When it comes to selling or buying a property in Calgary, you must ensure that you’re working with the best real estate agent Calgary has to offer! This can come in the form of a team or an individual agent, but is ultimately an agent who is not only experienced in your area, but one who is always looking out for your best interests and can be trusted with one of the biggest financial decisions in your life! With over 5,000 REALTORS in Calgary you should be thorough in your search to find the best realtor. 

1. CHECK THEIR REVIEWS

One of the first things most consumers will do with any product or service is to start online not only with information gathering, but to check the product or companies reviews! This shouldn't be any different for real estate agents, we recommend starting with Google, Yelp, Bing, Facebook, or other third party platforms that review and verify results. 

For REALTOR® in Calgary especially, see how they land and rank on Rank My Agent which is one of the most trusted and respected real estate agent review sites. The Rank My Agent is a unbiased third party platform that authenticates and verifies the legitimacy of each review and testimony that is posted by cross-checking it with the transaction affiliated with the review. No bots, purchased, friends, or trolls leaving fake reviews here!

You can also take a look at Rate My Agent another trusted review site for real estate agents in Calgary. 

2. ASK YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR REFERRALS

When looking for the best realtor calgary has to offer, one of the best places to start your search is by asking your family or friends who they have utilized in the past. they'll be able to give you sound and solid advice on their experience, the journey, and what they did and didn't like! 

3. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH

Once you've narrowed your list down for a few Calgary REALTORS® start checking out their website(s) - How much work and effort have they put into their homepages and the content within? Consider this portal one of the most important aspects of their business and find out if they've given any time or attention it truly needs. From being a resource for all various clients from buyers and sellers, to having the right resources and functionalities to aide you in your journey including guides, community pages, videos, etc.  A Calgary real estate agents website is one of the first areas we recommend you look. When an agent takes pride in all of their online sites, whether it's websites or social media.

Look at their social media. If an agent or team isn't posting new stories, content, and fresh marketing material, like any business, those with online presences give a better glimpse into their body of work, the support they give to the communities and clients. 

Take a look at their transaction history as well, how many transactions have they done? This is a key performance indicator to represent how much work they do, and how many others put their trust in their services. A high performing agent who's also a highly reviewed Calgary real estate agent is a hard combo to pass up on, but there's definitely more to consider! 

4. LOCAL EXPERIENCE

Calgary is a big city and the diversity between each quadrant in the city from the northwest to the southeast are filled with their own complexities and unique traits. While there are definitely agents who know the entire city very well, and do transactions throughout, it's important that you gauge the knowledge of any agent you're looking to work with. Ask them questions about the communities you're considering, including what the school systems are like, transit options, pricing history, etc. 

This is important for both buyers and sellers, and experience in the area doesn't necessarily mean that they're the right ones for you. Often buyers approach our team after trying to work with the neighborhood 'expert' where they expected the agent to have in depth knowledge and what they received was someone who just worked the area and had a lot of connections, none of which truly benefited them! A new agent who spends the time researching a community in detail might actually be able to deliver more comprehensive knowledge and stats on a community than one who simply lists a lot of homes there often. 

Ask your agent whether or not they routinely train and educate on these areas, our team meets weekly and a large portion of this meeting is a deep dive and dissection of information, stats, and shared knowledge of the community. Reviewing past sales, expireds and discussing why they potentially didn't sell and what we would/could do differently. This gives our agents deeper knowledge of the city and empowers them to have full confidence working with buyers throughout the Greater Calgary area.  

5. ENSURE THEY HAVE SUPPORT

If you're thinking about selling, does the agent have a listing presentation? If not, why? Are they there simply to learn about your home and then go and list it? Any agent who you're considering to list your home should come over prepared with tonnes of information, including a host of visual pieces for you to see about what they do FOR YOU! Will the agent simply be listing the home on the MLS and running negotiations for you? Do they run videos, pictures, measurements, etc. 

Our team utilizes professional photographers and measurement companies to assist in our marketing production for listings. We do the video production in house for our listings as well you can see an example of one of our latest listing videos below! 

Top agents in Calgary will be able to demonstrate a comprehensive marketing plan! 

6. TRUST YOUR GUT

Beyond other factors, heavily trust your gut. A lot of what we've provided here is a general guideline, but in the end you should trust your judgment. If you meet with an agent and they don't seem to have your best interests at heart (For example are they asking you about your five or ten year plans, are they consulting you on resale value? Or are they simply just trying to buy or sell your home) are they pressuring you to make a move, or do you seem to butt heads and not get along, but you've been told that they'll deliver, truly reconsider this relationship. There are plenty of agents out there who can check all the right boxes for you. Keep in mind that you'll be spending a lot of time with the agent and making a lot of big and life changing decisions, the chemistry should be there. 

7. THE NEGOTIATOR

Having someone that knows how to negotiate is a key element of being a great real estate agent. Does your agent train on negotiations? What tactics do they use in your favor? 

The Real Estate Partners team continuously trains on negotiation. From investments into masterclasses, bringing coaches into our meetings, role playing, and the purchase and investment into various other top performing coaching programs which we believes provides a significant advantage in our industry. 

8. IS THE AGENT LICENSED? 

This may seem like a silly suggestion, but ensuring that an agent is licensed is a simple task that takes seconds but ensures that you're working with someone who is actually licensed to trade in real estate. You can find out any agents licensing status by visiting the Real Estate Council of Alberta's website