Picking Your Real Estate Agent

A real estate agent is important when you want to sell or buy a house. They can help you with information concerning availability of proprieties, prices, terms and conditions, financing and a lot more. You can get the best price when having a real estate agent on your side when you want to buy or sell property.

If you want things to go smoothly, you should be careful when choosing your real estate agent. Your agent has influence on losing or gaining a significant amount of money on your home transaction. You must be diligent when choosing a real estate agent -- first, you have to look for a real estate agent that has experience.

Never go to a novice for advice. Many people simply choose their friends or acquaintances as their realtor, but something as important as buying or selling a home shouldn't simply be handed over to a friend. Referrals from friends/family are an important consideration, but not the only one.

Choose an agent that has at least two years of experience in both the submarket you're in, as well as the specific property type you're dealing with. If you want to buy a home in the suburbs, a realtor that focuses on downtown properties won't be the best match for you, even if they're the best realtor downtown. Similarly if you want to sell your single family home, don't use an apartment broker --- there are ins and outs of the home sale that an apartment broker won't always be familiar with.

Also ensure that your agent is a licensed realtor. Licensing helps weed out some of the people that talk a good game, but can't back it up with all the appropriate rules and regulations.

You should interview several real estate agents. This is imperative. In the interview, you will be able to discuss things such as fees, how the agent recommend the transaction happen, commissions and much more. Interviewing the agent will help you learn a little bit about their commitment, experience and responsiveness.

There are many horror stories about picking the wrong agent. Agents that did little/no work, yet still expected a big commission. Or worse, agents that made errors that cost people money, and then still expected a big commission check.

Help protect yourself from this type of situation by doing some upfront due diligence in picking your agent, and save yourself some heartache and money. Be patient when choosing and don't go running to the first real estate agent that comes your way. Good luck in finding the right real estate agent and good luck in getting the best deal you can get!

Tips to Real Estate Agents' Success

With over 2 million real estate agents according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), becoming a successful real estate agent takes more than just a license and a knowledge of current laws and regulations.The first year drop out range estimated to be from 40% to 80% demonstrates that many real estate agents are not as successful as they could be and research suggests that 90% give up after 3 years. The following 7 tips may help you avoid becoming one of these statistics.

1. First and Foremost YOU are a business. Real estate agents work for a broker, but are independent, commissioned sales people. This means that you are a small business and must run your practice as a business. Again, remember you are a small business owner.
2. Embrace a Planning Attitude. If you don't have a plan, then you are on some else's plan - usually the successful real estate agent's. During the last 10 years, what I have learned as a performance improvement consultant or coach is that most people place more value in planning a trip to the grocery store or a vacation than planning their lives either professionally or personally.
3. Research Your Market Plan. Since you, as the real estate agent, are responsible for your own expenses, do your research specific to your marketing plan within your strategic plan. Time spent in constructing your marketing plan is definitely well spent. NOTE: Remember a business plan usually is data driven, while a strategic plan identifies who does what by when.
4. Establish Sales Goals. Using your strategic action plan, establish sales goals. If you are new to this industry, it may take 6 months before the first sale. HINT: Use the W.H.Y. S.M.A.R.T. criteria for goal setting.
5. Create a Financial Budget. Budgeting is critical given the up and down of this volatile market place. Your financial budget should plan for your marketing costs, any additional costs such as education and your forecasted income.
6. Make Managing Yourself a Priority. Building a business is not easy. You must learn how to manage yourself especially in the area of time management, ongoing real estate business training coaching continuing education units, and personal life balance. Real estate is said to be a 24/7 business much like any small business. However, it is important not to lose sight of your personal life including family, friends, physical health, etc.
7. Find a Mentor or a Real Estate Coach. Going it alone is not easy. Take the time to find a mentor who can help you steer through some of the known obstacles and help you during the "peaks and valleys." If you have the resources, you may wish to hire a real estate coach or an executive coach who specializes in small business help and sales.

Being an incredible sales person and entering the real estate market does not guarantee similar sales success. However, these 7 tips may help you avoid many of the pitfalls by not being one of the four real estate agents who quit within one year or one of the nine who give up after 3 years.