Do you sell a flat or a house? Probably, it is your life-decision; that's why it is important not to underestimate something, especially choosing a real estate agent. But how you can recognize a professional?
1/ reference and recommendations
The most reliable method at all how to choose a splendid real estate agent are references and recommendations from colleagues, your family or friends. As far as, however, you have nobody of that sort in your surroundings, the only possibility is to find out such an agent.
2/ study up the selling process by yourself
You yourself should primarily know a rough outline of the sale of your real property, that's why you should study up at least basic facts about how the sale would look like. Thanks to this self-study, you may get away from manipulation with dishonest real estate agents or amateurs. Be asking. Don't be afraid to ask questions to which you know answers since just thanks to it you will discover whether you speak to a professional. Together with brilliant replying to your questions, a quality agent should prepare you for the sale of your real properties automatically and without asking. He/she should agree the given procedure with you, and tell you how the presentation will be proceeded and sketch out a selling strategy to you.
3/ real estate agent's full-time job
Look always for an agent who devotes full-timely to his/her profession. At present, there is a lot of would-be real estate agents who exercise this activity just as extra earnings; you hardly find out more information on them, they barely have a photo or a history. Look for an agent who practices this activity on 100%, owns his/her own website, possesses a work history, presents a good deal of accessible information about him/her, writes articles, recommends to clients, has a blog or a channel on YouTube, presents himself/herself on social networks or/and professional networks such as LinkedIn.
4/ real estate agent's education
Choose an agent who is continually being educated and tries to better himself/herself. Each quality agent presents his/her education, training courses, qualifications and certificates.
5/ real estate agent's background
Check out agent's background as it will have you a lot of information on the general portfolio of services. Don't be discouraged by that it is a small company. Often, many times smaller company has more qualified salesmen than just those big ones. Does the agent work for himself/herself? It also doesn't need to be considered negatively. Ask him/her why he/she does it in that way. Visit the agent in his/her office and make a general scan of what the office looks like. Is this premise tidy and maintained, with a cleaned-up table, or is there a chaos everywhere?
6/ a professional will never promise you an unreal price
A professional real estate agent will arrange an appointment with you to give you a possibility to look the realty through and make an estimation of its market price. This estimation, mostly, takes a while because the agent should compare existing real properties on the market, a locality, a type of ownership, a state of the flat or the house, whether reconstruction or original elements, and so on. Each of these aspects may significantly affect the real estate's price. After determination of the market price, he/she should advice you how he/she figured it out and why the result is just of that kind. An unfair agent or an amateur is able to say you a price via phone without seeing the real property, or can promise you an unreal price to get your order under exclusive agreement conditions. Don't believe in unreal prices; a high-quality agent will never promise you this.
7/ don't minimize first impression
The first contact will be probably via phone. Explore the impression the agent left to you. Listening to his/her voice, you can find out whether he/she is pleasurable, disposable and communicative. Provided he/she leaves excellent first impression, then he/she will impress the future interested persons. A professional will never push you to something; some of them joke and look like relaxed. The agent should arrive to the meeting on time because punctuality is the quality of the kings. A first-rate agent is permanently fresh, no matter whether he/she wears a jacket or not. A delicately elegant style does not leave so chill and aggressive impression. The important element is also a handshake, where you manage to learn more about basic features of his/her character.
8/ agent's trade knowledge
Your real estate agent should be an excellent salesman since purchasers are permanently searching for arguments how to buy for the minimal possible price. The agent should advocate your interests, should be excellently prepared and be calm under any circumstances. We can very easy recognize trade knowledge by asking questions to the agent and arguing. To discover the most, you should force him/her to react under stress. Did the agent give in to your requirements and arguments? Is he/she able to artfully reply and formulate sentences? How he/she looks like on it? As far as he/she backs off, for which price? It will give you a good deal of clue who is in front of you.
9/ legal knowledge
An experienced agent should know at least NOZ (the Czech Republic's New Civil Code), should know a structure of all agreements (contract of lease, purchasing contract, contract of intent, trust agreement), should know what particular legal defects on the ownership certificate mean and how to solve them, should know how to issue supplements to agreements, what should be warn for in the agreements, etc. You may discover this information by questioning, too.
10/ exclusive agreement: yes or not?
Please accept my congratulations, you are in the phase when you have already chosen an agent who has excellent references, splendid recommendations, good background and first-rate abilities. The last question is whether conclude the exclusive agreement or not? This point will be discussed in detail in the following article.