This is part 3 in a series of articles designed to help people who want to buy a home, condo, or loft in downtown Phoenix AZ. At the end of this article we have links to the others in our series designed to help home buyers be more educated and empowered. Without further adieu lets move on to part three. This article will discuss good questions to ask when hiring a real estate agent to help sell or buy a home in Phoenix AZ.

INTERVIEWING AND FINDING A GREAT REAL ESTATE AGENT:

• Hiring A Quality Buyer’s Agent is a Good Idea: Having your own agent to navigate the waters of home buying makes sense. First, their service is free. The home owner pays their fee. A good agent knows the value of a home, has strong contract law knowledge, is a skilled negotiator and will help you through the entire process.
• Hire A Seasoned Full-Time Agent: You really want someone whose full-time job is real estate. Real estate is complex and demands a person’s full attention. In addition, you’ll want an agent who has well over 50 transactions under his or her belt. Skill is achieved with experience, let a new agent practice on someone else, not you.
• Interview Two or More Agents For The Job: We feel it is important you talk with several agents and find one who you get a feeling of trust and connection. We certainly would like to be one of the agents you interview and more important is that you interview several agents and make a decision based on your comfort and feeling of security.
• Check Potential Agents history on the Arizona Department of Real Estate web site. You can look to see if an agent has faced disciplinary charges and their employment history. In addition, the site lists some of the continuing education classes attended. This list may not reflect all class work though.

A Few Questions To Ask During The Interview:

• How long have you been practicing real estate? Ten or more years of full time work is a good sign of longevity and experience. Nearly 90% of new agents do not make it past 2 years. After ten years a full time real estate agent is likely to have good skills and knowledge.
• I would like to have contact information and talk to the Last 5 Closed Transactions You Have Been The Agent for Either Buyer or Seller. Recent client feedback tells you how well the agent is doing his or her job today. If an agent hesitates on this it could be a sign their recent clients aren’t happy campers.
• What level of formal education have you completed? The skills needed to best serve you include reading and understanding contract language/law, market analysis involving fairly complex math and good to excellent computer skills.
  
• Do you have a web site, Facebook business page, LinkedIn profile? This simply tells you if they have some technical and internet skills. Since 85% of home buyers use the internet to search for homes an agent who understands technology is a good thing. If you are not an internet person, this question many not be important.
• During the interview drop in a few things about a home that are important to you. Just make it part of the conversation. It can be about schools, proximity to light rail, type of floor plan you like, size of yard. Later in the interview ask the agent what he or she remembers about the kind of home you want. This can be very telling; Are they too busy talking to listen and hear you? Bad habits, like not listening, can be frustrating.
  
• If you are thinking of buying a historic home you’ll probably want to know if the agent has skill and expertise in this area. You can ask them what are some of the most common problems with a historic homes. Among the answers should be foundation issues, galvanized verses copper piping, older electrical services without a ground wire and electric panels undersized for modern use.

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No doubt you can add to this list, yet we believe these questions will give you good insight into the skills and expertise an agent offers a person looking at buying  a home, condo or historic home in downtown or Greater Phoenix Arizona. If you have additional ideas, post them as comments below and add to the conversation. Every day is a day we can add to our knowledge base.

OTHER ARTICLES IN OUR SERIES ABOUT BUYING A HOME IN DOWNTOWN AND GREATER PHOENIX ARIZONA

Part one: Checklist and Guidelines for buying a home in downtown and Greater Phoenix AZ

Part two:  How to determine the perfect home for you and frequently asked questions.

The Caniglia Group at North&Co.
5635 E. Thomas Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-714-7000