Real Estate

How do you qualify a real estate agent? Lets start with, where do you find an agent to work with. The most common place to look is at friends and family who know a Realtor or who have worked with one recently. Normally their experience is an excellent way to determine if you will get along with the agent. Another place to look is online, who has the best ads or website? Lastly, might be from a sign in a yard.

Lets assume you have found your agent and maybe you have found several agents to consider working with. Here are some great topics to consider when deciding who to work with.

Personality:
Admittedly, if a friend had a great time working with someone, I will probably enjoy working with them. And that is important because finding a home can drag out into a very long process and can involve some serious heart to heart conversations. And if you're in a relationship, when things get stressful, you're agent will most likely hear a lot of your heated conversations as you debate the homes. So make sure the person or persons you work with can be trusted and makes you feel comfortable in their presence.

Experience:
Experience isn't always the length of time someone has been in the industry. The reality is that 90 hours of school, a couple of tests and small monthly fee is all you need to be a Realtor. There are many Realtors who have obtained their license, helped one or two people buy a home and then they went back to their regular full time job, but kept their license active.

So how do you define experience?

Transactions Completed - trial by fire in the trenches is the best teacher, with no two transactions being the same, it is the completed deals that open a Realtor's mind to the possibilities for chaos in every deal.

Education - There are two types of education to consider with a Realtor. First, is the college education. Fewer than 50% of Realtors have a 4 year degree and less than 10% have a master's degree. The value of a degree varies from person to person, because each person will apply that knowledge differently, some won't apply it at all. From personal experience, having a master's degree in business has helped me greatly in operating and understanding the intricacies of a business.

The second type of education is the continued education in the form of designations and general continued education. Every Realtor is required to obtain 24hrs of continued education every two years, most will cram the courses into a 3 or 4 day course before their license expires. Which is useless knowledge. The good continued education is held in the courses taken through out the years as the market changes. For example, as foreclosures rise, good Realtors will be attending courses to understand the foreclosure market.

Designations are special courses designed to help Realtors advance their knowledge in certain areas and the designation documents their efforts in obtaining the additional education. The common designations are GRI, ABR, and CRS. It can often take over a year to obtain each designation.

Associations/Affiliations - while this is harder to document, the most relevant and up to date knowledge of the market is spread via word of mouth. Its the tips and tricks everyone learns through good and bad experiences (yes Realtors get sued) that makes agents sharp and on point. The best place to obtain this word of mouth knowledge is through continued education at all levels.

Real estate transactions a much deeper than simply putting an offer together and having money exchange hands. There is a large amount of work, liability and unseen challenges that are presented in every transaction. Make sure your agent is qualified and will do their best job representing you.