by Sean Hess (Sean@StAugTeam.com), Broker and Manager for St. Augustine Team Realty (www.StAugustineTeamRealty.com). Join us on Facebook and Google+.
How does a Realtor pick another Realtor? Well, follow along.
Jennifer Glantz, the excellent Realtor we found in State College, PA.
My sister, living in State College, PA, was looking to buy her first home and she tapped me to help her find a Realtor.
Here’s what I was looking for: I wanted an agent with a manageable customer base. I didn’t want someone with 26 listings. Because I knew that as soon as the enthusiasm wore off or my sister went under contract, she would go from #1 to #27 and good luck getting a phone call returned. In other words, I wanted someone who would appreciate her business.
The first thing I did was jump on Google and put in a bunch of keyword searches in all sorts of combinations for State College. Things like “realtor state college,” “state college real estate,” “homes for sale state college,” “buyers agent state college”…literally all sorts of stuff, anything I could think of. I wasn’t necessarily looking for buyers agent, I was just looking to see who or what popped up.
From there I came up with a list of names, plus another name from someone that my sister worked with.
Then we started diving deeper into the internet search, Googling the names, looking for online reviews, social media profiles, etc. Essentially what I was looking for was the “online resume” of each person. Some of the information was woefully out of date, and that helped us disqualify at least one agent. Another agent who moved from company to company a lot was disqualified because we weren’t confident the person would be there through the transaction.
Then it came down to three, and that’s when we started making direct contact. Using my real name but under an alternate email account, I emailed each of the agents with a question on an active listing just to see how fast they responded. Then we called two and interviewed them, and then sent the recommendation on to my sister, who concurred with our choice.
One thing we didn’t do was beat up on a Realtor. When we sent out the “see how fast they respond” emails we did it on a business day during early business hours…not on Saturday night at 7 o’clock. And every Realtor got back to us within a few hours.
The agent we ended up choosing was a Realtor named Jennifer Glantz. Jen did an excellent job and was the one my sister’s friend recommended. The funny thing is, she wasn’t one we came up with on our online search! But once we started looking for her online she was easy enought to find and vet…so clearly keywording may be overated. But we would have felt strong going with our second and even third choices as well.
So when you search for your next Realtor, look online and after awhile you’ll narrow down some pretty good choices. Then, if you know anyone in the market, ask for a recommendation. Do a check up from the neck up on everyone’s online resumes, then contact the people on your short list to see if they respond to your emails in a time frame that you are comfortable with. Then call and interview them.
That’s it!
Hire St. Augustine Team Realty for some great Realtors that you will be comfortable with. Email ReQuestion@StAugTeam.com or call Broker Sean Hess at (904) 386-8327.
