If the answer is “Yes,” this post is just for you. Here are easy to apply criteria to help you make a great choice.

I won’t waste your time with a thinly disguised sales pitch. If you decide to include my team and I among those you will consider working with, fantastic. But that’s not my focus here.

So here goes. Based on 20 years of working in the residential real estate business, here is my take on what an informed consumer should know before selecting an agent to work with, assuming they don’t already have someone who has earned their repeat business.

Two things to mention before I give you the first “sign post” on the road to a great agent choice. First, don’t base your decision on any one “sign post” – take them together. Second, WHO you select does matter. You are making a really big sale and/or purchase. So perform “due diligence,” so that you end up with a true professional.

So what’s the first big sign post? Let’s get basic, and let’s get real: you start with level of experience.

The first thing you want to know is length of time working as a full-time professional within the field. This is a baseline criteria. Yes, there are 30-year people that are not for you, and on the other hand there are people with limited experience who are sharp, disciplined, and professional in approach.

There are exceptions on either end of the experience continuum. Because there are exceptions, I suggest you weigh this factor in relation to the others we’ll discuss, to come up with your judgment.

How much experience should you expect? Well, with 10 years of solid experience, you are probably working with someone who has seen lots of market conditions and different types of individual problems. If they have kept learning and growing as a professional, you can benefit from all of the successes they have experienced.

But for you to benefit from their experience, they must be experienced.

Remember, having a real estate license, and being affiliated with a brokerage does not necessarily mean that the agent is doing much business. You want to get a fix on length of experience and depth of experience. By depth I mean just how much business they are doing. Three transactions every year, or 40 plus transactions every year?

If you are in contact with the agent, you can simply ask about their length of time in the business and the number of transactions they do during the year. If you encounter someone who is offended by the question, that might be an indication that you should go on to greener pastures.

If you are trying to make this judgment without having yet contacted the agent, go into the “Featured Listing” section of their website and see what you can discover about the volume of listings they handle. Are they helping people buy and sell homes in Northern Virginia on a regular basis?

Please remember, don’t make this choice on length and depth only. You really need a few other things to line up before you can feel confident that this agent is right for you.

If you want to get the full story on this in video, visit our VIDEO CENTER and scroll down to “The Right Real Estate Agent for You.” It is free and immediately accessible.

Next time we’ll discuss the second big sign post.

As always, we are here for you. Contact us with comments or questions. By the way, if you want to get each new post on “The Straight Scoop” delivered to your email address, please use the “SUBSCRIBE” box on the upper right hand side of this blog.

[This post by Kathy O'Neal.]