A Kansas City resident asked me what should they consider in choosing a real estate agent.
If you are thinking about hiring a professional to help you with probably your most important asset in Kansas City, your home, you may want to use this list to help you choose the right Kansas City professional. Choosing the wrong Kansas City professional may cost you thousands. Too many times consumers choose a Kansas City real estate agent for the wrong reasons like what they can sell a home for or that they discount the fee. A smart consumer will choose a Realtor not on promises but by a proven track record. With hundreds of homes not selling each month, this list will help you in choosing the right Kansas City real estate agent to sell your home?
1) A top Kansas City real estate agent is a Realtor vs. just a real estate agent - Did you know that all Kansas City Realtors are real estate agents, but not all Kansas City real estate agents are Realtors. Kansas City Realtors are members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and have pledged to its strict Code of Ethics and Standard of Practice. Over 80% of consumers surveyed in 2008 by NAR, would use their Realtor again. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them if they are a Realtor.
2) A top Kansas City real estate agent is a Full Time Agent not a Part Time Agent - Would you hire a part time surgeon to perform brain surgery or a part time attorney to defend you in a major lawsuit? If your answer is probably not, why would you invest in probably your biggest asset with a part time real estate agent. A respected full time agent is not only more knowledgeable but other agents like to also work with knowledgeable full time agents. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them if they have another job or if they are a full time real estate agent.
3) A top Kansas City real estate agent has many Potential Buyers - An established veteran real estate agent who is a specialist in your area will have many Potential Buyers who maybe interested in your home. A top Kansas City real estate agent will communicate with over 1000 potential buyers via through drip mail, drip email and newsletters. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them how many potential buyers they have in their database.
4) A top Kansas City real estate agent Networks in the Community - Many top real estate agents get leads from the networking groups they belong to in the area they service. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them if they belong to any community networking groups.
5) A top Kansas City real estate agent will create an Online Marketing Plan to create the maximum web exposure - A top real estate agent will have an aggressive online marketing program to market your home. They will market on a top performing website, a personal top performing blog, and many top websites. A top real estate agent will make sure your home will be found on the first couple of pages of Google on the top keywords. A top real estate agent knows that most home buyers will NOT go past 3 clicks to search for homes so they will not rely on a company website for online exposure for your home. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them what steps will they take in their marketing plan to reach the most home buyers.
6) A top Kansas City real estate agent can be found within the first two pages of Google - With over nine thousand real estate agents in Kansas City, a top real estate agent will have already implemented a marketing plan that will get their website on the top two pages of Google. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, search them on Google. Search your city, then state (if small city) plus real estate. Examples would be Kansas City real estate and Olathe Kansas real estate.
7) A top Kansas City real estate agent is tech savvy - A top real estate agent will use the latest technology like a Blackberry phone, tablet computer; as well as, the latest websites like Facebook and Twitter. A tech savvy real estate agent will also use the latest communication tools like gmail, instant message, text message and social networking sites. If your real estate agent isn't on Facebook and Twitter they are probably not a tech savvy real estate agent. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them what technology tools and websites will they use to market your home and service your sale through closing.
8) A top Kansas City real estate agent is a specialist - Did you know that a REALTOR Specialist will cost you the same as a part time real estate agent. A specialist will have a wealth of experience to draw off of and will be better equipped to provide the most up-to-date advice for the solutions that lay ahead. There are short sale specialist, buyer specialist, seller specialist, neighborhood specialist, foreclosure specialist and on and on. The list can be a mile long. Search your problem on Google and add your area. Examples would be Olathe Realtor, Arlington Park Realtor, Olathe Foreclosure, Kansas City Short Sale Specialist and so forth . . . When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them what their real estate specialty is in the community. You can verify on Google.
9) A top Kansas City real estate agent knows the market stats for your area - Sure most real estate agents know how to get stats, but do they know what they mean and do they know how to interpret the stats for you. A specialist will be able to gather the stats and interpret how the stats will affect you. Many specialist will offer stats on their websites and blogs as well as posting on third party websites. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, ask them were do they post real estate stats for you to review.
10) A top Kansas City real estate agent has passion, enthusiasm, dedication, creativity and a positive attitude - A real estate agent can possess many positive skills but if they don't have passion, enthusiasm, dedication, creativity and a positive attitude they will probably not produce the results in your favor. Hire a real estate agent who knows what works but also has creative skills to try something different to get your home sold for "TOP DOLLAR" or at a faster pace. When interviewing Kansas City real estate agents, look for passion, enthusiasm, dedication, creativity and a positive attitude.
After reviewing this list you probably noticed that I didn't mention choosing a Realtor by what they promise to sell your home for in Kansas City. I didn't put this on the list, because a buyer ultimately chooses. Choosing a Realtor because they want to overprice your home is not a wise decision. Nearly a 1/3 of the homes listed either need to have their list price readjusted lower or do not sell. Another important fact is homes not priced right at the beginning typically take twice as long to sell and sell for less then their competition. Getting into a bidding war with Kansas City real estate agents over the price is NOT an effective way to choose a Kansas City real estate agent.
Another important factor to not use when choosing a Kansas City Realtor is what the commission they will charge. What is most important to you? What the commission the Realtor charges or what you will net out of the sale? Hopefully it is what you will net. Discount Realtors offer less services and marketing and in a BUYERS MARKET that is a bad recipe for less money in your pocket.
Hopefully you find this list useful. If you find that we may have missed an important point in choosing a Kansas City real estate agent, please email us. We are constantly looking to improve our list.
Information provided by the Dowell Taggart Team.
Information about the Dowell Taggart Team:
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The Dowell Taggart Team is the leading Kansas City online real estate team. With more than 20 years of experience in Kansas City Real Estate, including Kansas City, the Dowell Taggart Team is the only real estate team on the first page of the highest trafficked keyword in Kansas City. We have professionally mastered online real estate marketing in Kansas City.
What does that mean for our Seller and Buyer clients?
A quick Google search and you’ll notice that the Dowell Taggart Team is no fly-by-night real estate team who just started real estate after loosing their mid level Kansas City jobs. The Dowell Taggart team has been cited on over 5,000 sources according to Google and some of those sources include Nuwire Investor Magazine, NBC Action News, KMBC-TV9, Chicago Tribune, Amizines, OnlyPunJab.com, Pittsburg Homes Daily, Topix, New Corporate Benefits, Daily Press, Bismarck Tribune, James Town Sun, Lansing State Journal, Forbes Magazine, CNBC, Canton Rep, Examiner, Localism, Yahoo News, and many more. The Dowell Taggart Team must have happy clients because they have received glowing recommendations on several Realtor rating services such as RealtorRatingZ.com, IQRealEstate.com, Point2Agent, RealEstateAgencies.net and Naymz.com.
According to co-partner, Chris Dowell, "....over 34% of the homes in Kansas City either do not sell or sell below asking price in Kansas City. Since 87% of home buyers today go to the web to view their next dream home or to view area real estate information, we have positioned our real estate company on the world wide web to obtain maximum online exposure for our listings. We have listings that in this current real estate market that get over a 1,000 online views and sell in a 1 week.”
Martin Taggart, co-partner, adds, "...We have fine tuned our online Kansas City real estate marketing to offer more real estate services and a better price. Simply put, the consumer is looking for best value and we are the solution that the consumer is looking for in Kansas City. We invite the consumer to research us on the web because we know that there is no other real estate team in Kansas City that offers the online marketing power like we do for our home sellers at a discount commission. We offer a 5 point marketing program that is designed for educated home sellers in Kansas City."
Kenny Darrell, a leading online marketing and SEO expert says,”The Dowell Taggart Team’s marketing program is online real estate marketing on steroids. The Dowell Taggart Team’s marketing program is in a league of their own, and anyone who has done their research would understand that if they hired a SEO expert they couldn’t get the marketing that the Dowell Taggart Team provides for under $20,000 per property website.”
The Dowell Taggart Team represents and protects home buyers and home sellers in Gardner, Olathe, Overland Park, Lenexa, Leawood, Shawnee, Johnson County, Kansas.
People choose the Dowell Taggart Team for many different reasons. Although we focus on technology, the Hagensicker's said," We chose the Dowell Taggart Team for the incredible responsiveness and their unequaled listing Guarantee. You can use as us a reference any day." We have a marketing plan and we work with web-savvy clients who use their black berries as well as clients who believe in using a hammer and chisel to write on their stone tablets. If you would like to have a complimentary market analysis done on your Kansas City home or you would like to find out if the Dowell Taggart Team would be a great fit for you, contact them at (913) 712-9313 or by email.
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