Moving to Yellowknife? Here are Four Tips for Finding the Right Agent.
If you know someone who is transferring to Yellowknife and who could use help picking a Realtor, here is what they need to know.
Like many professionals, some Realtors are better at certain parts of their jobs than others. In particular, some thrive at helping buyers find homes while others are more focussed on marketing and sales. These two service areas are very different. It’s true that some Realtors are good at both, but typically their strengths lean one way or the other. Here are four tips for finding a great buyer agent.
#1 – Google Reviews
Truly great buyer agency requires empathy, integrity, attention to detail, customized planning and a problem-solving mentality. How can you find out if a Realtor has these traits? One great way is to read their Google reviews and to pay close attention to the wording (you can find ours on each of our team members’ bio pages or on their Google profiles). Look for details about how the Realtor achieved their buyer clients’ objectives. Great service gets remembered and is reflected in reviews.
#2 – Word of Mouth
Talking to people who have recently worked with Realtors is also super helpful. It takes a bit more effort, but is far more telling than Google reviews. And whereas Google reviews tend to be mostly positive, direct referrals will help you identify red flags. Did the Realtor try to steer clients mainly towards their own brokerage’s listings, or homes above their specified price range (classic techniques of Realtors of low integrity). Did they inform their clients about private listings that might have been suitable? Did they have a discussion about whether buying a home was even the right choice as opposed to, say, renting? Did they seem mostly interested in getting a deal, any deal, across the finish line? And perhaps most importantly, were they generally known to be people of high integrity? These are insights that are best gained by talking to someone who has worked with a Realtor first hand.
#3 – Talk to the Broker
A great way to narrow things down further is to have a conversation with the brokerage owner. A good broker can quickly match you with someone with whom you have things in common, or who is most appropriate given your wants and needs and your level of buying experience. At our brokerage that job falls to me and it’s something that I both enjoy and take very seriously. So don’t hesitate to call or text me, Adrian Bell, at (867) 446-9800.
#4 – Work with a Specialty Brokerage
At the expense of sounding biased, the other surefire approach to finding a great buyer agent is to just work with a Realtor from our brokerage. Collectively, we have reputations as people of high integrity who value the client relationship above all else. If you ask around, you’ll quickly find that I’m not making this up. Before we opened our brokerage doors in 2012, buyer agency was not even a service that was offered by Yellowknife Realtors. Despite significant resistance, we fought for rule changes to allow Yellowknife Realtors to offer modern buyer agency and it continues to be our focus. We recruit Realtors of high integrity who we know are going to be great buyers’ agents. And we work diligently to keep them up to date on all the things happening in our market that might be relevant to buyers.
Like any profession, real estate sales has areas of specialization. People who are great at helping you sell a home are not automatically great a helping you buy a home. Doing a bit of research up front will help you make a choice that will lead to a better outcome.
