REAL(TOR) IDEAS ON HIRING AN AGENT
marketing, experience and tools of the trade: insider secrets to hiring a realtor
Buying or selling a home can be one of the most unsettling things people can do. Nerves aflutter and buyer’s remorse and sleepless nights can be an overwhelming part of the process if it is not started correctly from the outset. So having a game plan and being on the same page with the broker chosen to handle the transaction is not just important, it is imperative to the completion of a satisfactory experience.
“The first thing, knowing what I know about the business, the industry, that I would do is make sure the person I chose, was in fact a REALTOR,” said Danny Wm. Vigil, president of the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS board of directors. “Not everybody who practices real estate is a REALTOR. Some are licensed agents. The difference is a REALTOR is a member of the National Association of REALTORS and a member of the state association and a member of the local board, GAAR.”
This is important, he said, because there are certain principles by which REALTORS agree to adhere.
“The membership binds them to abiding by a code of ethics,” Vigil said. “That is very important because those are the business practices that we practice under.”
Kelly Tinnin, a long-time REALTOR who is now the GAAR training administrator, said it’s important to realize that the buying or selling of a home needs to be treated with as little emotion as possible.
“Agents can’t be all things to all people,” she said. “Real estate is a relationship between the agent and the client and it’s a business relationship.”
Both sides need to tackle it from that perspective, Tinnin said.
“As a broker, or agent, with real estate transactions you tend to work with people you like,” she said. “And it can be emotional when choosing an agent. The client needs to ask themselves, ‘Can I like this person? Can I trust this person? Will I be able to work with them? The same for the agent. That door swings both ways.”
Being knowledgeable about the area of town that’s in question also is imperative, Vigil said.
“Something I would want to get from them is what business they have done in the area I’m looking to live in,” he said. “If I’m looking to live on the Westside, I want to know what they know about the market and what they know about the growth. I’d want to know what they know about the crime rates, although we usually refer people to websites for crime statistics.”
The bottom line, however, is that local information that an agent can provide can be the difference in a sale, Vigil said.
“Their knowledge there is going to be helpful for me as far as the deal that I get on the house, whether it’s a good deal or not a good deal,” he said. “Every buyer wants to get a good deal. The saying is when you make your money on real estate when you buy it, not when you sell it, so everybody’s looking to buy smart.”
Likewise, agents who are not fulltime REALTORS may not always have the time to commit to getting a transaction completed, especially if some bumps arise. “The transactions are taking place and things are happening throughout the day, not just in the evening if you’re doing it as a part-time job. I would want to be working with someone who is a full-time REALTOR,” said Vigil.
That displays a commitment level not only to the client but the business itself, Tinnin said. It shows the agent is willing to put all their effort into doing research and collecting the latest information.
And it’s definitely something a client should know about an agent.
“How is the agent staying current in the changing business,” Tinnin said is a good question to ask. “What is the agent doing to stay engaged in real estate on a regular basis? First of all, getting behind the computer and looking at houses is a good start, but the market performs on a generalized basis and our market is very specific. Trends in Uptown are very different than trends in Downtown or the Westside or the Northeast Heights.”
That again comes down to knowing the crazy world of the Albuquerque metro market.
“Do you know what the hyper-local trends are?” Tinnin added as another important question to ask. “Are you reading the paper? Reading other real estate publications? Do you follow what’s happening industry-wide in terms of market trends and policy?”
A track record of success is also a good indicator of how well an agent will do in a client’s particular case, although that’s not an end-all and beall either.
“It’s really tough because you can have somebody who sells 100 homes a year, but it could be really situational,” Tinnin said. “You obviously want someone who has some skin in the game, so how engaged are they and what type of properties have they sold? It’s also important that if there are special circumstances, how have you dealt with that before? Like septic tanks or wells. Farm and ranch. Do they have experience dealing with the special circumstance that you have going on with your property?”
And when it comes time to sell, an agent must be on top of the latest marketing techniques, Vigil said.
“What tools do they have to differentiate my house?” he said. “They should be able to promise at least three things: listing it on MLS, putting a ‘for sale’ sign in the yard and putting it on the internet. But it’s how they do those things, how they use those tools that differentiates one REALTOR from the other because most buyers are going to be online looking at properties. I want to know specifically how the picture quality is. What about the use of videography? And I want to know if a potential buyer drives by and sees the sign in front, how easily they will be able to get a hold of that REALTOR. Because when they’re in the front yard looking, that’s when their interest is at a peak and if they cannot get a hold of the guy for a day or so, they lose interest.”