All buyers and sellers can benefit from professional help when navigating the Bay Area’s luxury real estate market. If you’re in the enviable position of buying or selling Bay Area luxury real estate, you may know there are different approaches to finding the best real estate agent.
For instance, many agents specialize in one kind of transaction or the other — some focus solely on new construction, others on commercial real estate, and still others bifurcate into either luxury home purchases or sales (but not both).
Unless you find yourself in a very niche transaction, a better bet is to narrow your search based on neighborhoods. Such an approach can help if you’re selling a house (and therefore are based in one specific location) or know you want to buy in a specific town like Lafayette, Walnut Creek or Danville.
However, experience tends to outperform specialization. In other words, your best next move is to find an agent with years of success, a strong professional network, and the willingness to provide excellent service. Together, all these traits make for a winning combination anywhere you go in the Bay Area.
Finally, there’s also the matter of longevity. If you anticipate you’ll be active in the market for multiple transactions, you should know the long list of benefits from working with a single Bay Area real estate agent. Having one point of contact and one source of information can be extremely helpful.
Below is a breakdown of what real estate agents do and why you should work with the same realtor, whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a real estate veteran coming to the Bay Area from out of town.
Selling your home
True to its gold rush origins, the city of San Francisco has been in a boom cycle effectuated by startups and tech giants like Apple — a situation that has transformed the Bay Area into a hub for tech entrepreneurs looking to strike it rich. It’s also a great place to sell luxury real estate.
When selling your home, you’ll want to work with a professional realtor who markets homes on behalf of sellers. As you may know, their job is to coordinate each step during the entire selling process. At minimum, the agent you choose should be all over the following tasks:
- Arranging a home staging to make the home look its very best for photos and tours
- Hiring a professional photographer for the listing
- Researching comparable homes that recently sold in the area as part of a CMA
- Pricing the home and developing a listing strategy
- Scheduling and coordinating showings or open houses
- Spearheading paperwork
- Overseeing all marketing efforts, including positing the property on the MLS, their website, and major real estate sites
The best real estate agents save you time even before you’re working together, such as by putting together a comprehensive first-time seller’s guide on their website. Crucially, an agent like Kelly Crawford will ask why you’re selling, then translate that information into hard facts (selling price, marketing strategy, offer sheet). They also can literally translate the language of contracts, ensuring you never worry about selling your home again.
Buying your home
The process of buying a home differs from selling one in crucial respects. Instead of starting off with the specific asset of your luxury home, you instead have a constellation of options for where to move. By working with the right realtor, you can quickly narrow down your search based on different criteria.
At minimum, your buyer’s agent should:
- Learn exactly what you’re looking for in a home
- Advise you about various homes and neighborhoods
- Find the perfect property or properties for you
- Negotiate the offer on your behalf
- Recommend other professionals, such as home inspectors, movers, mortgage brokers, and real estate attorneys, who can ease your transition to a new house
Before you choose an agent to buy your home with, ask them questions like how many homes they help buyers find each year; whether they work part-time or full-time; how many buyer clients they have; and whether they have references you can contact.
Knowing the many benefits each type of agent provides, you can see that it requires a lot of skill to be a representative for buyers and sellers. While many agents specialize in one over the other, Kelly Crawford and his team are savvy in both.
How to choose the best realtor for the job
Before choosing an agent, interview several agents to see who best understands your specific concerns, financial situation, and needs. Below are some important questions and details you’ll want to address when choosing the right realtor for the job:
- What is their communication style, and what is the best way to reach them?
- How long have they been working in real estate?
- Do they work with a team?
- How does their commission work?
- How many active clients do they currently have? (If the realtor is working with multiple clients right now, ask how they’ll be able to devote the time required to assist with your home sale and purchase.)
- Do they have references you can call?
- Do they live in the area where you’re looking to buy a home?
In the interview or consultation phase, you want to establish that the agent has a background of years of success, a strong professional network, local expertise, and the willingness to provide excellent service.
Develop a working relationship
It’s a lot of work finding a realtor that’s a good fit for you in terms of their industry know-how, geographic areas of expertise, network, connections with vendors, and communication style. Choosing a single realtor to conduct all your transactions present and future, means you’ll be working closely with that one agent and developing a working rapport.
As an added benefit, you’ll only have to vet and get to know one individual — meaning they’ll have a better grasp on exactly what you’re looking for when buying and listing in markets like Lafayette homes for sale. They’ll know what you like, want, and expect, making life much easier during the stressful process of buying and selling Bay Area real estate.
Looking for Lafayette real estate?
If you’re currently buying and listing Lafayette real estate for sale, contact the Kelly Crawford Team to assist with all of your San Francisco Bay Area real estate needs. This phenomenal real estate team has over 20 years of experience and ranks in the top 1.5% of agents nationally. They will help you navigate each step of the buying or selling process to make your experience as stress-free as possible.
