A friend of a friend, a family member, an agent who is part time. Who do I choose?

I’ve heard this story now far too many times.

I would have called you for assistance but my uncle Buck’s best friend George knows a guy who knows a guy and that guy is a part time agent and so I felt obligated to work with him after we had met last week while playing cards and watching the MN Vikings game.

OR

My sister has her license or my cousin has his license and so I figured I’d just use them as my agent that way the commission received would stay in the family.

OR

Well Kathy a fellow teacher friend of mine also has her real estate license and so I assumed they would be able to assist me.

And now before I go any further let me point out that yes. Each and every one of these parties mentioned above can read and write. Each of them is licensed and therefore they know how to fill out an offer.

However…

Purchasing real estate is an investment. A rather large investment and maybe the biggest investment many of you will ever make so why do so many people take the decision of purchasing a home lightly. Would you go and hand your sister or brother $200,000 dollars and say, “make me a return on my money so that I can use some of the proceeds towards my children’s education when that bill comes in the mail.” How about your fellow teacher friend? Knowing that she maybe sells 4-5 homes a year, not a month now, but a year. Would you give her $400,000 dollars and hope she turns it into something you can allocate towards retirement? How about uncle Buck’s best friend George who knows a guy who knows a guy and that guy loves to gamble. Would you give him a million bucks and say, “pick a few stocks for me and give me all but 6% of what you make.”

The decision of selecting your agent should be an interview process. Ask them where they currently live. Do they own? Do they rent? How many pieces of Real Estate do they own or have they owned? How many transactions a year do they do? What price point are most of those transactions? What part of the market do they consider to be their farm? And once you have those questions answered. Pause. Interview another agent.

Most likely you will have one agent in particular who truly stands out as knowing the market area in which you are searching. He or she should have a reputation within that market as being a leader and should be able to truly represent your best interest, keeping the financial aspect of investing in real estate front and center at all times, for all homes can have nice amenities such as new carpet and an updated kitchen, but not all homes are in the right location or laid out with the most opportunistic floor plan to maximize resale potential.

If you have questions about the current state of the Real Estate market or if you would like to Buy Sell Lease Real Estate give me a call or contact me by one of the following methods:

Travis Senenfelder

C: 651.216.9466

E: Travis@BuySellLeaseMN.com

W: http://www.BuySellLeaseMN.com