Wow! It felt so warm today! Neither Harry nor I thought to check the thermometer, but it must have been close to 70 degrees this afternoon. I got home from work at 5:30 and we actually walked without any jackets or sweatshirts! It was getting dark, but oh well, you can’t have everything. 
I would like to welcome two new readers to my blog – Sue from Our Fiver Adventures and Pidge. Thanks for joining us on our journey to fulltime life on the road!
I started doing research today on real estate in the area. When Harry and I tried to sell my condo last year, choosing a realtor was very much a guessing game. We started out on our own, listing the condo for sale by owner, and when we received a call from a realtor who seemed to be on top of things, we decided to switch to her. We ended up being less than pleased with that agency, and were happy to find a renter a few months later, which put an end for awhile to being part of the selling game.
Today I was looking at houses for sale in my neighborhood, and as I looked at each individual listing, I was struck by the number of agencies there are, and the number of realtors to choose from out of each agency. How does a person choose a good realtor? Do we simply shut our eyes, and blindly point at the newspaper, and go with the person/agency that we see at the end of our finger? That’s what the decision of choosing a realtor has felt like to me so far.
Now, granted, the listing of our house is still a couple of years away, but unless we do something, I don’t see us being any more informed at that time then we are now. So, I’ve decided to conduct a little research project. I created an online profile today with the local newspaper realty section, which means that I can save up to 50 listings. No, I’m not going to go that far! What I am going to do is start with a few properties for sale in the neighborhood, and follow their journey to the closing table! I’m going to keep track of the agent and the real estate agency, see what kind of listings they do, how often they do open houses, what does their website look like, and any other information that strikes my interest.
I may learn something from my project, or I may learn nothing! I’ll keep you posted.
PS….If anyone has any helpful hints for choosing a great realtor and/or agency, I’d love to hear them. 
we wish you luck with the realtor thing!...we are a couple of years away from that process..we have a friend who is real estate agent so he will be our first choice when the time comes!
ReplyDeleteThe first time I listed my house (2 years ago..) I decided to use a larger realtor - one that was well rated in my area. I feel they did nothing to market my house. They put a sign up, had it on the MLS, that was it.
ReplyDeleteThis go around, I chose someone who is more local, knows my area better. They have advertised it, had the open house, signs everywhere, etc. My house is being featured in 'Homes Magazine' for November, front cover and everything. I feel in this market they really need to market the heck out of it.