How to select the right real estate agent in for your needs?

When it comes to buying or selling real estate, you would always need the expert assistance of real estate realtors, otherwise known as real estate agents. This article would focus on how to choose the right real estate agent for your needs. The quality of services provided by real estate realtors differs significantly, from wonderful to appalling.

For getting a really good real estate agent, you should search for one who is:

• An honest person
• Working in the real estate industry as a full timer
• Skilled with the kind of services you want
• Familiar with your choices and requirements
• A certified professional, meaning he has fulfilled the minimum prerequisites of training, education and examination.
• Well informed about the locality where you want to stay
• Conversant with business affairs
• A member of the trade organization like the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This indicates the real estate agent is aware of market information, listings and other details that nonmembers would find difficult to obtain
• A receiver of supplementary credentials (search for initials on their business cards - for instance, NAR confers credentials like a GRI or Graduate Realtors Institute or even more sophisticated CRS or Certified Residential Specialist. You wouldn’t get many agents with these credentials.

Look for recommendations

If you want to find out a truly good realtor, then going for referrals is also a good decision. You can get recommendations from your friends, family members and colleagues. You should especially look for referrals from those who have most recently bought or sold a home. As soon as you get a short list of capable realtors, let every one know you wish to question him or her for around 30-45 minutes in person, if possible. Not only would you be checking the knowledge of the agent but also his or her accommodativeness and promptness.

Ask questions

Given below are some questions that you can ask a realtor to find out if the agent’s skill and success rate are suitable for your needs. You can also include your own queries. For instance, if you’re seeking assistance in buying a newly constructed home in a development or condominium, you’d need to make sure your agent has knowledge about such properties.

Important questions that you would need to ask are the following:

• What is your mode of communication?
• How many homes have you located for buyers in the previous year?
• How can you assist me afford the home I need?
• How do you arrange your work?
• Who are your previous clients I can contact as references for you?
• Will you be working as the representative of the seller by any means?

You should keep in mind that asking questions and seeking referrals from different sources can surely help you get the right real estate agent for your needs. Only choose an agent who listens to you with patience, attends to your needs and replies to your queries frankly.

Above is the guest post provided by Miss Bettie Wills from San Jose Real Estate Inc. She excels herself in writing articles related to real estate, mortgage, properties etc.

How to use free ads to make money after Christmas

Most people would probably think that selling unwanted presents is in bad taste. There is something almost sacred to a present, and some kind of unwritten rule says that the recipient of a present should always be grateful and, of course, keep the present.

However, it looks like more than 6 our of 10 people receive, every Christmas, at least five unwanted gifts. According to a research made by the charity The Brooke on a sample of the British population, almost one brit out of three this Christmas will give away as a gift an unwanted present from last Christmas. So, it turns out, presents are not so sacred.

Seeing things with a pragmatic approach, it could be said that there’s no point in keeping around unwanted, unused gifts, so if they can be recycled, they might as well be sold. Reading about what are considered to be the most unwanted gifts, moreover, makes it easier to understand why some people would want to resell them. The top three most unwanted gifts are bubble baths, bath salts and socks: pretty generic stuff, indeed.

The solution to boring presents is the old saying: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. From an economic point of view, that concept is what make markets work in general. The fact that someone would like something that you would happily get rid of is the very basis of second hand commerce. This means that it’s definitely possible to make some money out of unwanted presents. The easiest way is to use some classifieds site. Free ads can actually be a big help in getting rid of unwanted stuff and, of course, you can always hope that the baths salts that you got are a rare, sought-after item for some collector.

Those of you who are more financially bold can try using an auction site. However, the problem with those sites, compared to free ads sites, is that it can be hard to get bidders to offer high - or even just half-decent - prices, and often the seller ends up selling the item at the minimum price. So it could be a good idea to use a classified ads site where you can just come up with a price and stick to it.

With some patience is possible to get a surprising amount of money even from relatively common items: sooner or later you will find someone who will want your present more than you do. Publishing an ad is something that doesn’t require a lot of effort, and most classifieds sites keep ads published for long times. In the end, it’s waiting game. And if no buyer shows up, you can always wait until next Christmas to give you unwelcome gift to someone else.