Pick the PERSON not the company. It really doesn’t matter what company you pick when buying a home, all of the brokerage firms and Realtors out there generally have access to the same resources, it’s the person you pick that matters.
What Makes a Good Realtor?
Pick someone that always answers their phone and when they cannot answer it for whatever reason, calls you back quickly (not hours or days, minutes!). You also want to make sure this person stays on top of things. For instance, you identify a home you are interested in but have a few more to see on another day…
You shouldn’t even have to ask, your Realtor should know to get in touch with the listing agent on that home immediately to request that they be kept in the loop so to speak as to any activity on that property. The reason for this is simple, once an offer comes in and is accepted, that’s it, the home is off the market and you just lost it. Be sure to pick a Realtor that won’t let this happen to you.
Excessive knowledge
If you sense that your Realtor doesn’t know the answer to a question your asking and is just guessing they should either flat tell you “my guess would be [this or that], but I will find out for sure and get back to you” or they should say “I do not know, I will find out and get back to you on that”. If you have a Realtor that seems to have all the answers off the bat, use caution there because unless they are the listing agent on that particular home chances are you are going to ask some questions they do not know the answer to and a good Realtor will always be honest and say “I don’t know, but I will find out”.
Legal (or potentially legal) Q & A
A Realtor should never be giving legal advice, the only conversation that could be remotely thought of as legal advice that are ok for a Realtor to talk about would be on the subjects pertinent to sales agreements, disclosures and other forms, documents and processes involved in the home purchase process. An example of about as far as a Realtor can go with speaking about legal issues is a conversation where you and a seller have a disagreement on x, y or z a Realtor can inform/remind you that the sales agreement specifies arbitration and mediation for conflict resolution and that in that event you should contact a lawyer; anything more specific than that is in most cases considered an ethical violation because you are looking to them for professional advice (real estate) and being a Realtor that person is not a Lawyer yet is attempting to provide legal advice as if they were a lawyer. That is a a big ethical violation in the world of being a Real Estate Broker.
