The process of finding a good real estate agent / broker is crucial for your real estate transaction. The saying ?20% of the agents do 80% of the business? is very true but finding a good agent can be a difficult thing to do. It is important that you don't judge an agent by the company he works for or by the number of transactions. The perfect agent for you is the one that pays you attention and knows your market so that he will take all the right decisions for you.

If you want to sell/buy a home you will need a good real estate agent. Where do you find him? Most of the real estate agents stay in business because their satisfied clients refer them to family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and so on. What you need to do is to ask people who worked with them about their experiences. The most successful agents put their clients? needs before anything, even their own interests.

Another method of searching for a real estate agent is to search online. There are literally dozens of websites that will refer agents to you but the assurance of the quality is not certain. The agents that they have referred are those that paid the website owner a fee to be listed in the directory. A wiser decision would be to Google the top real estate companies in your area and go to their websites and search for individual agents at real estate offices near your location.

If you aren't too keen on using the Internet, you have the alternative to attend open houses as you will have the chance to meet real estate agents in a ?non-threatening? working environment and you will have the possibility to interact with them. You should collect as many business cards as you can because you don't know when you might use one of them. If you plan on selling your home you should place close attention to how the agent presents the home. You should be very attentive if he is polite and/or informative, does he hand out professional-looking brochures about the home and other similar tricks.

Another solution would be to track the neighborhood signs. What you should do is to make note of the day that they go up and when the sign disappears. Take into consideration the following statement: results speak volumes; that is why you should be on the look for those agents that sell the fastest and avoid the ones with the most ?for sale? signs.

Using the print advertisements is another way to go. Real estate agents use them for two purposes: one, to sell a specific real estate and two, to promote themselves. Pick up the Sunday newspaper and look for ads like this in your targeted neighborhood. Afterwards, check them on the Internet for further information because you never know, you may live just a few miles away from a professional real estate agent.

As you can see, there are several methods of finding a very good real estate agent. We strongly recommend taking things nice and slow because if you hurry you might find a real estate agent that will try to rip you off because unfortunately, the real estate market is invaded by them.