Last Train to Clarksville

Interviewing Agents

So, you are interested in buying a home but just don’t know how to find someone you can trust.  You don’t want to be taken advantage of and you don’t want to work with someone you just can’t get along.  There are so many sites on the internet that tell you:

“This is what you need to ask in an interview to find the right agent.”

Well, here with Team Agnew we decided to take those questions you find everywhere and just do the interview for you, so you don’t have to worry about contacting us to find out what we are about.

It is important to know what your looking  for in finding and using an Agent. The reason why is because the relationship between the buyer and Agent is somewhat like a marriage. You must have trust, mutual goals (to get the house that best suits your needs) and understanding. This requires communication, lots of it.  So we are going to go over 3 topics and try to make it short for your reading span:

1) What to look for in an Agent

2) Questions to ask a prospective Agent

3) Where to find an Agent

Since the commission for the sale of the home is almost always paid by the seller, buyers are able to get assistance and information from a Real Estate Agent, usually at no cost to them.  So, let’s get started with our interview…

What to look for in an Agent:

• An understanding of your needs
• A willingness to work with you until your needs are fulfilled
• A sense of professionalism
• A familiarity with the area in which you would like to live
• Someone who is dedicated to their profession
• A familiarity with the sales price range you would like to be in
• Strong references from previous buyers
• Someone that communicates with you and your at ease with them
• Someone that actually calls or emails you with personalized verbiage not computer generated letters

Questions to ask a prospective Agent:

• How long have you been in Real Estate?  Team Agnew has combined years of 5 years in Clarksville, TN
• Are you a full time Agent? Yes, I am.  Art is still active duty military, so right now he is part time.
• Are you familiar with the area in which we want to work? Yes, we have been in Clarksville for 10 years and I am an alumni of Northeast High School off Exit 1.
• What is the average sold price of homes you sold last year? $150,000. The average depends on what the buyers are buying in that market. I work with all prices.
• Do you normally work with Sellers or Buyers? Our Team works them evenly.  Right now I am working with both very effectively and actively. When you don’t have a large inventory with Sellers, it is more time you spend on the ones you do have and getting them sold quickly. Art brought his buyer to one of my listings and sold it in 10 days.  Currently, out of our listings, we have another that is possibly getting an offer after 8 days on the market. With Buyers, we are actively, with a personal touch, working with them to make sure they get the best in everything they need to choose the home they want.
• How many buyers and sellers are you currently working with? Great questions! We are working with over 9 Sellers and 11 Buyers all within the last 3 weeks! This is our passion, to help bring buyers and sellers together and make a smooth and easy transition to the transaction!
• Where do you feel your strengths lie? For me, I would have to say my strength with the Seller is in marketing your home.  I love marketing, the paperwork, being organized and finding better ways of sticking out of the crowd, networking and competing to get the house sold the fastest! I don’t want to have the same plan another Agent might have.  I am always searching to reinvent my product, making it more noticable and sellable!  With Buyers, my strength would be communication, making you feel comfortable and to keep any stress level down. Your trust is in me and I don’t like to disappoint anyone! As you read my testimonials, you will see that I care about my clients and their happiness and it shows in my work ethics and morals.
• What 3 buyers that you have worked with can you give me as references? With their permission, contact me and I will send you their information.

Where to find an Agent?

• Be aware: If you think that by contacting a FSBO, the selling agent or even seller, that you will get a better deal, you are doing yourself a disservice.  The reason why I say this is because you have no one to represent your best interests, what to ask for, what to look for, and most importantly to be by your side if you have to go to court due to something wrong with the house that wasn’t disclosed, among other things. Oh, and don’t forget: the Sellers have someone representing them, who is representing you?
• There are many networking sites that Agents can be found on: Zolve, ActiveRain, among many more…
• We also have our Team Agnew which consists of 5 members.  Anyone of these Agents are well qualified to keep your best interests at heart.  Marissa Fulford, Christy McGill, Jenna Eaton, Art Agnew and me, Thea Agnew.
• You can also put in a search with google to be notified of what is going on in Clarksville with keywords and they will come straight to your email.  A lot of Agents that are active with the internet, since 88% of buyers find their home online, can be found by their activity through this search and you will know by reading what they have to say, whether or not you want to get in contact with them to interview.  It’s best if you go to igoogle, sign up with a gmail account, sign in, at the top right corner click on “my account”, then click on alerts. Type in the search anything to do with Clarksville, TN and you will get the email from google.  Great way to keep up with people you are interested in. It’s not stalking, I promise!

I hope this has helped you with getting ideas on how to find an Agent to work with.  If I can be of any assistant, me or my Team, please contact us and we will get back in touch within a few hours.

If you are wanting to search for homes now, please just click here.  If you are ready to narrow your criteria down and move forward from the normal search, contact me and we will find what you are looking for.

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