94 AMERICAN LIFE HOME | SPRING/SUMMER 2012 95

Picking the perfect agent

B U Y I N G A G E N T S

You know what you want in a home. But what should you look for in a real estate agent?By Bradley Merritt for USA TODAY

BUYING A HOME IS ONE OF LIFE’S biggest decisions. It’s about more than four walls and a roof. You’re putting down roots, realizing a tangible piece of your future, and investing a huge sum of money.

A good real estate agent can ease the stress of finding the right home and closing the deal. Follow these tips to find your perfect match—and your perfect home.

Ask for referrals. Agent Sissy Lappin of Houston, Texas, says that most of her clients find her through referrals. Asking around for recom-mendations remains the most popular way to find an agent. And in the age of social media, getting recommendations might be as easy as updating your Facebook status.

Canvass the neighborhood. Many buyers connect with agents by looking at houses and neighbor-hoods they’re already interested in. That’s how Bill Waltz of Saint Paul, Minn., connected with his family’s agent. “We saw a house, arranged to tour it, and met her there,” he says. “We liked her as a person and found her very organized and committed.”

Luke Birkeland of Knoxville, Tenn., had a similar experience. “My wife and I looked at a house on a lark and our agent was the one to show it to us,” he says. “That house wouldn’t have worked out for us, but we enjoyed his style and asked him to help us find our house.”

Get online. If you’re undecided on location or don’t feel like scouring the area for “for sale” signs, the right agent might be a few mouse clicks away. A 2011 study released by the National Association of Realtors estimates that 88 percent of buyers start their search online. Nearly every real estate agency and independent agent has an online presence. “Our websites generate over 60 percent of our business,” says Dean Kessler, a real estate agent in Eureka, Calif.

Do it the old-fashioned way. “I picked the agent with the most

visible ad in the front of the phone book,” says James Gilchrist of Iowa City, Iowa. “At the time, I figured any agent would be about the same as the next, so I might as well pick the one with the most outrageous ad.”

Gilchrist knows he and his wife got lucky. It turns out their agent was energetic and well established in the community. And she proved to be an effective negotiator. Gilchrist and his wife never talked to another agent through two separate purchases.

“My lack of strategy paid off,” Gilchrist says. “Our agent’s outra-geous ad was one indication of just how driven she is.”

Make a smart choice. You’ve narrowed your search to a few frontrunners. Now it’s time to choose.

Of course, you’ll want someone with whom you have an easy rapport. After all, you’ll be working together closely on a sometimes-stressful endeavor. Does the agent answer your questions clearly and thoroughly? “What made me com-fortable with the idea of working with our agent was that she didn’t seem put off by our slow timetable and learning curve,” says Elizabeth

Dugan of Washington, D.C.And how much experience does

the agent have? “An agent fresh out of school is like a hairdresser who has only learned the history of hairdos,” Lappin says.

Keep in mind that once you’ve chosen an agent, the house hunting process can last months or even a year. Dugan and her husband wanted to take things slowly, methodically combing through listings to get a feel for the market. “I was worried that [our agent] would get sick of us,” Dugan says with a laugh. But the agent’s patience was rewarded: After taking the time to get up to speed on the range of choices, Dugan says, “We narrowed our search, saw our house, made an offer, and closed within a month.”

For some house hunters, choosing the right agent is about more than checking items off of a list. “If you don’t get a good vibe right off the bat, then keep looking for an agent you do like,” suggests Waltz. “We liked our agent because he was very blunt, very honest, and didn’t try to gloss over any glaring problems with a house,” Birkeland says. “I guess he let us buy a house with him, rather than him trying to sell a house to us.”

When Joe O’Hehir’s parents asked him to sell their house in Connecti-cut, he needed to find a real estate agent from 3,000 miles away.

So O’Hehir, the CEO of a California nonprofit called Whistlestop, called My Broker Donates. He quickly found an agent and, as a bonus, ended up raising $2,000 for Whistlestop.

“They did all the research and presented me with three real estate agents,” O’Hehir says. “I did an over-the-phone interview with the three and selected one.”

My Broker Donates, a for-profit organization, connects buyers and sellers to agents. Then it arranges for 15 percent of the chosen agent’s com-mission to be donated to the charity chosen by the agent’s client. My Broker Donates also takes 10 percent of the commis-sion as compensation.

A $500,000 transac-tion could generate more than $2,000 for a charity.

“For us, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime operation,” says Don Forman, who bought a house in Berkeley, Calif., in 2011. “We didn’t have a real estate agent in mind.”

Forman, editor-in-chief of the newspaper of the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay chapter, knew about My Broker Donates through the Sierra Club. He chose his

chapter to receive his donation.

The service gave him a list of real estate agents knowledgeable about the Berkeley market and a recommendation for a particular agent. “I talked to the one they recommended, and he impressed us very much,” Forman says.

People who already have an agent can partici-pate, if the agent agrees. That’s how agent Krista Alecia of Connecticut got involved with My Broker Donates. She now uses her affiliation as a selling point when bidding for large jobs.

“It’s a feel-good,” she says. “There aren’t always a lot of happy feelings going around with the market the way it is. So it’s good to put something on the table that shows that you . . . want to be involved in a charitable transaction.”

Forman and O’Hehir use their experiences to promote My Broker Donates to supporters of their nonprofits. It’s a fairly new service—launched in 2010—and O’Hehir says generating awareness could lead to big donations.

“We’ve seen cash donations decrease dur-ing recessions,” he says. “So I think nonprofits need to find unique ways for people to give, rather than just writing a check for $2,000, because that’s hard to do.”

Charity connectionHere’s a way to find a real estate agent and donate to a nonprofit. BY LAURA MYERS, USA TODAY

Are apps replacing agents?Over the past five years, the National Association of Realtors has tracked a steady drop in its membership. !e distressed real estate market definitely plays a role in this trend. But experts also point to websites and smartphone apps that o"er everything from targeted listings of homes for sale to do-it-yourself tutorials on how to close a deal. It seems that the role of the real estate agent is shrinking.

According to real estate agent Sissy Lappin of Houston, Texas, “!e business model that has employed agents for so long is expiring,” in part because it’s “getting easier to buy and sell a home yourself and save the commission.”

Lappin believes the real estate agent’s role will always have its place, but consumers are growing less reliant on experts. “Innovation doesn’t care about the real estate commission,” she says.37 12 3Percentage of home buy-

ers looking for their first home with the National Association of Realtors

Number of homes viewed by the average buyer with the National Association of Realtors

Average number of months spent shopping for a home with the National Association of Realtors

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