Mumbai” or “luxury real estate consultants Mumbai” on Google. Look at the search results and you can be pretty sure that the agency / agencies who come out on top are the ones who are doing the maximum amount of business because most buyers and sellers are contacting this agency and hence they are working on a lot of requirements and consequently the number of sales that they help transact will also be of a higher number. If an agent or an agency is not seen nor heard, how do you expect buyers and sellers in our connected world to discover them and work with them!
Experience Also Counts
Another factor that you should count on is experience. Experienced real estate agents sell the most homes and they are much more likely to among the top bracket of real estate agents in every city. If you compare agents with more than 10 years of experience with agents who have been working for less than 5 years you will find that experience agents sell twice as many homes. But do remember that there is a caveat in this case. Experience can be a doubled-edged sword for many real estate consultants who have been in the market for decades. Since they have closed a fair number of deals due to the number of years in the field, they usually have their hands full with past clients and referrals. This means that they have more homes to sell, more home inspections to schedule and more people to stay in touch with. Trying to fit everything in means that their time and attention is spread out thin amongst all their clients. Its not surprising that all this work load can slow an agent down. Compare that to a younger enthusiastic and more energetic property agent who has a couple of years of work experience and who is willing to put more time and effort towards selling your house. So sometimes it pays to work with a younger person who may be less experienced but who makes up for that with more professionalism and dedication.
Do remember that a more experienced agent is not really looking for a better offer to sell your house. Data researched by Zillow – America’s number 1 property portal shows that there is no statistical difference in the final sales price of a home sold by a twenty five year veteran and a home sold by a two year old rookie even if you take into account extra time that the property has been on the market.
So when you are looking for someone to help sell your home it may seem instinctive to work with the most experienced professional you can find. They have been in the field for long and it may make you feel confident that your home is being sold by an experienced person. They have connections and their advice would be highly beneficial. But if you are looking for a higher sales price for your home the data says that it does not matter how long your agent has been in the industry. Experience may bring wisdom but it does not necessarily put more cash in your pocket!
Check their Online Reputation
This is again a common sense strategy. If you want to learn more about a prospective agent go online and read their reviews on their Google Business listing page and other places. When reading reviews, grade the agent on factors such as “local knowledge”, “responsiveness” and “negotiation skills”. These factors and skill-sets are extremely important for a real estate agent and it is an accurate way to predict how an agent will perform when it comes to selling your home. Always remember that ratings and reviews are a good indicator and a pretty accurate way to predict how successful your agent will be when selling your property. An agency that is rated high for “responsiveness” will succeed in selling your house faster on average. Employing an agent who is not very responsive may mean that your home languishes on the market for a longer period of time before finding a buyer. “Local knowledge” is also a highly desirable trait. Real estate brokers with perfect local knowledge ratings sell more homes than brokers who don’t have much knowledge of their territory.
Take a quick look at the agent’s website, their attention to detail, the other listings that they are currently selling and you will have a good idea of how the agency is perceived by the public in the market. Are they highly active online on various mediums and do they take their credibility with a lot of seriousness? It is not surprising that the most successful real estate agents are those who are willing to go the extra mile. But you don’t have do a guessing game here. With just a few clicks of your mouse you can clearly see which real estate agency truly cares about what they are doing and which agency is going to give your sale the attention it deserves.
All the above factors here distinguishes a truly professional real estate agent from the average ones. And once you find a good real estate agent you will know that you have found a friend and a professional for life 🙂
Do not miss a single article!
Submit your email id to get new articles directly into your email inbox!
- Paperwork and Pricing of a Property - April 4, 2024
- What type of Real Estate Investor Are You? - March 25, 2024
- Various Ways to Profit as a Real Estate Investor - March 22, 2024