Buying a home is a massive learning experience and tedious task. Having a professional to make the process smooth on behalf of you is very helpful. But choosing a good realtor is not easy. If you fail to choose the right one, it will cause many headaches during purchasing and even after the closing with title issues. Consider the following while choosing a realtor to buy a home.
- Check for the need: First decide the type of agent you need. If you want an agent who deals with buyers only, you can choose one from national association of exclusive buyer agents member. These agents work only for buyers. On the website of the association, you can search these agents. There are several situations specialists like the purchase of a luxury home, the mobile home purchase, buying a short sale, and the purchase of a ranch property.
- Online search: There are many realtor websites available. Search for the best realtors by checking reviews and forums. You will get some idea about the realtors that actively work in your required area.
- Referrals: Ask your friends, relatives and neighbors those who have worked with the realtor. Ask about their experience with those realtor and check if they are going work with the same person again. If they are interested to work with them and any of them is worked more than one time and having a positive opinion meet those realtors.
- Ask the right questions: Prepare a list of questions that lead to data verifying regarding business time and the geography and the market they know in which you want to buy. Meet at least three professionals and ask the same series of questions. Ask about the sales numbers that they have sold over the past few years, check for the consistency in that number. Find how many current buyers and sellers they have at present. Their experience in the industry, the most difficult closing experience, prices of homes that you are required in that area, etc. are a few points to consider.
- Know their process: Clearly know their process. Whether they will check with you everyday, or only the exact one they find for you, send the listings every week, how much time they will take to show the home if they find for you, etc. Set the expectation before proceeding with them.
- Sign on agreement: At the end, the realtor will ask you to sign on a contract. Before sign on the contract make sure that all of your queries are answered. If there are any reservations, doubts do not sign on the contract. Trust someone those who will work hard on behalf you.
Do not discuss financing because you may need an approval letter in advance from your mortgage company while you are purchasing. The loan programs are constantly changing, so the realtor may not know about the correct information and may give you misinformation. Loan officer is the best source because they are up to date.