Kris and Steve say –

Weeding through the thick field of job applicants can be a daunting undertaking. Sure, you can make a beeline to the “Neighborhood Specialist,” but we are all neighborhood specialists if you believe the bus benches, the shopping carts, and the leaflets in the flowering shrubs outside your front door. You could just pick the one with the most attractive glamour shot on their yard sign, but then Steve and I would be living out of your guest room or selling our kidneys while the really pretty agents represented you in your transaction. No, the process needs to be more scientific. You owe it to yourself.

Since our mission here has always been to offer useful information, and sometimes that information is even about real estate, here is a little agent selection checklist to help.

Read the whole thing; while they’re in California, don’t hold that against them 🙂 … two of my favorite tips (they’re all excellent):

4. Do not hire the agent who gives you the highest opinion of sale price unless he is simultaneously whipping out his own checkbook. Enough said.

6. Select the best agent first; negotiate fees second. Rinse and repeat if necessary. You are concerned only with the bottom line and, yes, fees are negotiable. But if I charge you $5.95 and my marketing plan for your home consists of this, your bottom line just got spanked (and I was overpaid).