What to look for in a realtor?

[Industrial Toys]

Also "generally" known as what one does when one doesn't want to get dirty and has no other marketable other skills. So, it's no surprise that most agents have lack luster performance.

 

[Sigarms]

but Im wondering how or why youre getting 2.5% - 3% commissions? Here its 5-7% easily.

Mine was in the latter, and from what I've researched, that seems to be average.

As noted, I can't complain. I was surprised he was able to sell it at his asking price in all honesty.

 

[bunyip]

I look at a few things in an agent, if they drive a flashy locally made GT V8 with lots of stripes and 'look at me' I am not interested, also identified by wearing a cheap of the peg suit with a cheap tie.
Our last agent drove a mid size Peugeot, tailor made suit and silk tie, quietly spoken and did not promise the earth, he was efficient, kept us informed and sold our place in about three weeks.
Some agents have their picture on the side of their cars, I find that cringeworthy and just plain crass and I won't go near them as generally when you hear them talk they are what we call chicken runs, lots of noise and full of sh##.
A place we were looking at was being handles by an honest agent, he couldn't answer a question we had and told us he couldn't but endeavoured to get the answer and got back to us within 24 hours with the answer, they are something of a rarity and I wish he was in our area as I would give him our place to sell.

 

[Jstpssng]

Over here lately I see a lot of husband and wife teams... and the picture looks like it should be on their wedding invitations, not on a real estate ad.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Kind of sad. Some Fugly person may be highly effective, but people gravitate toward the attractive.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Here they want 7% to put a sign in your yard, and put a picture on their web page.

 

[airbiscuit]

Our realtor was excellent. Got us more than her commission cost, spoke straight. Did more than put a picture on a website - Hired a professional photographer (no up charge) that made a huge difference. I agree that if you get an unengaged realtor, it could be frustrating, but we got well more than our money's worth from an excellent realtor.

 

[PILOON]

"Some agents have their picture on the side of their cars, I find that cringeworthy and just plain crass and I won't go near them as generally when you hear them talk they are what we call chicken runs, lots of noise and full of sh##."

LOL, probably was a former used car salesman, the kind that can sell ice boxes to Eskimos.

 

[Sigarms]

Good to hear your positive results. I've had good and bad experiences with realtors, but overall, most are just forgettable. The good ones get the job done, provide solutions to problems and streamline the entire process. The bad ones make stupid suggestions, lie instead of finding the correct answer and seem to have a list of horrible people that they rely on to solve issues.

One of the services I offer to clients is to provide my personal opinion of a house that they are considering buying. I do not and cannot by law provide a home inspection, but I can give them an idea of what it will cost to fix or remodel the house. Twice while doing this there was a home inspector there doing his inspection. I never met either of them before, but after telling my clients that I would not buy the house due to a list of issues that I saw, they both came up to me and told me in private that they felt the same way, but couldn't put what I said into their reports. Every time that I've done this, the realtor is there with us and some are very helpful and others have told some ridiculous lies. Mostly I just talk to my clients, but a few times I've called the realtor out on their lies and it just gets worse from there.

After thanking my realtor today via a phone call, you should think about going into the realty business. He sounds a lot like you. He was doing remodeling and home additions for people, and he just got tired of dealing with realtors on that side of the work he was doing and decided to become a realtor himself, and it ended up becoming more of a full time job than he expected.

If you work hard for your money, it doesn't matter what business you're in, you're still working hard.

 

[dragoneggs]

Over here lately I see a lot of husband and wife teams... and the picture looks like it should be on their wedding invitations, not on a real estate ad.

Yes, the last ones I dealt with selling my last house was a husband and wife team. Worked well. I initially 'interviewed' them both to see if we would be a good fit. Then I only dealt with her. I had several contractor needs to get the house really and 'he' did all of that coordination and supervision. She worked the sales side with customers and interfacing w/ other agents. Worked out very well. They were also experienced and knew the local market very well.