Why the Right Real Estate Agent Matters

You can find a real estate agent almost anywhere. Ask a friend who they used, call the person whose sign you keep seeing in the neighborhood, search online, or ask the Google Gods to send you the “best real estate agent near me.” You’ll have plenty of choices. The harder part is knowing whether the person you choose is actually the right person for you.

After more than two decades in real estate, I’ve learned that there can be a tremendous difference between a good agent and the right agent for a particular move. Most people don’t discover that difference during the first meeting. Almost everyone looks capable when nothing has gone wrong yet. You usually discover it later, when you need advice, when the timing gets complicated, when something unexpected happens, or when you realize your agent never really understood what you were trying to accomplish in the first place.

Your Neighbor’s Great Agent May Not Be the Right Agent for You

Your neighbor may have loved her agent. Her house sold in four days, everything went smoothly, and she tells everyone she knows to use the same person. That agent may be wonderful, but your neighbor sold a fairly straightforward house and moved into another home 20 minutes away. Your situation may look completely different.

Maybe you’ve lived in your home for 30 years and you’re moving across the country to be closer to your children. You need the equity from this house to buy the next one, but you haven’t found that house yet. You have decades of belongings to deal with, a dog coming with you, children in another state trying to help, and one very reasonable fear: What happens if I sell this house and have nowhere to go?

That is a very different assignment. You need someone who understands more than how to put a house on the market. You need someone who can look at the entire move, understand which decisions affect the others, and help you think through the order in which everything needs to happen.

The Right Agent Should Want to Know Where You’re Going

If you tell an agent you’re thinking about selling your house, the first conversation shouldn’t be entirely about what your house is worth. Before we start talking about a sign in the yard, I want to understand what happens after the sign comes down.

Where are you going? Have you found another home? Do you need the money from this house to buy the next one? How quickly could you realistically be ready? What happens if your house sells before you find somewhere to go? Is someone helping you make these decisions? What part of this move worries you the most?

Those answers can completely change the strategy. If you need to sell in Nevada before you can buy near your children in North Carolina, for example, the two transactions shouldn’t be treated as though they have nothing to do with each other. There may be contingencies to consider, closing dates to coordinate, possession arrangements to negotiate, or financing options worth discussing with a qualified professional. Your agent on one side of the country may also need to communicate closely with your agent on the other.

I don’t want you standing in an empty house surrounded by boxes saying, “Well, we sold it. Now where are we going?” I want the people helping you to have thought about that before your house ever went on the market.

The Right Agent Should Understand the Property Too

An agent can be excellent at what they do and still not be the best person for a particular property. If you’re selling five acres with a barn, well, septic system and horse facilities, I would rather connect you with someone who understands acreage and horse property than someone whose business is primarily downtown condominiums.

The same thing applies when you’re buying. If you’re looking for a multigenerational home, we’re probably not searching for four bedrooms and three bathrooms and calling it good. Maybe Mom needs a bedroom and full bathroom downstairs. Maybe two generations need separate living areas. Maybe an ADU or casita would work better. Maybe everyone loves each other very much and will continue loving each other much more successfully if everyone has a door they can close.

A 55+ community creates a different set of questions. So does luxury property, acreage, a condominium, or a home you hope will continue working for you as you get older. The right agent understands what you’re actually trying to accomplish rather than simply entering your bedroom count and price range into a search.

Sometimes the Most Valuable Advice Is the Advice You Weren’t Expecting

There are times when a good agent needs to tell you something you don’t particularly want to hear. Maybe you think you need to spend $35,000 remodeling the kitchen before selling, and your agent believes you should keep the money. Maybe you want to list the house considerably higher because that’s the amount you need for your next home, and someone needs to explain that buyers don’t know what we need. They know what they’re willing to pay.

The same thing happens on the buying side. You may walk into a beautiful house and immediately start picturing Christmas morning in the living room while your agent is noticing that the downstairs bedroom you planned for your husband doesn’t have access to a full bathroom. You may become convinced that a particular 55+ community is perfect until someone who knows the community starts asking what you actually want your everyday life to look like.

That’s part of what you’re hiring experience for. I don’t want someone agreeing with you because it keeps the transaction moving. I want someone comfortable enough to say, “Before you do that, there’s something we should talk about,” and then explain why.

Sometimes that conversation may even end with, “I don’t think you should move yet.” I think that matters. I don’t believe every conversation about real estate needs to end with a real estate transaction. If staying in your home is the better decision right now, the right professional should be willing to say so even when there is no commission attached to the answer.

Personality Matters More Than Most People Realize

You can hire an incredibly successful real estate agent and still be miserable working with them. You may want someone who calls you and explains what’s happening while your agent communicates almost entirely by text. You may need a little time to think through decisions while your agent makes everything feel like it needs to be decided in the next five minutes.

Or maybe you’re exactly the opposite. You don’t want a phone call every time someone sneezes near your transaction. You want someone experienced enough to take the lead, work through what they can, and call you when there is actually something you need to decide. Neither approach is wrong, but putting two people together who communicate completely differently can make an already stressful move much harder than it needs to be.

Families are different too. Some parents want their adult children included in every conversation. Others love their children dearly and will tell us very clearly, “They can have an opinion, but this is my decision.” Both are reasonable, and the person representing you needs to understand and respect the difference.

That’s why personality and communication style matter when we make a match. You’re going to be discussing your home, your finances, your family and some pretty significant decisions with this person. Being comfortable with how they communicate is not a small thing.

You Find Out Who Your Agent Is When Something Goes Wrong

Real estate can look pretty easy when everything goes according to plan. The house gets an offer, the inspection is clean, the appraisal supports the price, financing is approved, everyone signs their paperwork and the transaction closes on time. Lots of agents can look fantastic under those conditions.

Now change the conditions. The inspection finds something unexpected, the appraisal comes in $40,000 low, the buyer’s financing hits a snag, or closing needs to be delayed when the home you’re buying is scheduled to close two days later. Your movers are booked, your belongings are packed, your daughter has already bought a plane ticket, and suddenly several decisions need to be made quickly.

That is when I care a great deal about who is representing you. I want someone who understands the contract, knows who needs to be called, can identify the available options and has enough experience to stay calm while everyone else is getting nervous. I want that agent to work through as much of the problem as possible and then come to you with a clear explanation of what happened, what your options are, what they recommend and why.

You shouldn’t have to become the real estate expert in the middle of your own transaction. That’s what you hired one for.

This Is Why We Don’t Start With an Agent

There are plenty of websites that can give you an agent’s name in seconds. Enter your information and someone is ready to call you before you’ve even closed the browser. We wanted Senior Relocation Services to work differently because we think there are a few things we should know about you before we decide who should help you.

We want to understand the home you’re selling and where you’re going next. We want to know whether you’re downsizing, moving across the country, looking for a 55+ community, combining households with family, searching for acreage, or simply trying to understand whether moving makes sense at all. We want to know what needs to happen financially, who else is involved, what concerns you, and how you want to be communicated with.

Once we understand that, we can look at the professionals in our network very differently. We’re no longer asking, “Who is an agent in this ZIP code?” We’re asking, “Who would we trust with this person, this property and this particular move?”

If you’re ready to start a conversation, contact us