With about 5,300 Calgary realtors.
How do you choose the best performing Calgary real estate agent?
What metrics do you use? Do you use experience? Skillsets? Or, judge
them by character?
And what are some of the questions you should ask when interviewing a Calgary
realtor and what types of Calgary realtors are there?
My name is Felix Chan,
Calgary Realtor and Mortgage Broker with the LiveInnerCity real estate team.
And today I'm going to answer all of those questions because if you choose a
Realtor that isn't the right fit,
it could cost you thousands of dollars from bad advice and turn an experience
that should be fun into a drag. By the end of the video,
you're going to have the clarity of knowing what to look for when interviewing a
realtor, which will help put you at ease. Now, one thing guys, our Instagram
is back! Facebook deactivated it since December of 2020.
And it was just recently reactivated. So,
if you want content that we don't post on YouTube,
then make sure you follow us on Instagram. So now, let's talk about metrics.
Well, what metrics do you use when interviewing a Realtor? Experience,
skillsets or, character? Experience. Now,
is it time in the business or is it the knowledge in the business? Well,
hands down it's the latter, knowledge in the business.
Let me give you a quick example.
I was representing a buyer's and he was the listing agent,
and he wasn't aware of the tax rules for
non-residents selling Canadian real estate, which by the way,
I'll be coming out with the video because it is absolutely crucial.
You non-residents signing Canadian real estate know this. Long story short,
he came back as I was educating men. He said, you know,
I've been in the business for 18 years. Well,
why is it then that someone that's been in the industry about half your
time is younger than you teaching you about this non-resident rule,
which is a very material piece of information. And so,
it's not time it's knowledge. Skillset. So,
this speaks to the knowledge I was just talking about. You know,
the more you learn, the more you earn now,
certain personality types understand this.
So they don't focus on the earning parts because their earning part
is just the result of what you learn.
And the skillset that they learn as you're having that conversation with
them will come out. Other things to look out for is,
do they have a business coach? I mean,
you never see an Olympic athletes without a coach.
So why would you find yourself without a coach when you're self-employed?
Are they taking courses?
How are they developing their skills in negotiations or
contracts? Do they understand marketing?
How are they gonna get exposure and eyes on your listing?
Are they on YouTube? By the way, I'm going to plug you two for a second here.
Youtube is actually not a social platform.
It's the world's second largest search engine,
which is owned by the world's biggest search engine, which is Google.
So do they know how to rank at the top of YouTube
for key terms, such as Calgary House For Sale.
Now I'm going to plug our team here for a second. We are one of the vendors,
very few, if not the only real estate team here in Calgary,
that understands how to rank at the top of YouTube.
When you're looking to hire someone to help you with real estate,
don't look to hire a realtor, look to hire a partner differences.
A partner is someone that you can depend on someone you can lean on for advice,
someone that's not going to give you BS and tell you what you want to hear.
It's someone that you can trust. So,
it's not the title that you're looking for the character.
And of course accountability.
Are they the type that will take full ownership of their actions and
their decisions? What are some of the questions to ask your realtor? Well,
as an example, if you are a seller, some of the things you can ask is, you know,
how do you communicate? Not only with me,
but also in negotiations, believe it or not,
some realtors will actually negotiate over text,
which I think is a complete disservice to you as
their clients. Because if you're texting,
you don't get to build that relationship.
You don't get to understand who you're talking to.
You're not able to leverage the information, their
vocal cues in order to take advantage of that and
be on your side for winning the negotiations.
One of the biggest complaints is when a realtor lists their home,
you never hear from them again.
So make sure you are in constant communication with them,
and you hold them accountable because as the market changes,
you may have to adjust some aspects of your listing. Other questions are,
you know, what is your approach to negotiating?
Are they able to answer that with some sort of strategic plan? You know,
what do you do to develop your skills?
Why should I choose you versus other agents?
Now if someone comes back and they say, well, you know,
I'll give you a discount on my commissions.
This is the biggest tell of someone who doesn't understand
a seller's concerns or problems,
or they're not skilled enough to handle that objection.
And by the way,
the top 20% of realtors that do 80% of the business in the city -
they don't discount their commission at all.
The reason why is because they know their value.
You're paying for their expertise and their experience that
they are bringing to the table for you.
What is your marketing plan for the Calgary Real Estate Market and how effective
is it? You know, get a good feel to see if they understand marketing,
for example,
understanding the buyer profile of your home so they can cater
the description, the messaging, the video to that specific buyer.
What is the selling process, the milestones and the timelines that I can expect?
By the way, if that is you,
you're a seller and you don't understand the selling process,
make sure you check out a video that we just did up here in the corner or down
in the description below I go through the entire selling process from beginning
all the way to the end,
along with the milestones and the timelines that you can expect.
I think that if you're not learning something from the interview with your
realtor, then you can expect the same results when you're hiring that realtor.
But if you're getting something out of the interview, you know,
maybe you're learning about the process, how real estate works, et cetera.
Then you know that there'll be more expertise coming your way,
as well as some knowledge from that realtor that you can help,
that you can leverage for your real estate experience.
What types of realtors are there? Well, there's a few different categories.
The first one is there's realtors who are transactional versus
educational.
Transactional means that they're just there to facilitate the transaction or the
deal versus giving you advice and educating you along the way. Hey,
if we do this, then you need to think about that.
And if you make this decision,
here are the pros and cons that come with each of those decisions.
Then there are the reactive realtors versus the
proactive realtors. In other words, order takers versus consultants.
Now reactive realtors will sit there and just kind of handle things
as things come in versus a proactive, you know,
there can be out there getting it, you know, as an example,
if there's a listing agent, a reactive realtor,
we'll just post it and wait for things to happen,
such as showings and waiting for offers. Proactive, would be, you know,
doing a video, calling the showing realtors, how their showings went.
See if there's any opportunities to actively get an offer.
There's a big difference between the two. At the end of the day,
an important consideration is their business acumen.
Is it at a higher standard than the rest?
Did they hit up on all of your concerns and questions and challenges
without you asking about it?
Or do they finish the interview with you having no questions to ask
at the end because they covered it all.
All different people will value different things.
And hopefully this video on how to choose the Top Calgary realtor has given you
something to start with. Now,
if you found this video valuable and you want to see more of our content,
make sure you hit subscribe and set the notification bell on all. So, you know,
when our videos come out and if you want to work with us,
then please fill out the form in the description below in all of
our videos.
And we'll be asking you a few preliminary questions just to see where your at.
We'll probably schedule a 10 minute quick consultation. And then from there,
then we'll schedule a buyer, seller or, investor strategy session.
My name is Felix Chan with the LiveInnerCity real estate team.
And we'll see you in the next video.