How to Find the Right Real Estate Agent

A realtor who has your interest in mind is critical but always remember they are trying to earn a living and need sales. Most of them won't bend over backwards to look out for you. Be clear and specific about what you are looking for up front, not vague. Note how they listen to you; do they pay close attention or down play what you say, cut you off and try to control your perceptions. If you don't understand the realtor's view point or disagree with their recommendations get a clear explanation and keep questioning until you are satisfied. Most of all listen to your gut. If you are uncomfortable with your realtor move on to another one. Don't delay! There are thousands out there don't make your search more difficult.

This post looks more like an advert than a post, thus very few comments.

I believe that this article is an ad for the women pictured. I do not recall the use of such a large and consistent display for any prior articles/comments. The newsletter seems to be stuck on this image.

Hello everyone, and thanks for your comments. The image is not an ad for the woman pictured, she is one of the realtors who was kind enough to give us input on this article on how to find a good realtor in your retirement search (by the way she is a great agent and person as well). We usually add an image to each issue of the Daily Alert to spice it up a bit, and hers looked like a good one to use. Tomorrow we we will have a different article and image. We will reduce the size of the image from the current 300 x 250, which isn't actually very large in practice).

While using a realtor is often our best bet when buying or selling a home, let's not forget that they work on commission, and with the enormous bump in home prices those commissions have skyrocketed in terms of real dollars.

Houses in my neighborhood are going for $1.1+ million these days. Most realtors want 6%. Are their services truly worth $66,000? Not by my reckoning. For longer than the past decade, home buyers do most of their own Internet research to find properties in the neighborhoods they prefer at prices they can afford.

When selling my mom's house for $1.5 million, I negotiated the realtor commission down to 4.5% when signing the listing. It sold in a week. They did a fine job, but trust me, the RE offices and realtors who split up that $67.5K got far bigger paydays than they earned.

Yes, it's important to hire professionals, but consider their prices as carefully in home buying/selling as you do for other services. When selling, as long as you require the property be put on MLS immediately, you'll get plenty of action if your home is priced right in a hot market. If it isn't, even the best realtor isn't going to be able to sell it.

...here in NY most Realtors will do the job for 2-3%....I save even more when I list with a firm offering to put the Property on mls for a flat fee, usually around $250-300 just to list it...the Seller determines the Selling Broker commission...I pay about 1.5 %....sold four homes this way in the past 10 years.....must've saved over 100k that way....I find that most agents only "show" homes as opposed to actually selling" them...why pay a part time housewife or retired teacher all that cash ?

Don't miss our new article on the NAR's Commission Settlement on Real Estate Commissions. It is going to change how people buy and sell homes, and you need to understand it.