If you are looking at buying or selling a home, it is highly recommended to hire a real estate agent as he will be a valuable ally and guide throughout the home-buying/home-selling process. However, it is not enough to hire just any real estate agent. So what are the characteristics of a good real estate agent? Let’s take a look.
One of the most important characteristics of a good real estate agent is simply experience. Years of experience are a good indicator of how seasoned the agent is. However, experience alone is not enough. What you will need to look at is whether the agent has profited from his experience and learned from past mistakes. For this, you will need to look at his track record for the past few years. It is recommended to ask the agent to give you references – talk to their previous clients, and see how satisfied they are with the agent’s performance. A good real estate agent will have mostly positive client testimonials.
Another important characteristic of a good real estate agent is communication – a good real estate agent is a good communicator and will always keep you in the loop regarding the latest developments and communicate to you clearly what the situation is and how you should go about it. A good real estate agent will also be a good listener and pay close attention to what you are saying in order to have a clear understanding of your needs and preferences so as to find the property that is right for you. Many real estate agents are skilled and experienced, but bad listeners – this can lead to many issues in the client-agent relationship as it is very important that an agent empathise with their client’s views.
Another feature of good real estate agents is that they are very proactive. They are not passive and wait for things to happen – rather, they are active and make things happen. Also, good real estate agents keep their clients as top priority – the profit from the deal is secondary to client satisfaction. A good agent will always keep their clients’ best interests in mind. They understand that long-term success will only come from client satisfaction, and therefore look at the big picture as opposed to just the commission from the present deal. Another feature of a good agent is that they can adapt to changing situations and challenges – the world of real estate is unpredictable, and you need an agent who is comfortable with surprises and adaptation.
A good real estate agent will pay attention to details like quality of construction and design, and check whether the property has been built by reliable property developers. A good real estate agent understands that buying a home might be the biggest investment that his client might make in his life, and will therefore make sure that the quality of the property is worth his client’s investment, and show them smart value homes built by trusted property developers. Trisha Desai