Do Not Hire a Realtor Unless They Have This ONE Characteristic

I asked this question, “If your listing Agent had only one skill, what would you want it to be?”

Here are some of the answers:

• Must have good negotiation skills
• Must know the area
• Must have good marketing skills
• Must be experienced
• Must have sold homes in the area
• Must use print media
• Must know real estate stats

All of these are great answers, but none of them are correct. Let’s put it this way: If I were listing my home, all of those would be important, but one and only one would be a show-stopper and it’s not on the list above.

The ONE skill that my Realtor would need to possess would be… (drum roll please) she must be a great problem solver.

Here are some of the challenges I personally faced this year:

• Appraisal coming in lower than the sales price
• Buyer didn’t have enough money to close two days before closing
• HOA wouldn’t reduce a short sale seller’s delinquent fees in order to close the sale
• Seller didn’t have enough money to close the sale
• The short sale bank wouldn’t make repairs that the buyer requested
• Buyer and seller were going head to head and the Agents were in the middle of a battle
• Buyer’s loan was denied days before closing

I could go on and on because there are situations and challenges every day in real estate. Your Realtor must bring you solutions with every problem. If they haven’t, they are remiss.

How do you know if the Realtor you are interviewing is a problem solver? Ask them what their biggest challenge was this year and how did they solve it?

Live well and seek solutions, not problems!