How to Find the Best Real Estate Agent for Your Needs

Want to skip the article and start searching for an agent right away? Start here: Find a Top Real Estate Agent to Buy a Home


When you consider what a real estate agent will do for you during your home buying or selling experience -- and when you consider the amount of money on the line -- it only makes sense to find the best real estate agent for your particular needs.

The question may people have is not "why," but how do I find the best agent for me? I'll give you some tips on that in just a moment. But first, I want to assign a definition to the word "best," which is just an empty superlative without a definition behind it.

What makes a real estate agent the best one for you? For starters, it depends on whether you are buying or selling a home. Some agents help buyers and sellers alike, while others specialize in one area. My advice is to find one who specializes in either the home buying or selling process, whichever is applicable to your situation.

For example, if you are planning to sell your house, you don't want an agent who spends most of his or her time helping buyers. In this scenario, the best real estate agent for you would be one with a long history of helping sellers.

And speaking of experience, this is the next thing you need to consider when choosing an agent. Most will publish their skills, training and experience onto their websites, which gives you a quick and easy way to size them up. I recommend you skip over the fluff messaging about "quality and integrity" and zero in on their accomplishments. For example:

• If the agent primarily helps sellers, how many has he or she helped over the years? What is the average selling time when she represents a client? Does she have a history of selling at or above market value?
• If the real estate agent helps mostly buyers, how many has she helped? What have those clients had to say about her, in terms of testimonials? How well does she know there area where you want to live (schools, neighborhoods, etc.)?

Now let's talk about some of the ways you can find the best agent for your particular needs. These days, thanks to the Internet, finding a real estate professional is easier than ever. Here are some of the things you can, both online and off:

5 Ways to Find a Real Estate Agent

• I recommend you start the process by seeking referrals from family members or friends. Who better to recommend an agent than the people you know and trust? Often, you don't need to look any further than your own "circle" to find the best real estate professional for your needs.
• If you have a preference for a certain real estate company (like one of the big national names), you could start with their website and look for agents in your area.
• I'm a big fan of reading the blogs of local real estate agents, as way of judging their intelligence, personality and professional skill. You can easily find the blogs of realty professionals in your area just by doing a Google search and sifting through the results. For example, here in Austin I would do a search for the phrase "Austin real estate blogs." I got a ton of results when I searched this, by the way.
• You could use one of the big Realtor search websites, such as Home Gain. It's a free and easy way to get matched up with local Realtors in your neighborhood. Start here: Check Commission Rates in Your Neighborhood
  
  

I hope this guide to finding the best agent has give you some useful ideas, and I wish you all the best in your future real estate endeavors.