How To Find a GOOD Real Estate Agent

Successful house hunting requires a good real estate agent, and a good real estate agent is probably not going to be a friend or family member, a friend of a friend, or the husband, wife, or other relative of a friend. Unless you're really lucky, those people will not be at the top end of the profession. Lots of people have a real estate license because they've taken the required classes and paid the annual fee, but that doesn't mean they're good at it. You want a real estate agent who is truly a professional. That's someone who has done it for a living for at least three years, not just dabbled in it part-time.

Many house hunters wind up with the real estate agent who answers the phone when they call to ask about a house that's listed in the newspaper. They go with the agent to see the house, the agent offers to show them other houses, and that's the way a business relationship involving hundreds--or at least tens--of thousands of dollars starts. That person might never have sold a house before, might have no clue about the area the person wants to buy in, and might not have even bought a house of their own before, but if a buyer decides to use that person as an agent, the agent will be in a position to fail to show the buyer an appropriate selection of houses, neglect to follow up on the buyer's interests in a timely manner, have no knowledge of the neighborhood the house is in, and cost the buyer thousands of dollars in the negotiating process.

I suggest two options for finding a quality real estate agent. The first is to do a little research on the Internet and find out which agents are making the most money and which have the largest number of sales under their belt in the last couple of years. Some agents specialize as buyer's agents, so their sales statistics will be focused less on the number of houses they listed and more on the number of people they worked with to buy a house. The second method is to talk to friends and colleagues about the agents they used when buying a house. Once someone has some experience with an agent, you will know that agent's strengths and weaknesses--for example, if the agent takes a day or so to return a customer's phone call, that's a sign of a bad agent--and friends and colleagues are likely to tell you these things.

With either option, you should interview the agent, dump him/her quickly if you're not happy with them for whatever reason (there are plenty more out there), and be careful what you sign--some buyer's agents insist on a contract that will commit you to them for a number of months. If you're convinced that signing an agreement will increase the person's loyalty to you as opposed to the seller, then go for it, but you can do it on your terms--two months instead of six, for example.

It might seem a bit mean to avoid giving your business to someone just starting out, especially if they are a friend or a family member. After all, you'd be willing to go to a brand new doctor, right? If you answered yes, that probably means that you were thinking, yeah, a brand new doctor just out of med school would know all the latest science on diseases and medications and all of the new diagnostic techniques. But real estate is much different. Knowledge in real estate means knowledge of neighborhoods, good working relations with fellow agents, and experience on nailing down a deal--stuff that can't be taught in a generic real estate class. A house probably will be your biggest purchase ever, but as they say, it's your money.

My Mother's House, Part I

The process of finding a house for my mom and dad required factoring in their interests along with mine, Tom's, and three dogs'. My mom and dad wanted a house with at least four bedrooms, a family room, a fireplace, a decent sized yard, a two-car garage, and a price tag under $700K. I wanted a place that would give Tom and me privacy, would give us several rooms for our furniture, etc., since we would be selling our condo in Arlington, VA, in order to live there, and would require no more than a half hour's commute for me to work. Plus, I wanted to minimize the amount of stairs my mom and dad would routinely need to use to get around in the house. Tom wanted a place that would not require us to be on the loan, given that we were trying to marshal our money and credit for major work on our house in Annapolis. The dogs needed a fenced yard.

I called Darrell Lewis, the agent my friend Stephanie had recommended to me several years ago when Tom and I decided to buy a condo. Darrell had helped her find an incredibly good buy in Arlington, and she noted that not only was he a pleasure to work with, attentive to what she was looking for, and responsive in terms of phone calls and follow ups, he also knew the area extremely well. We had the same experience when we worked with him. When Darrell got my call, he remembered me immediately. We arranged to meet up, and meanwhile he e-mailed me an array of links to information about specific houses that seemed to come close to my requirements. Some realtors won't let you know that this is possible, or they'll send you a censored version. The good ones don't hide info from their clients.

Each time we'd go out in Darrell's Cadillac, he would prepare a list of at least eight places to see and if the houses were occupied, he'd let the residents know we were coming, and then have a print out of our route so that I could navigate. Along the way, we'd talk about houses, neighborhoods, buyers, sellers, people in general, politics, and Persian rugs. A few weeks and about 40 houses later, I found the one I wanted: nice neighborhood, about 20-30 minutes from my work depending on traffic, nice house, fenced yard, carport, family room with a fireplace, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and the lower floor (which was below grade on the front side of the house and above grade in the back so that the main entrance is on the upper floor) made a very nice "in-law apartment" for Tom, the dogs, and me.

But it had more. The bathrooms had been updated. It had a white pergola with vines growing on it off the kitchen entrance through French doors at the front of the house, perfect for an outdoor breakfast or lunch during nice weather. It had two decks, one off the upper floor and another one along the whole back side of the house. It had lots of storage, including a separate storage shed. But particularly enchanting, especially given the decks, was the backyard. It was a woods of our own, with tall trees, many with bird houses, and the fact that the house was on a hil gave both floors beautiful views of our little wilderness. An added plus was the fact that behind the house was a continuation of the woods, land owned by the state of Virginia as part of the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA).

I knew my mom and dad would like the house--it had most of their wish list--but at that point I had very little interest in convincing them that it was the right place. They had said that it was up to me, and my dad's condition and the poor treatment he was getting back in Indiana meant that I needed to shift from finding a house to closing on a house.