Choosing your buyer’s agent is like hiring someone to work for you.
You have several opportunities to determine whether the agent is a good fit before you sign your buyer agency agreement. Take advantage of these interview opportunities.
There is a great list of questions to ask your agent before working with them. In addition to these questions, here are a few other “tests.”
1) How fast does your agent get in touch with you after you call them? What was this experience like?
Did you sit on hold for 10 minutes before finally leaving a voice mail? How long did it take for the phone call to be returned? If it took longer than a few hours, did they explain why, indicating that this will not be typical? (“I apologize for the delay, I was showing homes to a client,” etc.). If you contact an agent and do not hear back from them right away, and I mean at the longest within a few hours, this is a bad sign. If they are not anxious and prompt to earn your business, they will probably not be prompt once they have your business and you have a question.
2) How was your overall experience with this person, and what was your overall impression?
Should you choose your agent based on how many compliments they pay your child, and how hard they laugh at your jokes? Of course not. But, you should get along with them. You will be spending many of your weekend hours with this person, and telling them some personal information about your finances, hopes and dreams etc. The more honest you can be, the better they can help you.
Also, if the agent is overwhelmingly “sales-ey”, he or she might be a good person to keep in mind when it is time to sell your home. An honest and straightforward agent will be better to work with when you are a buyer.
3) Go through a home with your agent.
Ask them questions about the home. They should know more about homes than you – they are the professional, after all. If they have absolutely nothing negative to point out about the home, you might start questioning the agent’s integrity and motives. There is no such thing as a “perfect” home. Your absolute dream house will still probably have a few pros and cons. To make a good decision, you need to be aware of the cons too.
Buying a home is probably the biggest investment I’ll ever make, and that’s true for most people. This is not something to take lightly.
I hate to say it, but I will- there are some bad agents out there. Agents with good intentions and little experience, agents with bad intentions and lots of experience, and probably even some agents with bad intentions and no experience. But, there are also great agents with good intentions and impressive experience; I worked with one. This is the kind of agent you want to work with.
It certainly does make a difference who you work with. I’ve read a few stories written by home buyers that made me cringe. Tales of agents trying to sell them every home they walked into, each home more “perfect” than the last. Tales of agents not returning calls, and even a few cases where the agent left the buyers’ unprotected.
But, don’t despair!! There are good, honest, hard working agents out there to make sure you get the representation, protection and advice you need to buy a home. You just need to find them.
1) Take the task of finding an agent seriously – it is an important decision that can greatly affect the rest of the process.
2) Shop for agent first, not the house.
3) Ask your friends and family for references.
4) Choose an agent that is a member of professional associations.
5) Ask for references, and contact them.
6) Find an agent that knows the area, better than you.
7) Find an agent that has experience with transactions in your price range.
8) Find an agent that is prompt in contacting you.
9) Find an agent that you can be honest with.
10) Find an agent that understands what you want.
11) Find an agent willing to spend time explaining things that you do not understand, and that explains things in a way that you do understand.
12) Find an agent that does not make you feel pressured to buy.
We met with our exclusive buyer’s agent for the first time last night, and I have to tell you, it was better than I expected. Besides the fact that our agent didn’t mind that my two month old had a lot of input during the meeting (little one came along, she’s a part of the family too!), I learned a lot about real estate in Colorado and feel like I am going into this the way a Responsible Adult would: prepared.
Our Buyer’s Agent wanted to know more about us than our budget.
First, our potential buyer’s agent asked us things that we hadn’t even thought about before, and realized that we should have.
Where do you work? How long has the company been there? Is there any chance that the company will move or that you will change jobs? What do you consider a comfortable commute?
What can you afford? Not what can you qualify for, but what will be a comfortable house payment for you?
What are you looking for in a home? What are requirements and what are bonuses?
What are you scared about? What are you excited about? How long do you imagine you will live in your first home? Do you like to do home maintenance? And so on.
It was probably an hour long interview. I told him things I haven’t even told my mother. (Just kidding Mom, I tell you everything).
Only then, when I felt like he really understood our mission, did he start creating a search for us.
Our Buyer’s Agent was more like a professor than a sales person.
I am proud to say that I now understand the difference between a full and three quarters bath, the year builders stopped using lead paint, the difference between an FHA loan and a conventional loan, and what it means to go “ In to Contract.”
Any time we had a question, he explained it thoroughly and in plain English. I was not afraid that asking him what covenants are would reveal that I am a novice and I can be taken advantage of. (That’s right; I even know what covenants are).
It turns out there’s not “an app for that.”
My husband and I had done hundreds of searches at home online. You can specify the city you want to live, how many rooms, bathrooms, year built, etc. It’s pretty thorough and quite fun. But, we don’t know Colorado very well, so every house we liked had to be researched to see where it is, how good the schools are, and how safe it is.
Going through the search results with our buyer’s agent was completely different.
Now, we have some one that can translate “needs a little TLC” to “this house is falling apart.” Our buyer’s agent knows almost every street in Colorado. When he didn’t, he could find it on a map faster than I could Google it, I’m not kidding. He could look at the address and know that it was in a safe neighborhood with a great school, and was a good possibility, or that it was right off of a major road and would be too noisy, so we should skip it.
We left the meeting with a list of potential homes in Denver, Arvada and Littleton, a list of trusted lenders and confidence in our step.
We know that each of the houses meets our criteria, are in our budget, and that we are taking the right steps. Instead of feeling scared, I now feel confident.
Tomorrow, we will go see the houses.
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