Whether you wish to buy a home or need to sell one, you need a good agent by your side. Their knowledge and expertise help guide you through every step of the way. With over 120 offices and more than 470 active agents in Lake Havasu City alone, how do you know you are hiring the right real estate agent to handle your transaction?

Hiring the Right Real Estate Agent

Determine Your Priorities

Decide what you really want in an agent. Do you need daily updates or would you prefer less communication? How would you prefer your agent to contact you? Text? Email? Face-to-face? Is experience more important to you than a huge amount of sales? Or vice versa? Do you only want to deal with your agent when it comes to your real estate transaction or are you OK with talking to their team? (Most agents come with a team that helps them with different aspects of the deal.) Decide what you need to feel safe and secure throughout the process and find the agent that fits those parameters.

Get Referrals

Know someone who recently bought or sold a Lake Havasu home? Find out who they used and if they recommend them? If moving to another city or state, ask the agent you used last if they know of an agent in the new area that they can refer you to. Chances are good that if they don't know of one personally, they know someone who does.

Ask About Experience

Just because someone has a ton of listings does not necessarily make them the best. In fact, too many listings may mean that they are too busy to give you the undivided attention you seek. Equally important, someone with only a listing or two does not mean that they have no experience in the field. Instead of looking at numbers, talk to the agent directly. Ask them how many transactions they have handled. How long have they been working in the area? What is the hardest transaction they handled and how did they resolve the problem? Is this a full-time or part-time profession for them? Do they work alone or with a team? When and how do they prefer to be contacted? Can they provide you with references? The answers to these questions help you decide whether this real estate agent fits the bill for you or not.

Check Their License

The last thing you need to worry about when buying or selling a home is whether or not your agent is licensed. Fortunately, you only need a computer or a smartphone to find out. Visit the Arizona Department of Real Estate's website. Enter either the agent's name or their license number for a quick search.

Sunstone Real Estate Group at Coldwell Banker Realty, Lake Havasu City, AZ 

Originally posted on our Lake Havasu area real estate blog here: https://www.sunstonerp.com/hiring-the-right-real-estate-agent/.