How to Spot a Good Real Estate Agent

By Wasib Imdad

The process of buying and selling property is, indeed, an exciting experience. There is a certain thrill in trailing a client, marketing your requirements or belongings, and cracking a deal. A good real estate agent aids and abets the whole process as he is familiar with the ins and outs of the property market.

Whether you are purchasing a house or selling commercial property, an experienced and skilled agent by your side is essential. Today, there is a huge list of agents and brokers to choose from, thus finding a perfect fit for your needs can be a challenge.

The smartest property portal of Pakistan, Graana.com offers the following tips to help you learn about what to look for in real estate agents in order to facilitate your dealings.

Someone Who Knows Your Interests

You have to find yourself a real estate agent who understands what your interests are. For that, you as a client need to be transparent and honest about what type of property you’re looking for. If an agent isn’t coming up with the right options for your requirements, it’s likely that they aren’t exploring options for you but are rather looking to benefit themselves. Find an agent you can question upfront and never be afraid to move on to another option if the relationship doesn’t feel right.

Look for Enthusiasm, Conviction, and Honesty

It is vital to go through the agent’s work profile. This is the easiest and most valuable way to review how the agent is marketing other properties. Look up their websites, brochures, listing materials, and signage. Pay close attention to the details of their appearance.

If you don’t find honesty, passion, and conviction, you are free to move on and look for better options. You want to go for the best price and your agent to provide you with information about what it’s going to take to sell your home faster.

Ask Acquaintances for Referrals

Ask your family and friends for recommendations and ask them why they recommend a specific person. A referral is an excellent way to reveal what quality of services is offered by a specific agent. This will give you detailed information that can be used to determine whether an agent is suited to help you with your real estate goals or not.

Even though technology is taking over much of the process of searching for a home, real estate agents are still a human-to-human interaction.  To an agent, there isn’t any bigger compliment than to get to him via a past client. If you decide on the area where you want to purchase, you can certainly ask around for an expert in that area.

Read Online Testimonials/Reviews

In this day and age, the utility of the internet is very helpful to evaluate a potential real estate agent. Many real estate agents have posted client testimonials on their websites, whereas others have them on their social media platforms. These testimonials, however, seldom disclose any negative feedback.

To get an accurate portrayal of a real estate agent, conduct a thorough online search to track down user-submitted testimonials and reviews.

Go For Real Estate Companies of Your Area

Many websites can refer agents to you, but that gives no assurance of quality. The agent a website refers to may have paid the website a fee so that it can list him in their directories. A better way of doing things would be to track down the top real estate companies of your area and their websites will provide profiles of individual agents.

There you can find a detailed account of their experience. Often when we list real estate agents, we go for experience and rule out newbies,  but the fact is that they are often more passionate and have more time to spend with you.

Interview Multiple Agents

After you jot down a list of potential real estate agents, conducting in-person interviews to narrow down the specifics of each one is a good idea.  There are various ways real estate agents help clients in buying or selling a property, in different areas and with varying levels of expertise. A real estate agent must align himself with your personal preferences and goals.

Attend Open Houses

Open houses, conducted by various real estate agencies, are great platforms to meet real estate professionals in a working environment, and interaction with them provides you with a holistic idea of what to do and whom to choose. When you visit open houses, do make sure that you take agents’ business cards and observe their personalities. Watch closely how the agent markets a property.

Look for someone who is polite, knowledgeable, and appears informative. Make sure to choose someone who gives out professional-looking promotional material about the property. The agent should ideally be giving tours and pointing out features, being proactive in terms of marketing a property.

Neighborhood Knowledge is Essential

Neighborhood knowledge is an irreplaceable asset. The more information a real estate agent has about a specific area, the better it is. Ideally, your choice of a real estate agent should be that of one who is highly knowledgeable about an area that you’re buying or selling in so that your goals are accomplished efficiently and effectively.

Wasib is a content specialist at Graana.com.