Real estate markets are generally tricky to navigate, and the Anchorage market is no exception. And while the Anchorage market currently favors buyers, we still can’t stress enough how important it is to work with an experienced and reliable Realtor. With a fairly large number of Realtors in Anchorage, finding the best real estate expert for your property search can be a bit difficult, but fear not! We’ve got some tips for how to find the best Realtor for yourself (we’ll try to stay objective here):
1. Ask your friends! If you’ve got connections in Anchorage, ask them who they’ve used to buy or sell property. Really good Realtors make lasting impressions, and so do really bad ones, so ask around to see if you can determine who’s good and who’s not. But remember, people have different personalities, criteria, and situations, so take what your friends say with a grain of salt.
2. Talk with Realtors personally. The most reliable opinion of a Realtor’s ability and character comes from personal interaction with them. Ideally that means meeting them face-to-face, but the next best thing is a phone call. Have some questions in your queue that require quick thinking – this will help you determine how adaptive and flexible the Realtor is, which will come in handy during your home search, especially in Anchorage, where the weather isn’t the only thing that can change quickly! And don’t feel badly about interviewing multiple Realtors. Buying or selling your home is a major life decision, and you shouldn’t take lightly the decision of who you’ll use to help you through the process.
3. Research their qualifications. It’s easy for us to describe ourselves as qualified, but hop on the Internet and decide for yourself. A great place to start is on a third party site like Zillow or Trulia – you can check out their past sales, read recent reviews, etc. Feel free to ask each Realtor you interview about their qualifications, too, to hear it directly from them (how Realtors talk about themselves can be very telling). Does one Realtor specialize in multi-family homes, while another focuses on condos and townhomes? Does one Realtor have twice the amount of past sales in the same time period as another? With some critical thinking and a couple hours of solid research, you can find out a lot about different Realtors: their work ethic, their client relationship skills, even how well they communicate.
4. Put them to the test. Once you’ve done your research, commit to a Realtor and let them earn your future business!
If you have no idea where to start your search for an Anchorage, Alaska Realtor, give us a call at (907) 248-WOLF, or email us at Team@WolfHomes.net. Our team of four Realtors has years of Anchorage real estate experience, and we’ve helped hundreds of buyers and sellers achieve their real estate goals. Our favorite part? Building and maintaining relationships with them! Looking forward to doing the same with you!
