Regardless of whether you’re selling a home or buying one, you’re likely going to rely on the expertise of a real estate agent to help you out. However, not all real estate agents are equally helpful, and some may not even be worth it. Although you’re likely stressed crunching numbers into your seller closing costs calculator or searching for new homes, you still need to take time out of your busy schedule to vet the real estate agent you’re hiring. A good real estate agent can be a huge help in the real estate market, so you want to ensure you have one on your side. So how can you be sure the real estate agent you are hiring can get the job done? Here’s how to tell a good real estate agent from a bad one.
Market Knowledge
One of the most important parts of being a real estate agent is the knowledge you have about the local real estate market. If your real estate agent is a good one, they should know just about everything about the local real estate market. A good real estate agent should know what sells well in a particular area, as well as what prices homes are selling for. This knowledge is key to being a successful real estate agent. A bad real estate agent might struggle to remember facts about a particular real estate market, or they may even feed you wrong information. One of the main purposes of hiring a real estate agent is to help shore up your lack of real estate knowledge, and if your agent can’t do that, they’re not worth the cost.
Communication
Another important quality that your real estate agent should possess is good communication skills. Communicating is key as a real estate agent, as they need to express their ideas and opinions to you and other agents. Your real estate agent should be updating you constantly on your situation, and communicating with them shouldn’t be difficult at all. However, a bad real estate agent likely won’t communicate with you frequently, and may even fail to get urgent information to you as soon as possible. As a result, you may miss out on time-sensitive offers, something you obviously want to avoid happening.
Negotiation
Negotiation is an extremely important part of being a real estate agent. A real estate agent will be asked to negotiate with other agents to secure you the best deal possible. These negotiations are extremely important because if they go well, your agent can end up saving you thousands of dollars on your house purchase, or at least sweeten the deal a little bit. However, if you have a real estate agent that is bad at negotiating, you will likely gain nothing out of negotiations, something that can prove to be costly. It may be difficult to assess your real estate agents negotiating skills before it’s too late, so you may want to ask your real estate agent for past examples of when they successfully negotiated a better price for their client.
Ethics
Ethics and honesty are important in all aspects of life, and the real estate industry is no different. You want to surround yourself with good and honest people, so why should you put up with an unethical and dishonest real estate agent? A real estate agent should never engage in unethical or dishonest behavior, regardless of whether it works in your benefit or not. If a real estate agent recommends you to do something dishonest or unethical to get a better deal, you automatically know they are a bad real estate agent. Who knows what kind of other shady and unethical dealings they have going on, and you shouldn’t want to be a part of any of it.
