7 Qualities Of A Competent Realtor To Hire

From a literature standpoint, a realtor is not the same as a property agent. The difference is in qualifications.

But for the everyday investor, there is little difference between the two and the 2 words are used interchangeably to describe the same profession. They are hired to represent you in a property sale or purchase.

And they do all the leg work for you so that all you need to do is show up and sign the papers. This is reason enough to hire someone competent in your corner.

These are 7 qualities you preferably want your realtor to possess.

1) Full-timer

Although we really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, would you be comfortable putting the biggest investment you are making in your life in the hands of someone who is only a professional in his free time?

It’s nothing personal. It’s just business.

You can’t have someone who is unable to attend to your calls during office hours because he is on his primary job. Many agents who start out their career in this industry go part-time. They can train themselves till they are ready to make a full commitment to this profession.

Just that you will not put your investment at risk just for their on-the-job training.

2) Specialist

The real estate market is so big that there is no single person who has the mental capacity to store intimate details of each neighbourhood in his head.

For example, if you are trading commercial properties, you want to hire someone who is fluent in commercial properties instead of someone used to working on residential.

Realtor specialists usually specialise in 2 areas. It would be in a particular class of properties, or in a particular specific geographic area. When they take on something that they are new to, you can expect hiccups to happen more often than not.

3) Advisor

The job of a realtor is to advise you or provide material information so that you can make a calculated decision. Their job is not to make a decision for you.

New investors or home buyers often leave important decision to their agents because they feel that they are unable to decide.

If you cannot see a conflict of interest somewhere along those lines, you need to wear better investigative glasses. You need to be careful of professionals who are that tad extra assertive in getting their way.

Remind yourself that you are the means that ensure everyone walks away from a deal with a happy face. If someone has to be unhappy, it cannot be you under any circumstances.

4) Strong networks

In a disturbing way, hiring a realtor is like paying for their established networks. You can be sure that they have huge contacts with all players in the value chain.

Rationally speaking, you can source out these other players in the value chain yourself. They might even service you better as they do not have to pay your agent a referral fee.

But since you are hiring a realtor to make things easy for yourself, looking up these service providers yourself will be defeating the purpose of hiring a representative in the first place.

So in a way, the commission fees you are paying is for the convenient established relationships your agent has. And you can expect these contacts to be competent as well. Service providers include appraisers, lawyers, insurance agents, mortgage officers, etc.

5) Organised

It is exactly because you want to avoid the hassle of taking on everything yourself which led you to hire a realtor.

So if he makes a mess of things by being disorganised, you have to review why you hired one in the first place. It is not an unreasonable expectation to expect your representative to be an organised person.

It would be crazy not to.

6) Time manager

The biggest turn off is when your agent has no time to attend to you because he has other deals to attend to. This is not your problem and you should not entertain anyone who is unable to set aside time to serve you.

Realtors are not just there to collect a pay cheque at closing.

If they are unable to respond to missed calls or messages, even worst, if they are unable to meet important deadlines, it is time to let them go without any remorse.

Your money deserves better.

7) Ethics

Although you would want your agent to be a shark in negotiation, you would want him to be ethical as well unless you are a weirdo who gets a high from negative vibes of others.

The most basic ethic to possess is to alert you of important considerations when they arise instead of staying silent so that there is a higher chance of a quick transaction taking place.

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