Whether you are looking to make a profitable property investment or you want to buy your dream house, to make ends meet, you need to hire professional real estate agents. Real estate professionals who have insight into their world can provide you with useful information which can help you seal the lucrative deal.
However, as a property investor, your first step towards ensuring high profits from property investment is to find the right buyer agency to do that job. You can do so just by asking the right questions to the buyers’ agency.
Now what these questions should be? Make sure to read this guide to know the kind of questions you should ask your buyer’s agents to know whether they can fulfil your requirement or not.
Do They Have The Necessary Real Estate License?
To legally abide by the law, it’s essential to hire a licensed buyer’s agent. So your first question should always be about the license and other legal documents of the agency. Make sure to read about the licensing requirements of your state before fishing for answers from the buyer’s agency you might hire.
In worst case scenarios, when you really like the real estate agent but they are not appropriately licensed yet, then you can ask them whether they have a Certificate of Registration. If they do not have this certificate, then you can’t work with them as they are not legally qualified to perform real estate practices.
How Experienced Are They?
As a property investor, you need to make sure that the professionals who are going to handle your dealing are qualified to do so. The only way to figure that out is to ask them about their experience. An experienced individual must have seen all the ups and downs in the real estate industry.
As a result, they can provide you with tactics and advice that’s going to work in your favour for sure. Moreover, experienced professionals have expertise in negotiating as they have been doing this for years.
Are They A Member Of REBAA?
REBAA is a real estate organisation of Australia that stands for Real Estate Buyers Agent Association of Australia. The organisation provides insight into how real estate professionals should perform business practices in the country.
The organisation is said to have a strict admission process. Thus, if the agency is a member of this organisation, then it means that they have gone through the lengthy process of admission and adhered to its teachings of the professional Code of Conduct. Most property buyers prefer hiring members of REBAA.
Does Their Company Have Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Professional Indemnity Insurance compensates the customers of their clients in case of negligence in services. Having this insurance is a clear indicator that the business organisation is running legitimately.
It also covers the legal costs, compensation and expenses in the case of the business being sued by its client. Knowing that the agency has PI insurance also gives you the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong with their methods of dealing, you will surely be compensated for your loss.
Do They Work As An Exclusive Buyer’s Agent?
In order to avoid a conflict of interest, your buyers agent needs to be working for you only exclusively. This means that they can’t work for any other third party during your real estate transaction. Simply put, the agent can only be paid by the buyer.
Do They Know Your Local Area?
Ask your buyer’s agent whether or not they are familiar with the local area of the property you are going to invest in. If they are not, they will be proved useless even if you find a skilled and experienced agent with compliance with the conditions mentioned above.
Can They Provide Off-Market Properties Listings?
Off-market properties are those that have not yet entered the market or are on sale silently. The insight to these property listings is only accessible to a good buyers agent who has a wide range of trusted networks.
If your agent can’t provide the off-market properties listings, then it means that they are new in the business and still working on ways to obtain this kind of information.
How Will They Manage Your Dealings?
If they have checked all the boxes of the above questions, then it’s time to inquire about their methods on how they are going to help you and how they offer unique solutions compared to others. Make sure that during this conversation, the communication is effective and free-flowing. If they cannot understand your requirements, they can’t handle your dealings.
Can They Provide Insight Into Their Past Customers’ Feedback?
Proud service providers always keep portfolios of their past work to build trust among their new clients. So, to check the quality of their work, you can ask them to provide insight into their customers’ feedback.
You can also ask them if you can talk to their previous client to know their experience with them. Your objective should be to get honest feedback from their recent 2 or 3 clients to know the actual position of the agency in the market.
Final Thoughts
Finding a good buyer’s agent is not a tough task. All you have to do is ask the questions given above and select the ones that are the most suitable. Investing in a property or buying your dream home involves a lengthy process. The decision in such cases should be well-informed.
So, the bare minimum you can do is to know whether you are trusting the right professionals for your dealings or not. Buyers agents are supposed to make your job easier and provide you with the best deals. Your only job is to make sure that they are capable of offering you that before you hire them.