How to Find a Real Estate Agent

7 Tips for Finding the Best Real Estate Agent for Your Property

Real estate agents are a dime a dozen these days, but the good ones are few and far between. Before choosing an agent, do your research. It will pay off tenfold in terms of maximizing the selling price of your home, minimizing listing time and ensuring that the selling and closing process will go smoothly. Choosing the right real estate agent is a crucial part of the selling process. Here are seven tips to help you make the most intelligent decision for your property and your needs:

1. Don't hire a realtor just because a friend recommends them.

Many people hire someone based only on a friend's recommendation and wind up with poor representation.

2. Find an expert

To best serve your needs, find someone who demonstrates knowledge of your area, expertise in the process, and strong marketing skills.

3. Find out how the agent plans on marketing your property

Gone are the days when a home can just show up in MLS and be sold. Top real estate agents actually have a marketing process and their sales volumes speak for themselves. Realtors that are good at marketing and selling homes have strong track records, minimum listing periods and maximum selling prices.

4. Find out how many properties the real estate agent you are considering has actually listed and sold in the past year

How many properties similar to yours have they personally sold in the last year? (Beware real estate "team" statistics, as the lead agent might be taking credit for the production of several junior agents.)

5. What is the agent's market list time?

How long do similar properties stay on market with this agent compared to the market average?

6. Find an agent that knows how to use the internet and social media to market your home

Make sure your agent is active on the top online home shopping web sites and has experience using technology to market your home (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).

7. Get a first hand feel for the agents

Interview several agents in person and find one you feel you can trust and will enjoy working with, and that will best represent you as a seller before making a final decision.

Grace Frank is a million dollar/top 10% Chattanooga real estate producer, Accredited Buyer's Representative and certified Green Real Estate Agent specializing in Waterfront Property, Real Estate Investing and Chattanooga Green Real Estate in the Chattanooga region. She holds an MBA in marketing and puts her exceptional negotiating skills to work on behalf of her clients to exceed expectations. To learn more, visit Grace on Facebook.

How to choose a real estate agent

The decision to buy or sell a home is one of the most important financial decisions most people make, yet many give little thought to finding the real estate agent best suited to their needs.

Agents are often chosen solely on the recommendation of a friend or an ad in the newspaper. But choosing the right agent can save you time, effort and aggravation in finding the perfect home at a price you can afford or selling your home quickly for top dollar.

"Real estate has always been a mark of independence and freedom in this country," says Donald R. Brenner, professor emeritus at American University. "Owning property is very important, and when you deal with someone who is going to help you buy or sell a piece of property, you'd better find someone that knows what they're doing.

"If you pick up the phone book and choose from the yellow pages, you won't make a better decision than if you picked up the telephone book to choose a brain surgeon," says Brenner.

Realtor Grace Frank isn't interested in hearing the odds, only in beating them. For example, when she took her plan to build South side Village to the banks, they told her she was nuts. She showed them they were wrong.
"It took us a year to negotiate the land deals, and then we started building last May. We've sold nearly an entire street, and we did it when no one thought it was possible," she says.
The banks not only underestimated Frank's ability to build and sell the South side project, also her entrepreneurial spirit, Read More...

Home Sales in Chattanooga are Looking Good

This article originally appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. You can find it here.

It's shaping up to be a solid year for the housing market, as home sales and new housing starts rose across the board in September.

Sales of existing homes in September rose 19 percent over the year to 615 homes sold across the Chattanooga area, as homeowners rushed to put nearly 1,000 new homes on the market during the period, according to the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors.

Home starts year to date are up 12.4 percent to 1,178, including 760 new homes started in Hamilton County and 224 in Bradley County so far this year, according to research firm The Market Edge.

But though unit sales are promising, the recovery has yet to hit the high end of the market. Big homes, defined as those with more than 4,000 square feet or costing more than $400,000, are actually lagging 2012's numbers, with only 30 permits for large homes secured so far this year.

Builders aren't the only ones feeling the squeeze. Realtors say the median sales price in the Chattanooga area squeaked down 1.7 percent to $137,000. But buyers seemed to like the lower prices, as the number of days a home stood on the market decreased

2.5 percent to an average of 119 days, and the months of housing inventory decreased 6.3 percent to nine months, or about 5,173 homes for sale.

Mark Blazek, president of the Realtors association, said the combination of new home sales and buyers looking to downsize are driving the home sales surge.

"Some baby boomers are ready to look for less space, nudging Junior out of the basement," Blazek said. "The pizza boxes and late-night video games get old, plus there's a fresh crop of buyers looking for a bigger space to raise their own little darlings."