How to find a good realtor?

We want to start getting our house ready to sell. I think we need realtor help to know what must be upgraded or replaced.
Where do I begin?

I talk to some friends and get a referral.

Justin riegel wrote:

I talk to some friends and get a referral.

Same. Was referred to mine too.

i think most people go off of referrals. Ive worked with 2 in my day. the fist one was a nice guy but really had no idea what he was doing and was not able to give us good advice. he should have read the situation better in that we were first time homebuyers and the house we were buying was a POS that needed a lot of work. Not his job to tell us not to buy it but a good realtor will give you good advice. My 2nd realtor is seriously not only a really good realtor but hes a good person! He was at my wedding. We bought our new house about 4 years ago and ive called him no less than 20 times to ask advise about anything and everything housing and housing finance related and hes always put in time to help me without asking for a dime in return. In fact, i just refinanced my brothers house using one of his referrals. Other banks wouldnt help my brother but his person was able to at a good rate to boot.

He and his wife run their business. He works on the west metro side and im guessing you are in woodbury but i think he sells from all over. If you would like his name i can PM you.

Justin riegel wrote:

I talk to some friends and get a referral.

Kinda what I thought I was doing. I suppose location means everything and I need to find one nearby?

My buddy Travis Metzen is a realtor in the Twin Cites area. Very trustworthy and a great guy to work with.

651-455-2214
http://www.metzenrealty.com
http://www.facebook.com/MetzenRealty

We sold a house in November. I contacted 2 realtors who I knew via word of mouth. Each agreed to walk through the house and give me their “plan” to sell the house fast. After talking with both, it was an easy choice. One lady came across as a pit bull who was going to get the home sold ASAP for top dollar. She answered questions on the phone 7 days a week and handled all the showings herself. We never met the buyers, and never spent more than 15 minutes in an office with our family attorney at closing (who we requested over their closing company). This lady’s company was also interested in selling for 3% commission and would have the house listed in 36 hours. The other was at 4% and would have it by the end of the week. We had 2 offers, both at listing price and took the one that wasn’t contingent on inspection. The house had nothing wrong whatsoever and was inspected when I purchased it 6 years earlier, but we didn’t want to waste the additional few days it’d take to have one done.

It’s very hard to give specific advice without knowing what kind of home and market you are selling in, but I’d caution against doing any upgrades at today’s prices for “looks” or to catch a buyer’s eye. A few grand can be poured into something without a ton of changes and it is a slippery slope of speculation. Paint, carpet, flooring, and even doors/trim work are fairly routine swaps for new buyers who want to put their own flare on a home. Anything more significant could delay your listing past the upcoming prime time for listing a home in late Spring/Early Summer with interest rate hikes coming as well. With inflation still climbing, interest rate hikes coming, and expanding energy prices – I’d be looking to get it listed ASAP. I’m not a “the housing market will collapse” guy, but think things are nearing their peak in many areas.

No way id spend 4-6% on a a realtor again. On a 350K house that’s $14-21,000 to pay someone. Find a real estate lawyer who can do the whole thing for 3-4K.

PM Sent. Regardless of which way you go, spend some money on getting professional photos done!

Jake D wrote:

No way id spend 4-6% on a a realtor again. On a 350K house that’s $14-21,000 to pay someone. Find a real estate lawyer who can do the whole thing for 3-4K.

If you don’t want to pay a realtor don’t pay for a lawyer either. If your getting a bank loan most banks have someone they work with who can write up your offer to purchase and it should not cost you 3-4k.

But as suzuki said he was looking for some advice on what the market is willing to pay for his house and if some upgrades need to be done before the sell. As others have said I would ask around to your friends for some referrals. I would to suggest to get your house on the market asap march, april and may are usually the best time to sell a house.

I agree with buckybadger – I’d be careful on how much money I’d put into it to sell it. A realtor will tell you several things that will increase your sales value and thus their commission. But remember the cost to do those things, doesn’t cost them anything. Plus like said , lots of buyers will have a different idea of what they want than what you as a sell thinks they want. I would get the house on the Market as soon as possible just as it is and see how it goes from there. The market will tell you if you need to change a few things and spend some extra money to get it sold or not. Cash in while the market is still hot and interest rates are fairly low. Once those rates start going up, the market will go down and the price you can get will also.

Jake D wrote:

No way id spend 4-6% on a a realtor again. On a 350K house that’s $14-21,000 to pay someone. Find a real estate lawyer who can do the whole thing for 3-4K.

I did just this. 2900 bucks

My last house that we just sold had some issues we of course disclosed everything but our realtor said just paint everything, did that and it sold immediately, sellers market.

A web site for you to try.
https://www.realestateagentsitrust.com/

PM sent!

Sold our house 18 months ago. My realtor was a customer of mine. She gave me advice for free. With her opinion/suggestions I made around 20k more than I expected. I used my lawyer and it cost me less than $500 to do the sale. Sent my realtor $500 in appreciation for her advice.

Sorry not sorry but realtors are worthless overpayed network specialists. Most don’t know anything special that can’t be googled in a half hour. Autofill takes care of the hard stuff for em.

Very easy to figure out what juice is worth the squeeze on returns for housing upgrades to sell.

For those of you who said you just used an attorney to sell your home, who did you use to buy your new home? I bought my house myself 6 years ago when I worked with a property management company and we had access to the MLS. I can’t imagine trying to buy a house now without MLS access (the main thing realtors are good for) just with how quickly things are selling right now.

Agree 100% with Mr. Beads, The whole realty thing is a freaking scam nowadays, taking 5-6% of the sale of your house is ridiculous, what have they done to earn that? Take pictures and post them on the MLS? The entire industry is kind of a scam, it’s absolutely ridiculous paying these people so much money when it’s so easy to find properties posted on the Internet now, find a lawyer and a title company! Unfortunately the MLS, Zillow, etc are probably controlled by the realtors so it’s difficult to get homes posted

Jake D wrote:

No way id spend 4-6% on a a realtor again. On a 350K house that’s $14-21,000 to pay someone. Find a real estate lawyer who can do the whole thing for 3-4K.

Don’t mean to highjack the thread, but how do you advertise your house then and get it out there?

Looking at selling my house this Spring and the housing market in my area of Wisconsin is extremely hot. I was going to advertise my house on Zillow.com, but the realtor lobbyists in Wisconsin have passed a law so only houses being sold by realtors can be listed on websites such as Zillow. I confirmed this with Zillow and since noticed that individuals in Iowa can still list their homes on the Zillow type websites. Nothing but greed the Zillow representative told me. To counter this I have a neighborhood FB group that I mentioned that I am selling my house and have 4 people interested. If this doesn’t work I will probably go to FB Marketplace and put an ad in the local newspaper. There are a number of ways to advertise your house to avoid the $18K – $20K that a realtor would charge. If all else fails put a sign in your yard.

FinickyFish wrote:

For those of you who said you just used an attorney to sell your home, who did you use to buy your new home? I bought my house myself 6 years ago when I worked with a property management company and we had access to the MLS. I can’t imagine trying to buy a house now without MLS access (the main thing realtors are good for) just with how quickly things are selling right now.

I bought my house private sale. Attorney did the paper work.

hartridge wrote:

Looking at selling my house this Spring and the housing market in my area of Wisconsin is extremely hot. I was going to advertise my house on Zillow.com, but the realtor lobbyists in Wisconsin have passed a law so only houses being sold by realtors can be listed on websites such as Zillow. I confirmed this with Zillow and since noticed that individuals in Iowa can still list their homes on the Zillow type websites. Nothing but greed the Zillow representative told me. To counter this I have a neighborhood FB group that I mentioned that I am selling my house and have 4 people interested. If this doesn’t work I will probably go to FB Marketplace and put an ad in the local newspaper. There are a number of ways to advertise your house to avoid the $18K – $20K that a realtor would charge. If all else fails put a sign in your yard.

Great tip. Thanks hartridge

agree with those who say you arent really getting much of a service for what these realtors charge however they sort of have the market cornered. Yes you can purchase a home without them however there are examples out there where if you forgo using a realtor and try to sell your home privately you will struggle, even in this market. Some realtors will refuse to show your house to prospective buyers if you are trying to sell it privately.

If there ever was a time to not use a realtor its now, in this hot market so worth a shot, but i would be surprised if you sold it as quickly as you would with using a realtor

crappie55369 wrote:

agree with those who say you arent really getting much of a service for what these realtors charge however they sort of have the market cornered. Yes you can purchase a home without them however there are examples out there where if you forgo using a realtor and try to sell your home privately you will struggle, even in this market. Some realtors will refuse to show your house to prospective buyers if you are trying to sell it privately.

If there ever was a time to not use a realtor its now, in this hot market so worth a shot, but i would be surprised if you sold it as quickly as you would with using a realtor

My last place sold in 4 days. No realtor no realtor showings. All privately handled. It’s actually very simple. Just have to market it.

Good deal. For those of you in MN, you can get a limited brokers license then sign up for the MLS through a real estate association. A bit of a headache and will cost you around $800 but then you get all the tools a realtor gets. You can tour houses yourself as soon as they hit the market (zillow and redfin are typically delayed).

Bought 2 houses, a cabin, and sold one house without a realtor. A little research and consult with bank and/or attorney gets it done in most cases for minimal investment. With the crazy market these days, shouldn’t be too hard to sell. Good luck.

Agree with the realtor being a bit overrated consensus here, however when we sold in 2015 we had a few issues that came up with the buyers. Now if we had not had a realtor, the deal would have went bust I’m sure. So in my specific case, the realtor saved us some money and a big headache.

stout93 wrote:

Agree with the realtor being a bit overrated consensus here, however when we sold in 2015 we had a few issues that came up with the buyers. Now if we had not had a realtor, the deal would have went bust I’m sure. So in my specific case, the realtor saved us some money and a big headache.

I would imagine what ever deal the realtor worked out could have been done between private parties. When I sold my last house the couple wanted egress windows. So I told them I would make it happen to make the deal happen. I cut in 3 egress by my self had a buddy install some on sale windows from the local Anderson window. And I found 3 metal egress pits. Took a day and a half and it was done and I got my check they got the house. Both parties happy to save 20k ballpark. Egress totals cost me 700 for all 3.

Now to actually find a realtor is easy. Get referrals, call realtors and ask friends. But every realtor in business is there to make as much cash off you as possible.