Picking a Real Estate Agent - Boston, Massachusetts

[Maxwell Kaplan]

I'm a new investor and looking to learn what are the best practices when it comes to working with real estate agents and what to expect of them? Is it acceptable to work with more than one agent if you have them covering different areas in (i.e. agent for boston area, agent for north shore, and an agent for south shore)? My thought was that agents in different geographies know their market best and might have knowledge of off-market listings, which I don't want to miss out on. Given how challenging the market is in the greater boston area I am including a lot of towns as I'm looking for the property that has the best chance to cash flow. The other conundrum I face is I know quite a few agents, both friends and family. What's the best way to go about picking and working with an agent? (thank you in advance for the help)

[Lien Vuong]

In very simple terms it's like dating. You should be able to communicate your needs and wants to them and make sure everyone is on the same page. It's perfectly fine to work with friends and family but I would advise you to pick a full time agent to make sure they're competent in the market and have the skills to negotiate the best deal for you. Someone who does not spend 40-50 hours a week in this field would not offer that focus. Ask them how many deals have they done, how do they plan on achieving your goals, what value adds can they offer to you that other agents cannot? 

Regards to working with multiple agents, agents work exclusively on commission and while we do have geographical preferences, the market is such that one in the Greater Boston area would be able to deliver a satisfactory service to you no matter where you go. Considering this is your first purchase as well as investment, there is a lot of 'hand holding' and education that will cost time and dedication, to have the same 2-3 agents compete for the same sale, shopping the same MLS inventory, and still dedicate as efforts to one client would be completely unfair.

If 'off markets' are an important aspect of your search and you feel that you can get leverage that way you need to connect yourself with an agent who can do both. I assure you no agent is going to take you on with off markets if you wont show your loyalty to them working on the regular inventory also. 

Good luck with you search, hope you got a good perspective of the other side.