A good realtor should be able to make you more money than you are paying them. There are so many unqualified realtors out there, especially in the residential market. And believe me, this whole industry is the preacher of "fake it until you make it" so finding the right realtor for the job is the difficult part. I'm a licensed real estate agent and everything the real estate coaches are teaching the agents are really focused on how to market yourself and get clients. So if an agent has less than 2 years of experience and starting out, their broker/mentor is teaching them how to market themselves to get more clients, when are they gonna have the time and energy to actually get good at their trade and improve their craft?
I think a good realtor should provide values in two folds:
1. have a deep understanding of the market you are interested in. If you are flipping, the realtor needs to understand the entire housing market in the area and the whole flipping business. If you are in long term hold, then the realtor needs to have deep understanding of not just the retail market for the property's value, but the rental market and property management. Believe me, very small percentage in the retail brokerage industry teaches the trade of being a professional real estate agent, the individual agent needs to be motivated enough to learn this on their own. The best part to qualify an agent to fulfill this role is ask them have they successfully done these themselves. Ask them about their track record and portfolio. If all they showed you is how successful they were from 2019-2021, take that for a grain of salt because anybody who's doing real estate in that time period won big time. That doesn't really demonstrate any skills or intuition.
2. Be attentive to your contract needs to make offers at moments of notice. Or be able to market your finished product and put it on the market quickly. This is the service part and only time when the agent gets paid. This service has a cost so you need to be not stingy about paying the right agent for whatever he/she ask within reason. Even if you are in the wholesaling market on the buying side, you need someone on your side to write a contract and close the deal. Make sure the realtor is getting paid however you can structure a fair deal with the realtor. Otherwise very soon, you will find nobody is working for you any more.
So if you think you have the time and motivation to learn and handle these two parts yourself, then you don't really need a real estate agent. Often that's not the case, so most people would suggest to find the right agent to help you with investment in real estate.
