First of all, I am obviously not a disinterested 3rd party. I will however try to be.
My advice:
Pick an agent that has been in the business a few years and is full time.
Pick an agent that does between 12 and 20 transactions a year. Why the range? First, it establishes the agent as a successful full time
professional. Why the upper limit? Because any more than 20 transactions and they probably need auxiliary staff. Why is this a problem?
This question brings up one of my pet peeves. Here is a typical pitch from a high producing agent. “I do over 85 transactions a year”
“When you hire me, you hire not just me but my team.” None of this is of any particular advantage to you. The economies of scale, number
of transactions, benefit the listing agent, not you. The typical high producing agent is a listing specialist. They go from listing
presentation to listing presentation and farm most of the rest of the work out to subordinates. Invariably, the most difficult transactions I
have are with these real estate “teams”
These listing agents are very good. They specialize. Their pitch, dog and pony show, is very effective. These folks can be very charismatic,
but that is of no advantage to you in that they are mostly done with the transaction after they leave your home. I have had transactions where I never talked to the listing agent. They are invariably a mess. It’s like dealing with the DMV.
Back again to my advise on how to pick an agent.
Absolutely my favorite tip:
Call the agent late on a Friday afternoon. Do they pick up the phone, or call you back soon? If not, or if one of the “team”
call you back to say they will relay the message, my advice is to move along.
Again, avoid the high producing agents with “teams” No benefit you you. Experienced listing or selling agents that handle their own deals
can deal with each other. They have experience handling difficulties and are familiar with the entire transaction and the personalities
involved. They have experience and skin in the game. No brainier really.
I realize this is a little counterintuitive. After all, great success means greater competence right? More folks to help, how can that
be bad right? The more deals they have the more likely they will be to sell my home right? None of this is true, at least in my opinion.
Good luck with your next real estate transaction. If you found this post and have read this far, that is the most I can expect from this
effort.
