I was asked how to find a top performing real estate agent in another city or state. Good question! And one that you might need even when you can’t think of why. Here is when you might need to know this information: you need to sell a home that belonged to a deceased relative who lived in Austin Texas instead of Portland, your college student savings account allows  you to invest in a rental house for your student so you can write off the housing expense (check with CPA), you purchased or want to purchase a vacation home at the beach and now you want to sell/buy it, you aged out of your current home and location and want to relocate to a different city near better health care or climate.

The best way to find a Broker in another city is to ask your Realtor (the one you like and trust to help you here in Portland) to find one for you. We have professional data bases to search, but more importantly, we (or at least I do this) can interview several agents on your behalf and establish a working relationship with them that will be completely to your benefit. This includes all the data that I will write about below, and includes the added benefit of finding a rapport with them so you can be assured they will respect your time, money and goals.

The other way to find a Broker in another city is the following:

Go to Trulia  and search their data base for agents in the area you are interested in. Any agent who is doing business will have a presence on one of those sites.  Find several agents who blog, have comments, have endorsements and who pay for an advanced presence such as Trulia Pro……those agents work their business. They try to stay connected and to make the most of a web presence while still running a business. You can check out their listings, solds and recommendations. Also, check out what they talk about in their blog……is it all about staging or fluffy stuff or do they have some hard content on market conditions and trends?  Once you have narrowed it down to a few you like, google them: do they have a custom website or are they using their company site? You want to choose someone who has a solid visible web presence. Then, interview them. You would be looking for someone you can connect with on some level (are you a ‘numbers’ guy? Someone who needs handholding? ), who has a professional presence, and some experience (market share). If you are selling, how do they price the property? How do they market it? How do they vet the buyers? What length of time on the market do their listings usually take until an offer comes in, and what influences that? (hint: should be connected to correct pricing). Everyone has lost listings: what is their experience with this? Do they have a relationship with a local lender who is a reliable resource for appraisal assistance, and what tools do they (the Realtor) use to support the appraisal process during the transaction?

Does this help? If you need more information, just let me know! Thanks!