Picking One out of 23

3 times I have bought a house and 3 times I have sold a house.

All have been in the past 13 years that I’ve been in Fort Wayne.

Because of my continuously growing collection of connections, I know 20+ real estate agents in town.  When my wife and I bought our first home together and sold her house, we knew 1 agent, her friend and neighbor who lived across the street.

But due to the nature of the work I do, I have met a lot of people over the past several years including somewhere between 23 and 28 Realtor types and a few mortgage people too.

Of the real estate agents that I have worked with, there are two who I’ve had a positive personal experience with when they represented me as a seller. There are others who I respect because I know them personally but haven’t had any direct real estate experience with.  However, place them on my short list of agents I would recommend.

Picking a real estate agent is tricky.  It was actually pretty easy the 2nd time, but was hard again the 3rd time.  Here’s why:

In 2002, when Kathy and I bought our 1st home together, we didn’t have a separate agent representing us.  We used the same agent that listed the home to complete the deal.  We did have a mortgage agent that I picked and she was excellent, but she’s moved on.  When we sold our first home, the friend/agent was not the best and after 6 months we picked a new, hungry agent who sold the house in a few weeks.

4 years later, I selected an agent and mortgage broker that I had known for a few years before we were even in the market again.  I trusted them and they did an excellent job.

So skip ahead 8 years and we are going to move again.  We ask ourselves which agent to use and which mortgage broker should we call.  The mortgage guy from the last time now lives in Texas, so we started fresh again.

However on the real estate agent front, I know too many agents. They range in age from early 20’s to 70’s.  Some I liked more than others and while we strongly considered the last agent we used successfully, we decided on a different strategy.

Buying the new house was contingent on selling our current house.  We decided to list our house with the same agent that we were buying from.  I figured he would be doubly motivated to get our house sold, because he’d also be getting commission on the house we were buying from him.  When our house sells, it would result in 2 sales. Plus, overall, he “got us” with all of our quirks and in the end I believe it was a good choice.  In the final negotiation while selling our home, he was a rock star.

What about those other 20+ real estate agents I know?  Each of them had the opportunity to sell our house too and earn commission if they brought a buyer.  It turns out one of them did.  I posted the listing on Twitter and a week later we had the offer from one of the 23 other agents.

Want to buy or sell a home in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area?  I know a real estate agent or 2 or 23 that I can recommend, just contact me.