Agents reveal the qualities to seek in your broker

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), a membership organization of brokers and agents that has little presence here, wants you to know how to select the right person to sell your home or represent you as a buyer.

On its Web site, the NAR headlines its advice with the hardly surprising admonition to “Hire a Real Estate Agent with the Power to Succeed.”  Undermining its credibility, the organization then predictably continues:

It’s the best time to buy a home in years, but the worst time to move without a professional on the payroll.

Despite its unsurprising beginning, which I suspect rarely changes, the site does, in fact, go on to provide some useful counsel from agents themselves, to wit:

• Get referrals from friends, family and colleagues at work, anyone whose opinion you trust;
• Look for tenured experience in general and specialty experience;
• See who’s active in the area where you plan to live;
• Expect the right agent to be technologically proficient;
• Learn how well-equipped the agent is to evaluate a property’s pluses and minuses;
• Be sure you and the broker have good chemistry.

In a column based on the foregoing information, Broderick Perkins quotes Hank Miller, an associate broker and appraiser in Atlanta.  on what qualities consumers should seek.  I like how he put it:

An agent should be selected based upon experience, production, research ability and ability to communicate effectively. This is a fluid, data driven business and the ability to communicate effectively with pointed opinions is vital. The ability to do that outside of ‘business’ hours is required as well. . .

Too often, buyers consider friendship, relations or a sense of ‘we have to use’ over competency and production. Buying a home involves multiple levels of risk, yet the public remains woefully inept and conflicted when it comes to qualifying an agent. All the data in the world is useless without an experienced agent to digest and explain it.

I’ve taken some liberties with the NAR’s list, but the advice — however obvious it may seem — bears repeating for any consumer who plans to sell or to search for a home.

Tomorrow: Own up

To take your own bite out of the Big Apple, you have the option of searching all available properties privately.

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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201

Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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