Your Real Estate Agent Should:

• Have enough years in the business to have worked through more than one cycle.  Have you noticed how real estate agents seem to have multiplied lately? When times are good, the numbers of agents soar. The rest of the time many find they can’t survive. Listing with an agent who has only worked in a sellers market may be tempting due to their sheer enthusiasm, but dangerous if the market begins to shift, and the agent fails to recognize it. I have seen this happen countless times to unfortunate sellers who miss the prime opportunity to sell. The market is changing long before prices do. Experienced agents know this.

• Tell you the truth.  It’s called a “market” because it is controlled by outside forces. You cannot wish it one way or the other. “Buying the Listing” is what we call it when an agent deliberately overprices your home to secure the listing. They know that you will end up reducing the price later when you’re locked in to the listing. When it finally sells it will likely be for less than if you had priced it right in the beginning, not to mention the expenses incurred while waiting. It’s also vital to be honest with Buyers about what they can expect for their dollar. To do otherwise is wasting everybody’s time, and, potentially causing them to miss their opportunity to buy.

• Have a Broker license.  It is much more difficult to obtain that a sales person’s license, and requires a higher level of knowledge, experience and commitment to the industry. All real estate agents must work under a Broker’s supervision, and the Broker is legally responsible for their actions.

• Be involved and accountable for all aspects of your transaction.  In this day and age of super-sizes, big companies getting bigger, and more and more people involved in everything we do, the reality has been a decrease in service, a lack of attention to detail, and dissatisfied customers. Dealing with one trustworthy and skilled REALTOR® who handles it all makes it all less stressful. Frankly, I don’t trust anyone else to handle your sale as well as I will.

• Not charge a “transaction fee” “administrative fee” or “service fee”.  A recent trend with large real estate companies is charging an additional service fee over and above the sales commission.

• Be a full-time professional REALTOR®. Relatives or friends that “dabble in real estate” while they mean well, are not qualified to advise you when large amounts of money are involved. Also, an experienced REALTOR® usually costs as much as a new agent, and is more likely to achieve a higher price and/or a smoother, faster sale for you.

• Not try to sell you every single house they show you! Pointing out the positives is one thing, but a hard sell on every showing means the agent is more interested in a commission than finding you the perfect house.

• Be willing to cancel your listing if you are not satisfied.  Even when you have taken the time to carefully select an agent, mistakes can be made. Perhaps their first impression was good but they are not following through and meeting your expectations. In any case, you should have the right to fire your agent, and not just be assigned to another within the company. Make sure you are in the “drivers seat” before signing a real estate contract.

• Use a picture of themselves in their ads that is from at least the current decade.  OK, this is just a personal pet peeve of mine but honesty in all things can´t hurt.