How to Chose a Real Estate Agent (Part I)

Like many sale-focused industries, real estate has its share of winners and losers in the business. Common stereotypes ascribed to loser real estate agents far too often include: wheeling, dealing, lying, scum, second only to used-car salesmen and attorneys. We are aware of this and, no, we don’t like it. It is important to remember that one person’s loser salesperson is another person’s winner.

Perhaps more than any other industry, real estate professionals cover all reaches of society. We are, after all, talking about transacting a big-ticket item in our lives, to which we place tremendous emotional and personal attachment. Perhaps the stereotypes of society itself permit us, as buyers and sellers, to attribute the aforementioned monikers to our very socially diverse real estate agent community.

The most important thing to remember is that whomever you decide to work with, that person is a trained and licensed professional who is required by state and federal government to maintain an annual curriculum. Additionally, as part of its national charter, the National Association of REALTORS ® requires each of its members to adhere to a strict code of ethics as well as maintain an ethics training certificate. The degree of professionalism you seek is individual however and based upon each real estate agent’s own personal acumen. Find someone who you click with and you’ll never look back at a stereotype again. So how does one find a winning combination that works? There are a number of helpful tips to begin with.

• Educate yourself on their area of experience. Study how they do business and how the home buying process works. Know the difference between a referral and a buyer agency agreement. Know your credit score and what it’s used for. Learn about mortgages, closings and escrows. There are a number of free resources available on and offline to educate yourself. Until you do this you won’t be on a level playing field to start with. The Wisconsin REALTORS ® Association website, www.wra.org is one such resource.
• Know what you’re shopping for. It’s not enough to know you prefer northern Door to southern Door County . You should know the amount of square footage you would settle for, how many beds and baths you want, how much acreage you need, perhaps even the color of the house. The more you can describe to yourself the better your chance at success. Also, get familiar with Door County ’s legal resources and the legal requirements in a transaction. This may include learning how to search the courthouse database and where to find the phone number for the Sanitarian. As you become more familiar with the process you will become more familiar with what you will and will not require during your transaction.
• Don’t hire an agent who you haven’t done some preliminary background checking upon or for whom such background information is not readily available. Your agent should be accessible and well known. How many transactions has this person performed in the past year? How well do they know the Door County market? Ask a friend for a referral. Typically, people you trust who have had a positive outcome will often typify your expectations.
• This may go without saying but the agent should be at work for you full-time and specialize in the area you are most interested in. Dabblers in the real estate business may be good for the dabbler-type individual but seldom meet the expectations of a vast majority of buyers who are looking for a professional.
• Ask any prospective agent whom they would recommend in a secondary situation. This should catch nearly every agent by surprise. Their response (hesitant or straightforward) will do a great deal to ensure their integrity and honesty. Be sure to write the names down. You never know where your impression of their answer to this question will take you.

So if you are being told to learn all of this why use a real estate agent anyway? Other than their commitment to learn, stay educated and take continuous abuse by stereotype and the cold hard business world there are four big reasons to use an agent: liability, accountability, disclosure and buffering emotional attachment between two parties. It’s not as easy as one thinks. By beginning the learning process above such adversities will become readily apparent.

Next issue, how to interview the agents you have selected.

Kevin Nordahl is a life-long resident of Door County, a REALTORŪ and a member of the Door County MLS. He is a Past President of the Door County Board of REALTORS® and a Senior Sales Consultant at Coldwell Banker Door County Horizons in Fish Creek. He may be reached online at knordahl@doorcountyrealestate.com or by phone at (920) 493-4004.

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