Should You Use More Than One Real Estate Agent?

Many home buyers believe that if they contact multiple real estate agents, or have multiple real estate agents working to locate a home for them, they will find the best home available. While this process may seem logical, in practice it does not work very effectively. Here are the reasons why this approach is not very effective and why you should carefully select “only one” real estate professional to work on your behalf and why you should be loyal to that real estate professional once you have made your choice. By using multiple real estate agents:

• Each agent you are working with knows that you may or may not use their services, therefore the best real estate professionals will not take your inquiry seriously or put a high priority to it, which results in the real estate agent not putting forth the required time and effort necessary to understand your needs and conduct an exhaustive market search on your behalf. The best real estate professional’s time is better spent working with clients who have committed to work with them. The result is the real estate agents who are willing to work with you even though you are working with multiple real estate agents, are likely the least qualified or experienced real estate agents.
• You will get plenty of suggestions of homes to view but many of them will be far below your expectations. You will waste plenty of your valuable time looking at homes that you should not have taken the time to view.
• It is unlikely that you can take the time to schedule an orientation meeting with each real estate professional. An orientation meeting is the key to a successful and productive working relationship.
• You will receive calls and e-mails from all over the place, at all times of the day and evening. You will not be in control of your home search.
• When working with only one real estate professional, in many cases that real estate professional will visit and preview a home before showing it to you to help ensure that you are only viewing homes that match your search criteria.