If you’re buying or selling a property, you need to deal with the entire real estate fleet of appraisers, contractors, home inspectors, mortgage loan officers, and prospective buyers or sellers. Moreover, you need to read all the necessary paperwork related to contracts, deeds, leases, and also learn about the laws and regulations of the specific state or country you’re moving to.
It doesn’t have to be this way if you hire a real estate agent. But entrusting your life’s biggest and most precious investment to a real estate agent is a big deal. Are they worth your trust, time, and money? Let’s find out.
What do Real Estate Agents do?
From the moment you decide to buy or sell a property to the moment you close the deal; your real estate agent stays with you. They provide you with expert advice and help you in purchasing or selling your property at the right price and at the right time. They do so by keeping a constant tab on the real estate market trends.
Real estate agents perform a market analysis to determine the value of a property you should sell at or buy at. Along with this, they handle all the nitty-gritty of the paperwork and law-abiding on your behalf. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and only get up for the final handshake.
However, there’s one step before you can become carefree: finding a good real estate agent. This can seem like a big task in itself. To make your life easier, we’ve compiled a list of 4 proven qualities that separate the best from the rest.
Quality #1: Fantastic listening and communication skills
The whole point behind getting an agent is so that you can save yourself from the house or customer hunting grind. Ideally, you would be handed a list of shortlisted sellers or buyers with every detail regarding the potential deals. Hence, you need a good communicator who always keeps you in the loop.
Look for a good listener who listens to understand your requirements and narrow down the list of potential buyers or properties. Also, listening and communication will play a vital role in negotiating your golden price.
Quality #2: Local Area Expertise
If you are buying a house in a new locality, your real estate agent should be able to tell you the pros and cons of staying in that area. They should know the bus and train routes, local markets, nearby hospitals and schools, as well as local planning regulations. They should be able to feed you with all the details to help you make an informed decision.
Quality #3: Knowledge of real estate laws
Real estate laws and regulations vary from state to state and the best real estate agents have a wide and deep pool of knowledge about real estate laws and regulations.
It’s rather simple to gauge this with a test: for example, if you are in Spokane, Washington, you can easily run a search for real estate agent Spokane, and shortlist a few of them based on the reviews and other info you can find online. When you speak to your shortlisted agents, ask them about real estate laws on Security Deposit or the Maximum Rent Regulations in Spokane. Compare their responses to gauge the best agent.
The way they answer will also tell you a lot about them. This step is really important because if your real estate agent is missing out on any important information on state or local real estate laws, you may land in big trouble down the line.
Quality #4: A dynamic approach
A real estate agent should be willing to hustle and have a tenacious attitude in even adverse market conditions. When you first meet your agent, ask yourself if you think they will be able to pursue your leads with full force and promptly deal with your other requests? If you’ve met the right agent, your answer will be an assuring yes.
Bottom line
Trusting a real estate agent with your property is equivalent to trusting them with your future. Therefore, don’t choose anyone who doesn’t reflect the above qualities of trustworthiness and assurance.
