5 Tips for
Choosing the Right Real Estate Agent
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If
you are planning to sell or rent your property, you may want to
consider working with a real estate agent to help you navigate the
process and eventually find a buyer or renter for your property.
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Working
with professional real estate agents can save you a whole lot of
headache by having an agent interfacing between you and the buyer or
renter (for instance, you won’t have to be the one receiving the calls
from interested buyers/renters, arranging for inspection, etc).
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However,
finding a good real estate agent is not that easy. While you may have a
relative or neighbor who is into real estate, it is advisable you
critically consider if the person is the right person for the job. You
don’t want to loose money due to someone messing up with your valued
property.
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The following are 5 key things you should consider before you hire an agent.
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Local
expertise is key because real estate markets differ from city to city
with sharp differentials even within very close city or neighborhoods.
So you need to know the area the agent covers to determine if the agent
has the local knowledge about the real estate market where your property
is located.
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One
way to go about this is by contacting an agent and first asking which
areas they cover without first disclosing where your property is
located. You can then make your decision accordingly. Better still, you
can use Hutbay Agents Directory to search for agents that covers the
area your property is located.
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One
added advantage of working with an agent who has local knowledge of an
area is that they have more informed opinion about the true monetary
value of your property and can help you avoid a situation where your
property is sold below its true price or your property end-up staying
too long in the market without a buyer because its price is above the
value of similar properties in that area.
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We
advise you work with only real estate professionals. They will be more
professional but may charge you a higher fee. Ask how long the agent has
been actively selling or renting out properties. The more experience
they have the better. Specifically, you need an agent who is more
experienced selling/renting properties in the area where your property
is located.
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3. Read Reviews or Recommendations
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If
an agent is experienced, he or she will have clients that have been
served in the past. Ask the agent you’d like to see the reviews or
recommendations by past clients. You may ask the agent to provide you
list of some properties he/she has sold in the past and the phone number
or email of their clients. You want to know what the asking price of
the each property, the sales price and the time each property spent in
the market before they were sold.
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Agents
have profiles on Hutbay where you read their reviews. Ask the agent to
point you to his is her profile page on Hutbay where you can view in
detail reviews by past clients, current listings and properties agent
have sold or rented in the past.
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A
professional agent will know about most if not all available properties
within the area where he or she covers. It is normal for agents to know
about other properties that are available in their area off the top off
their head. You can test the agent’s local expertise by bringing up
conversation about a recently sold property you know off that is in the
same area as your property. If the agent recognize the property and can
give you a some details, then you can safely assume that the agent knows
your area.
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Agents
live on commission which is a percentage of the price a property is
sold or rented. That is, they make money only when they are able to sell
or rent out a property. And you need to discuss this early with the
agent. Ask the agent to give you a breakdown of what he or she is going
to charge you upon closing. If you think there are huge demands for your
kind of property, you have some negotiating power to bargain for
reduced commission; however, you will need to be careful that you don’t
bargain too far so that the agent is encouraged to get you optimum
results.
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If
an agent charges far below normal commission rate, that may be a flag
or pointer to a possible shoddy dealing by the agent. Some bad agents
have been known to connive with a buyer to buy a seller’s property at a
price far below the asking price with the secret agreement that the
buyer will give the agent a percent of the difference between the
correct price of the property and the price the seller bought the
property.Read More...
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Are you looking for Building Team?
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99 PROPERTY NIGERIA LIMITED
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TEL. 08099994939 / 08099994949
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