When you decide to buy a house, life gets exciting – FAST! You develop an obsession with all the houses for sale in your favorite neighborhood and you’ve even inquired on a couple. Now, you have real estate agents calling you all-the-time. What do you do??

Stop everything.

You should pick ONE real estate agent to help you.

While there’s no hard-and-fast rule stating you have to do this, the benefits to carefully choosing just ONE real estate agent to work with are obvious: it’s about focus, attention, and dedication.

When you dial up the listing agent of an enticing home that catches your eye, you’re contacting an agent who’s representing the seller of that specific home. This agent’s main focus and attention is going to be on making the seller happy, above all else (instead of you, the buyer).

You deserve to have someone looking out for YOUR best interests. An agent whose main focus and attention is going to be on making YOU happy.

Perhaps you think that working with a real estate agent is expensive and you want to save money? Well, think again – it doesn’t work that way. Real estate agents (in our area) are customarily paid by the sellers. So, now that we have that business out of the way…

How do you choose a real estate agent?

Ask your friends and family for a recommendation. They want great things for you so naturally, their recommendation should be trusted. (Unless they’re a frenemy, of course.)

If you had an agent once before – give them a shout. You already have a relationship and if the experience was good – why not?

Online research. The internet is your friend. Check the agent out on any number of real estate websites like Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com. Past sales will give an indication of experience. Online reviews usually tell a pretty good story, if you can find any. (We collect our online reviews here on Zillow.)

Above all, go with your gut. If you connect with an agent and they “get you” then go for it! Select an agent you feel is the right fit, you know you always have someone who’s in your corner, has your best interest in mind, and is going to be your advocate all throughout your search for the perfect home.