Real Estate Busters! Uncomfortable Issues to Consider When Choosing a Real Estate Agent

Choosing a Real Estate Agent Part I -- General Background Issue and Context

Experience--Big Deal or Con Job by Established Realtors?

So, number one and I’m going to list a series of questions for you and then break them down. Number one, how many years that you’ve been doing real estate? It’s an important question, it’s an obvious question, it’s one that consumer is almost never ask and why that is, I’m not sure. You don’t have to be doing real estate a million years to be good at real estate but you do need to have at least several years under your belt and if you have five or ten or twenty years under your belt you’re that much better. The reality is that you’re not dealing with an agent who is the top one percent, there are some inherent issues at stake that I will lay out in this series.

So, one in real estate you’ll not believe how many bizarre and unique circumstances or scenarios arrise – arise every year and every third contract in Great Falls is just unbelievable some of the unique things that come up. An experience agent has done, you know, a 100 or 200 or more transactions and they, they’ve been in so many situations. They know how to prevent the situations from arising that are going to weaken your contract or threaten your deal from closing or cause you a couple of months at grief et cetera. They know how to make sure you don’t miss the opportunity when it’s there and all has to do with having years of experience of putting fires out or getting defensive, I mean preventing the fires from occurring in the first place.

This relates to negotiating contracts, do they know paragraph by paragraph the contract inside and out. Do they know that if you void the contract because you don’t like the home inspection report that your the buyer cannot get your money back, your earnest money deposit unless seller signs off on it? What are they doing to protect you in that scenario? Have they added an addendum saying that parties well, that the earnest money will not be deposited until everyone has signed off on the home inspection repair addendum? I know of one other agent in the entire region out of thousands that is this defensive in protecting their clients financially and protecting their earnest money deposit.

But the point is only the most experienced agents are going to go out of their way and protect you, shield you from this bizarre scenarios that come up and your money. Another one has to do with the most experience agents tend to have the most reliable lender and contractor and home inspector referrals for you, people that will again prevent drama, that will protect you, that will make sure that you are covered throughout the process and a factor, that’s really what it comes down to. You’re much more effected if your agent has a ton of experience out there in the real world.

Future parts of this series include technology, winning against multiple offers, instincts, and financially desperate agents....So stay tuned as it gets interesting!