How to Choose a Bay Area Real Estate Agent When Buying a Home

In the past, we’ve written about the benefits of using a real estate agent when buying a home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, we’ll offer some tips for choosing a real estate agent. With a bit of research and forethought, you can find an agent that’s best suited for your home buying needs and preferences.

How to Find a Real Estate Agent in the Bay Area

The process of finding and selecting a real estate agent can vary slightly from one home buyer to the next. Even so, you will likely benefit from following the steps outlined below.

1. Identify your home buying needs and preferences.

Before you start shopping around for a Bay Area real estate agent, spend some time thinking about your home buying needs and preferences. Two of the most important factors to consider are your price range and desired location.

It’s rare to find a real estate agent who works across the entire Bay Area. After all, it’s a large and sprawling region with many different “micro markets” spread throughout. Because of this, many Bay Area real estate agents focus on a particular county, city or community. You’ll have an easier time selecting an agent if you can narrow your search to a specific area.

It’s also good idea to identify a basic price range. A home buying budget can help you in many ways. It allows you to narrow your search to a specific price range, which can greatly increase efficiency. It can also help you find a Bay Area real estate agent who is best suited for you.

Some agents work with all types of buyers, while others might focus on a specific niche like luxury home buyers. Finding your place on the pricing spectrum can help you zero in on the right real estate professional.

2. Look for local expertise.

This is an extension of tip #1 above. Once you’ve identified the local market(s) where you want to buy a home, you want to find an agent that specializes in those areas.

When it comes to housing market conditions, the San Francisco Bay Area is incredibly diverse. Home prices can vary greatly from one city or county to the next. The same goes for supply and demand, sales activity, and other important factors. A real estate agent who understands one local market might be less familiar with another.

3. Seek referrals from friends and family members.

Surveys have shown that most home buyers choose their real estate agents based on recommendations and referrals from people they know.

So you might want to put feelers out through your social network, to see if anyone can recommend a good buyer’s agent in the Bay Area. Social media is a great way to do this, as it allows you to reach out to many people at once.

Choosing a real estate agent can be a challenging process, especially when you don’t know much about them. Getting referrals from a trusted source can remove the “mystery” from this process and shed light on the agent’s true qualifications.

4. Check the agent’s license and affiliations.

In order to represent home buyers, Bay Area real estate agents must be licensed by the state of California. Most of them have their license numbers posted on their websites, along with other required disclosures.

If you identify a potential candidate, the next step would be to verify their real estate license. Specifically, you want to make sure the agent has a current license to practice real estate in the state of California. The California Department of Real Estate offers a tool for this very purpose. Just do a Google search for “California real estate license lookup” to find it, or follow the link provided.

5. Consider the communication factor.

When it comes to a Bay Area real estate transaction, effective communication is like the glue that holds everything together. There are often many people involved in the process, and a lot of “moving parts.” Because of this, real estate agents need to communicate effectively with their clients, the listing agent, and other parties involved in the transaction.

You can evaluate and agent’s communication skills starting when you first reach out to them. Are they responsive? Do they communicate with you in a professional manner? Do they appear knowledgeable and forthright? Do they listen to and understand your particular needs?

6. Ask how they get paid.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, real estate agents who represent home buyers are typically paid by the seller. Sellers use part of their proceeds from the sale to pay the agent commissions. In many cases, the commission is split equally between the seller’s listing agent and the buyer’s representative.

That’s usually how it works. But you want to find out for sure, before signing on with a particular real estate agent. No need to be shy about it — just come right out and ask. “How do you get paid when helping buyers purchase a house?”

7. Ask about negotiating strategies.

In a typical real estate transaction, there’s usually some back-and-forth negotiation between the home buyer and seller. It’s rare for a homeowner to accept a buyer’s first offer without any changes or modifications.

For example, the seller might make a counteroffer by proposing a sale price that’s above the buyer’s initial offer. Or they might change some other terms of the sale, such as the closing date.

This is another area where your real estate agent will assist you. An experienced agent will do everything they can to help you get the home you want, without going over your budget. It’s a balancing act that requires professional knowledge and experience. So put this on your list of questions to ask, when screening a Bay Area real estate agent.