This picture made me laugh out loud. I think it’s everyone’s nightmare when they start looking for a Real Estate Agent. The ad for Opt Home is running in Boston Magazine, Boston Globe and on the Zillow Website. The company claims to find you the perfect agent based on credentials, ethics, and values. How is it possible for a site to rate Real Estate agents on such unmeasurable characteristics?
Further investigation of the website shows that there are still a lot of errors that need more attention. Creating my account continued to give me an error. The site appears to be an agent referral service. I was unable to search for agents by location. I tried several different locations: Charlottesville, Atlanta, Boston, and it just gave me basic referrals. What questions would you ask a Realtor to figure out their values and ethics? What characteristics do you look for in a Realtor?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ha ha ha. Their website may not work, but that is a funny ad.
Question for agent:
1) How many homes have you sold?
Here are two posts I have written about how to vet your agent –
Questions to ask your agent in Charlottesville and Representation isn’t Free.
You’re hiring somebody to represent your best interests; you should treat it as such, rather than perhaps defaulting to a family friend, sister, agent you meet at an open house (be careful especially about that last one).
Thanks Jim, your “Questions to ask your agent,” post gives some really good examples of probing questions. That would not make me feel comfortable if my Realtor was only willing to answer my phone call until 5 pm.
I think agents can sometimes go to far in trying to make themselves seem “available” – posting their cell phone number, home phone, kid’s soccer schedules etc. Some of them start to look desperate: “Call me at home anytime! Please just, call!”. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable knowing that they would be OK with me calling their cell phone at 9pm to ask a question about a house. But that’s me.
Is the “always available” thing a result of consumer demand (we only think of real estate questions in the middle of the night) or a result of competition (I gave you my cell number, therefore I’m the better agent)?
I could never really understand why ALL real estate agents find it necessary to post a silly looking picture of themselves on all of their marketing materials. Does it really help their business? I can understand if they are a very attractive female (or male for that matter).
I am working on an entirely different branding approach myself.