This week, Erik & Randal tell you the five most important things you can ask a real estate agent to see if they will be a good match for your needs.

TRANSCRIPT:

Erik:               Welcome to Stay Focused, and this week we are doing our focus five.

Randal:             Five.

Erik:               Five things you should ask your real estate agent before hiring them.

Randal:             Yeah, absolutely. Here's a quick little guide for you, whether you're buying or selling, to give you an idea of questions you should be asking and get good answers for. So, first question is ...?

Erik:               First question is, is how do you help your client make a decision? So, we, here at Focus Real Estate, us and our agents we use a consultative process.

Randal:             Yeah, we talk about working as a team in our office, but we don't just mean the people that we're working with in our office, we actually talk about a consultative style of working with people to help them make decisions based on our knowledge, their interest, and also other people involved in the transaction from attorneys, and mortgage brokers, and home inspectors, and that stuff. So, we really like to help people move towards that right decision that's for them, and not bulldoze them into making a decision.

Randal:             The second question is do you work solo or part of a team? There's certainly benefits for both. And we prefer to work as part of a team, just to make sure that we can give a breadth of knowledge that's not just one person's experience, but bring the entire thing to the table.

Erik:               Yeah, a team always outperforms an individual, and it's also very helpful so that if your agent's working as part of a team, they can't be on 7 days a week 365 days a year, they have people who can set up appointments, assist them, cover showings, things like, so that you're never missing out.

Erik:               Along with do you work solo or part of a team, how many homes have you and your team sold?

Randal:             Yeah, sold in the area in the place that you're looking.

Erik:               Because with more homes sold comes more experience, and there's always different challenges and different locations, and different things that come up in real estate. The more experience that your agent and their team has to draw on, the more helpful it is for you to overcome any challenges and obstacles that might come up.

Randal:             And talking on the same line, number four, is do you work full-time or part-time in the business?

Erik:               Exactly.

Randal:             I think that's very important.

Erik:               There's a lot of part-time agents, even some of them who don't acknowledge that they really only work part-time. But really there are serious agents who work 40 hours plus a week.

Randal:             Who are really dedicated to this.

Erik:               Yep. And last?

Randal:             Where do you see the market heading? I always, when we're working with clients and get this question all the time, where is the market heading? Especially today when there is uncertainty in the future, in the economic realm, and all of that, where do you see the market heading? I don't like "I think", or "I guess". I really prefer to use other people's opinions as well. And other professional analysis. Numbers are a great way to help you make a decision and analyzing the market.

Erik:               Data.

Randal:             Looking at data, I think that's the most important thing. I think when you get an answer to a question like where is the market heading?

Erik:               Oh, it's great. Or, it's strong. Make sure your agent has something to back that up, that they're knowledgeable, they're a market expert.

Randal:             Indeed, indeed.

Erik:               And that's our Focus Five for the week.

Randal:             Until next time, stay tuned.

Erik:               And Stay Focused.