I recently found myself on the selling end of some real estate in another state and it was very interesting for me to go through the process of finding a good broker. I was looking for a broker who works the way that I try to practice real estate. And here was my chance! The only thing I knew was that I wanted to work with a Realtor and one who was experienced. My first stop was to get a referral from someone I know and trust in the area. I then followed up by going to Realtor.com and looking for agents who had complete profiles with statistics of their listing and sales activity which helps to winnow out the part timers. Then I interviewed, by phone, two of the agents. Although both seemed knowledgeable about their markets and were good communicators, I ended up going with the one who I could tell was being truthful with me and not just telling me what I wanted to hear. Having decided to sell the property, it is more important to me to achieve that goal than it is to realize a little bit more money way in the future.
As a real estate professional, with decades of experience in my local market, I felt a bit unmoored dealing with real estate in another state. I learned that things such as days on market, sales price as percentage of list price, that are relevant on Nantucket may be less so in another market that has a much lower volume of activity than we do on island. Because there were few recent relevant comparable sales it forced me to rely even more on the judgement and experience of the local broker. I learned the importance of finding the right professional that I trust to guide me through the process. She ended up being the perfect choice in terms of her ability to guide me to the right people. So far she has made excellent recommendations for a local attorney and surveyor and I am looking forward to completing the process.
The takeaway is this: get a real estate agent referral from someone you trust, interview more than one agent and trust your instincts. And, perhaps most importantly, don’t go with the broker that tells you the highest price. It rarely works out.
-Penny Dey