Before you find the home of your dreams you have to find a real estate agent that will help you. Thus it would sem quite logical that you need the best real estate agent you can find to make your dream come true. There are at least a few things you can do to make sure you are working with people to whom your satisfaction with a house or a flat is almost as important as to you.
First of all you should make sure that the estate agent you decide to work with is a full-time agent and not someone who gets distracted by too many things. Such real estate agents are by definition more professional and, what is important, they usually have quite a big experience. Secondly, make sure that you work with buyer’s agent and not someone who also sells as such a person might tend to show you houses which he is trying to sell and which might not completely meet your expectations.
In order to find a good buyer’s agent it is always good to ask your family, friends, colleagues from work and any other trustworthy people. You can also use Google and search for real estate agents in the area you are interested in, but be sure to look for ‘exclusive buyer’s agents’.
When you think you’ve found an agent do not hesitate to aks a few questions, such as: ‘How long have you been working as an agent?’, ‘How many transactions have you closed in the last few months?’, Have the houses you recently sold been in my price range?’ and so on and so on.
One more important thing is to aks your real estate agent to accept a flat rate you can afford. If it is possible try to persuade your agent not to take the standard estate commission but to accept the flat rate and you might add that you will add another $100 for every $1,000 you spend under your target price. That way you still save some money and your agent is even more motivated to find you what you are looking for.