How to Choose a Real Estate Agent | How to Choose a Realtor | How to Fire a Real Estate Agent

hi this is shahida hill getting you over the hill to home ownership so you can confidently buy your first home um today we're talking about how you should hire and fire your real estate agent and just the steps you need to know how to properly hire if you need to how to properly fire your agent so if you haven't already please like and subscribe to my channel for new videos every thursday and sun sorry every thursday and saturday and that's new so i'm coming to you two times a week all right so first how can you find an agent if you have no idea of how to find you know a real estate agent then i'm gonna suggest three things number one that you ask for a referral from family and friends so you um what's good about a referral is that person has already gone through the transaction with this person so they know exactly you know how they are if they're responsive they know a lot about them i wouldn't necessarily take a referral from a family or friend that doesn't own a house like they just know a real estate agent you may want to use somebody that's already used that person so they know firsthand how they operate the second thing that i would do is if there's a particular neighborhood that you're considering moving to and there's an agent that does a lot of business in that neighborhood you can tell by maybe some of the for sale signs you might be able to tell a little bit from zillow or some of the websites things that have sold and what listing agents sold them or if um their real estate company is in that neighborhood then you might be able to do that to find an agent that way the third thing i would do is to look online just the way you found me on youtube if you put in your city and real estate agent you should be able to find some agents that have some kind of online presence through youtube or google those sorts of things so you can find an agent that way once you have some potential agents that you're interested in now it's time to interview them and so i'm going to there's a lot of sites if you google um you know questions to ask a real estate agent you'll probably find a whole bunch i am just going to tell you about five questions that i suggest you ask so you can get a general idea of how that real estate professional operates and if you would be a good fit for one another so i'm gonna go through those and just be mindful that while the real estate agent you're interviewing them they're also interviewing you to see okay do you guys match up would it be a good fit for you guys do you have similar personalities that sort of thing so it's kind of a two-way street they may you know not every agent wants to take every client so you know when you are interviewing them don't be so i have 30 questions i want to ask you they may be put off by that and may not want to go through that process if somebody's willing to do that then they probably don't have a lot of business and so that could be a red flag for you but most agents that are doing a good amount of business may not have time for a long lengthy interview sessions so here are five questions that i think you should ask and i think they're reasonable questions so number one is how long have you been in real estate and how many transactions do you close on average so you have an idea of how long they've been in the business you're getting idea of that their experience and then how many transactions that have they helped close or help people find homes either on the buy side or the sales side okay number two is um how do you schedule showings and how how will we communicate because sometimes you'll find that if somebody's a full-time agent versus a part-time agent they may not be able to show you homes as quickly as you may like or maybe you're on one schedule say you say you work on the weekends and you need somebody to show you homes during the week then your schedules might conflict if they're not prepared to do that and that's one of the major things when people leave their agent and they're coming i want to work with you it could just be a communication thing where they thought they were going to go out every single day and look at every house you see you send me a house at two o'clock i show it to you at three o'clock and sometimes that doesn't always happen it's not realistic so you need to have a realistic expectation of how quickly you're gonna go out and see properties um in my experience and i've had to do this for my own business is i will show you a house within 24 hours if i think you need to see the house the first day the same day depending on how competitive the market i try to make sure you're in to see that house that day but i don't have like one hour two hour turn around if you have a if you give me a house in the morning more than likely i can try to show it to you by the end of the day but if you give me a house at seven o'clock we're not gonna run and go see it in like 30 minutes this is not possible so i think 24 hours to see a house in this market in this seller's market because things are coming off the market within one or two days so you have to be able to see it within one or two days so um you have to have that expectation up front is how quickly um are we gonna see homes that come on the market also and how will we communicate during the week like you know is your turn around same day if i text you should i receive a text back the same day next hour immediately so set those expectations up front number three how is the market just ask them how is the market for our first time home buyers and how do you um plan on being competitive in that market like how can you advise me to you know get my offers accepted because particularly again in this market as a buyer it's gonna be very competitive so they should be able to tell you some strategies that they use to get their offers accepted and you want to kind of hear those and keep in mind an agent can only use what they're given so if a buyer comes to me and they're saying oh i'm a cat i'm a cash buyer i know that that cash buyer is going to be somebody who can get their offers accepted quickly or if they have you know i have 20 percent down i'm doing a conventional loan that's somebody again that can probably get their offers accepted but if you come to me and you say i'm doing down payment assistance i have a thousand dollars um what else i'm you know all of those kinds of things may hinder you from being as competitive or let me i wouldn't meant to say and you want closing costs so for example i'm using down payment assistance i have about 1 000 of my own funds i'm using down payment assistance you're not that much of a competitive buyer so it's going to be a little bit more difficult it's not impossible but it's going to be a little bit more challenging for me to get your offers accepted in this market than another client in the same market for that same home so that needs to be discussed up front so you're not disappointed or i put my offer in why didn't it get accepted and you're blaming the agent when it's really probably your financing constraints that might stop you from getting the home that you want so that needs to be explained to you fully um in a way that you can understand and some strategies to counteract uh maybe some of the the disadvantages you may face okay number four how familiar are you with any down payment assistance programs again some first time home buyers need some down payment assistance programs or they need to know they need to know loans that um take lower down payments so how familiar are they with the programs and the loan types that are best for first-time home buyers that don't have a lot of down payment money so as for me i have lenders okay this lender is for this person this lender can do 100 financing like i know in my database uh that the lender or lenders that i can match up with a particular buyer that you know would be the best fit for so they should have some idea of how they you know could serve you best or recommend eight um lenders um that can help you the most or down payment assistance programs so you want to see how knowledgeable they are about that number five just ask them why should i hire you they should know something about what what makes them different what makes them stand out what makes them different from another real estate agent so just ask them kind of like an interview question like a job interview why should i hire you as my agent and then number six just ask them are they going to be working with you directly or will they be working with a member of their or you will you be working with a member of their team so once you have those six questions answered then and you're ready to work with that agent they're likely going to have you sign a buyer's brokerage agreement basically a contract between you and the agent that they are now your client and so when you're filling that or when they're when they're filling it out and you're signing it it's going to have a few different components number one have them explain the entire contract to you so you understand it do not sign anything that you do not understand and i'm going to tell you how to properly like ask them questions about it and then if it's not working out and you want to terminate the agreement how you can go about doing that the right way and how somebody tried to do it to me and did it the wrong way so um it'll have a date you don't have a date that your agreement starts and then a proposed date that the the agreement will end i do my agreements for 90 days other agents may do 120 days 30 days 60 days that is negotiable between you and the agent it's basically a time period that they think it should be enough time for them to find you a property um so i just use 90 days because then if i can't because sometimes the type of property that that person wants may not be available like maybe they are looking too high for their price range they don't have enough down payment for the house that they want so i like to do 90 days to say okay if i can't find you something in 90 days we probably need to reevaluate um the agreement especially in this market now we weren't um in this type of market maybe i could do shorter time periods but it all depends on the market and the buyer as to how long our agreement is in place for and it doesn't go through closing so if we're if we sign our agreement august 1st and it's for 90 days it's going to go august september and october and i find you a house in say october but that house doesn't close until december we don't need another agreement in place necessarily because i found you a house and were under contract in the time period so it doesn't really matter when it closes it matters when did they fulfill what they were supposed to do find you a house within that time period and that makes them entitled to the commission another part of the buyer's brokerage agreement that you may need to negotiate is how does the agent get paid if you have not watched my video about how real estate agents get paid please watch that um but basically most buyers agents get paid because the listing agent shares their commission with the buyer's agent that's how it's generally free for you um to have buyer representation now some agents um if for whatever reason the seller does not pay that commission will charge you that commission so you pay out of your own pocket um for the buyer's agent you want to make sure that's very clear i probably wouldn't sign it because um a lot of agents you'll find more agents than not i think will not charge you that commission if the if the seller's agent does not share their commission with them but that is something to be discussed i don't basically in my agreements i don't charge the buyer if for some reason the seller doesn't split their commission with me um but again every agent all ages are pretty much independent contractors they run their own businesses so there's no set rule about how exactly they need to charge so just be mindful of you know make sure you understand how how the agent is getting paid and what your role and that is um and then some agents may try to charge an admin fee or some kind of fee up front and a lot of them are doing this because say you don't find a house in that time period but they've spent maybe two three four months with you they've driven you around they've used their time um that's a risk that they're taking that you don't find a property and they've spent a lot of time with you and you either change your mind you don't want to buy anymore you just couldn't find anything so a lot of agents have started or you know they have that where they'll charge you an admin fee up front just in case you don't buy something or that's just part of their business practice so if you're comfortable with that then go ahead and do it if you're not comfortable with it then you may want to find another agent i don't charge an admin fee it's not part of my business practice but i am that's why i said when you are interviewing an agent an inter an agent is also interviewing you i do during like my buyer consultations before i take a client on i'm really trying to figure out how serious they are about buying before i take them on as a client because you know we're not window shopping at this point like if you sign with me we're going out to look for a house if i find you a house that meets your criteria you should be ready to put an offer on that house so i am you know we're both vetting each other to make sure that it's a good fit and you know you're taking a risk they're taking a risk and i feel like we're both in it together to try to find you a house another part of that buyer's brokerage agreement would typically be some sort of protected period so how the protected period is so say i do a 90-day agreement my protected period is about 60 days it's going to vary by agent because remember where everybody runs their own business for the most part um it's 60 days so for example say we i showed you houses over a three-month period you um saw a house that you liked i showed it to you but you decided not to make an offer on it for whatever reason and then after our agreement terminates and you always could so say you have a 90-day agreement y'all can choose to go back under contract for more time after that agreement expires is to completely up to both of you so but what if it expires you move on they move on and then maybe a week later they go back to the house that you showed them with a new agent and they go ahead and purchase it in most cases it's going to vary by state and probably a few other things but in most cases that first agent is entitled to that commission because that's the house that they showed you during the time period that you guys were in agreement or in that buyer's brokerage agreement so be very mindful of that i mean is to protect the agent because sometimes agents work really hard try to find you something and then you find out that your um your sister got her real estate license and you want her to get the commission so you terminate that contract and you go buy the house with somebody else so that's why it's in place i do mine for 60 days just in case um and i guess it's something you'd have to follow up on or the agent has to follow up on to see if that's happening also so with signing that so i told you i'm going to tell you how to hire and fire so when you sign it they sign it you get a copy of it and then you that you are officially officially that agent's client and you're both into in that agreement but what if in this agreement for whatever amount of days you've decided on um you decide that you that is not working out either you don't want to buy a house anymore you don't like the service you don't you know something about it is something that you no longer like and on the other side as well they can terminate the agreement with you as well so on both sides as long as you are i'm terminating that agreement in writing you should be able to terminate it so you probably need to call them or email them do an email and say for whatever reason or no reason at all i would like to turn terminate my buyer's brokerage agreement in most cases that agent should send you some termination paperwork and the termination paperwork will say our agreement ends on this date you sign it they sign it you are no longer in a buyer's brokerage agreement with that agent and they have that paper to show them you know this is when we were in agreement this one our agreement ends just in case you go back and buy something that you know they showed you during your time period and generally it's very simple you want that termination though because if you do hire a new agent by licensed law and licensed laws vary but for the most part by licensed law i cannot take you on as my new client if i have reasonable reason to believe that you are being represented by somebody else so most agents will ask first you know especially if they know you've been looking you already have a pre-qualification are you in a buyer's brokerage agreement with someone else or are you working with another agent they should be asking you that first now if you don't tell the truth and you're like no i'm not working with anybody and they take you on as a client that's between um you know that's that's something should be settled um later because that other agent may be entitled to that commission so it's very is the best way the right way to end an agreement is ended in writing where you sign and the agent signs that you're terminating that agreement because once you have that you are free to work with whoever you want and when i take on a new client i always ask that question if they are they're not sure i go back to that agent i will do the termination paperwork or have it initiated if they didn't do the termination paperwork i do not take on a new client unless i know totally that they're out of agreement with that client now why this and let me tell you an example of how it happened to me so i was working with a client a buyer and i've been working with her say about a month or so maybe five five weeks and we found a house we were under contract we got to the inspection portion of the um of the buying process and she just didn't you know want it anymore it was a newer house but she thought it needed too many repairs um for the age of the house so okay we terminated our um our sales contract she no longer bought the house and she wanted to look at another house so we we had just gotten out of that termination she was you know back looking for a new house and so um she worked during the week and so typically we would see homes on the evenings and on the weekends so when we were scheduling our appointment she said she found a house to say that she found a house at 11 o'clock during the day and she said oh i would like to see this house and i said okay let me call because i don't know if i'm going to be able to show it to you today let me see how long you know how many offers it has if any and we'll be able to get in to see it the next day so i called the listing agent and she said we have no offers the property um is available to show i said are we fine to show it tomorrow if you get any offers would you please let me know so my client has time to get one in all right so this you know i told my client that i said well we're on schedule to see it tomorrow afternoon there are no offers on it right now and you're at work anyway so you know that sort of thing for whatever reason she got off work early that day so she got off work early she still wanted to see the house she didn't want to wait till the next day to see it and she had a friend that was a realtor that showed her that house they put an offer on the house she did not tell me they put an offer on the house their offer got accepted because at that time the agent didn't know um the agent did not know that this was a new person so their offer got accepted not the same day but the next day they made she made a decision that next day and so when i was calling her like that night i was like making sure we're all set for tomorrow at two she said oh i'm not feeling well so i want to cancel our appointment so i said okay and i didn't say anything but at that point she had already made an offer on that other house without me with the other agent and so come to find out i did find out that they made all from the house that offer got accepted about two days later and um so i'm at the position when i did find this out because she then she wanted to terminate the agreement once the her offer got accepted using the other agent she came back to me and she said oh i want to terminate our agreement and i'm like why well i found another house and i put it under contract because you weren't available that that day to show it to me and i said well the proper way to do that would be would have been to terminate with me first before you got under contract with that other agent because two things number one i could have got the commission from her directly because i earned it even though i didn't show her that house or put the house under contract i was still her agent so if you look at the fine print i'm your agent during that time so i'm entitled to that commission regardless of that other agent or i can go to that agent and say you know we had a buyer's brokerage agreement you are aware of the buyer's brokerage agreement because there were some emails that went back and forth so she the agent knew that she was already under agreement hope this makes sense that agent already knew that she was under agreement with another agent he didn't know who and maybe he was a newer agent and didn't understand that so long story short i was entitled to the commission earned even though i didn't even have it under contract so to avoid messy situations with that i mean how it was resolved i negotiated with the agent because i could have you know complained to the licensing board and that sort of thing but i don't want to take somebody that's how we make money um so we did a 70 30 split on the commission i got 70 they got 30 we decided on that um based on how he did it because he knew based on license law it was something he should not have done so she closed i totally was outside of the my agreement now was with him not with her she he represented her on the closing of that sale for 30 percent i got the 70 when they closed so you need to make sure especially if you're bringing somebody new into the transaction they you know may not be entitled to their commission because i always show that listing agent that they're sharing the commission with that they don't have a contract together so it gets really messy and brokers have to get involved it's just best as you know as a buyer to be up front if it's not working out go ahead and say you know i want to terminate you don't have to give much much explanation it would be helpful if you did but you say i want to terminate they're already termination contracts in place it's not something that's not common they should be able to you know turn it around to you in the same day you're out of that contract and you're free to work with whoever you want to work with because in this business the reason why a lot of agents don't like working with buyers there's a saying in real estate that buyers are liars because um you know because we have a choice either to list homes or to you know represent buyers is because buyers you're not guaranteed that it's going to close they fall out all the time they terminate they change their mind there's a lot of things that go on when you're working with buyers that is not the same when you're working with sellers when a seller puts their house on the market for the most part they're ready to sell it it's an easier transaction you don't have to take them out every day to all of these homes so you're really in a risky situation when you're working with some buyers so it's just best to just be up front as possible this person is here to help you so really be um transparent up front professional on both ends if you want to terminate send them an email explain to them why and they'll send the termination paperwork you both sign and you're out of that agreement so i hope this was helpful um when you're trying to decide what real estate agent you should choose and then how to hire and fire them if you haven't already please like and subscribe to my channel for new videos every week

Channel: Shaheedah Hill

Views: 43,887

Keywords: Shaheedah Hill, Atlanta real estate, How to choose a real estate, How to fire a real estate agent, How to terminate a real estate contract, How to choose a realtor, first time home buyer, first time home buyer tips, How to choose a real estate agent, how to choose a real estate agent for buying, How to choose a buyers agent, how to choose a real estate agent

Id: Gs4WumijVCA

Length: 24min 55sec (1495 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020