Signs It’s Time To Change Real Estate Agents

Using the information above let’s look at what a good real estate agent should and likely would do.

When you are buying or selling a home it’s very important that your real estate agent listen to you. They should seek to find your motivation for buying or selling. What is important to you and why. A good agent will ask for your expectations and line up with each one delivering a solution for each expectation. Questions like “how often do you communicate with us” should be met with “how often would you like me to? What method – email, text message, phone call etc.

It it important that you find an agent with experience representing buyers or sellers and negotiating on their behalf. Practical experience will help an agent diffuse situations with other real estate agents, your lender, title company appraiser etc before it becomes a problem for you. Experience will also save you time and money. Time if you are buying a home as an experienced agent will often have an area in mind when you say good schools, a quiet area or acreage is important to you.

Not many things piss me off more than asking someone a question I feel is not only important but justified to hear a response back that tries to make me feel stupid. Regardless of how many homes you have bought or sold, you will likely have some stress and frustration – it’s totally normal, especially when we feel we are not in control to ask questions. If you ask a question, your agent should bend over backwards to answer it in a way that puts you at ease.

People can be manipulative and most of us are good at it. As parents we often manipulate our children to do what we want them to do. “Oh you don’t want to clean your room? I guess that means you don’t want to go to Chuck E Cheese” or whatever. You are not a child. A good real estate agent will give you the facts and allow you to make your own decision. If you have questions you will ask – you probably don’t want your agent saying – “it’s a good offer take it!”, “its a good offer hurry before they change their mind”, or “I would write a contract on this home right now before someone else does!”

Buying a house is one of the most important decisions any of us will ever make. That being said, it takes time to find the right home. A good agent will do their best to make every appointment you have agreed to or find someone who can. This is where a real estate agent with a team can be beneficial, if life comes up [and it will]  someone from their team can work with you to show you homes. Your time is valuable, make sure your agent respects it by being there when they have agreed to.

To some degree real estate is still a relational business. It’s important that you feel comfortable with this person you are going to spend the next 30 – 60 days with [or more]. A good agent will make this time enjoyable by not being pushy or difficult. In a real estate transaction there are many moving parts, some of which YOU get to choose – lender, title company, inspectors etc. A good agent will not try and push you to choose any vendor over another. Instead they will present the information and the pros and cons of each and let YOU make the decision. You want a real estate agent that other agents want to work with as well. If your agent has a reputation for being pushy, other agents will do their best not to work with them, at it’s extreme it could mean picking another agents offer over yours or not making an offer at all on your home.

Offers advice and opinions when asked

You are hiring a “professional” to help you with the purchase or sale of your home” one of the duties of a professional is to help you make decisions. Help in the form of facts and experiences. If you ask your agent if this is a good offer you probably don’t want to hear “it’s up to you”, instead a good agent will show you comparables of other homes that have sold to allow you to make an educated decision. While a real estate agent can not specifically tell you that one area is bad or has high crime they can tell you their own personal experience. “If it was me buying I would look over here because. . . .”

Asks lots of questions

A good real estate agent will ask you a lot of questions in the beginning, it will clearly be more about you and your needs that their ego and needs. Rather than tell you how amazingly awesome their real estate brand is [which 97% of consumers could care less about] they will ask you questions like “what is important to you in a real estate agent?” “what are the non negotiable’s in your new home?” Why? “If you could pick your dream home what would it look like?”

Real Estate Marketing

If you are selling your home you will want a real estate agent that is a marketing powerhouse. Many real estate agents will take your listing, enter it into the multiple listing service and wait for it to sell. A good agent will be able to tell you what websites your home is going to be featured on with what keywords – [the address and subdivision better be 2 of them] that consumers are looking for online. Chances are, your home will be found online by a buyer first as 94% of consumers start their home search online. A good real estate agent will make sure your home is at the top of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, most real estate consumers prefer video over text or pictures so a good real estate agent will make sure your home has a virtual tour that is optimized to be found online. Optimized videos are 57% more likely to be on the 1st page of google than text.

So, do you have a bad agent? I don’t know but you have some great information above to make an educated decision about your future with this real estate agent. “Agent” means someone is acting on your behalf, as in “representing” you.  The real estate agent you choose should embody many of the character traits that you value – honesty, open and honest communication, feedback, loyalty etc.

If you decide to change real estate agents make sure you get it in WRITING. Doing so will formally and legally end the relationship which could save you from paying a commission if another real estate agent sells your home.  Make it crystal clear that the relationship has been cancelled. Not all real estate agents are created the same but after 10 years in the title industry I know many of the good ones. Fill out the form below and I will make sure you get a real estate agent that will listen to you and put your interests above all else.