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How to Choose a Real Estate Agent | How to Choose a Realtor | How to Fire a Real Estate Agent | Shaheedah Hill | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How to Choose a Real Estate Agent | How to Choose a Realtor | How to Fire a Real Estate Agent
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This content provides a comprehensive guide for first-time homebuyers on how to effectively hire and, if necessary, fire a real estate agent, emphasizing clear communication and understanding contractual obligations.
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hi this is shahida hill getting you over
the hill to home ownership so you can
confidently buy your first home um today
we're talking about how you should hire
and fire your real estate agent and just
the steps you need to know
how to properly hire if you need to how
to properly fire
your agent so if you haven't already
please like and subscribe to my channel
for new videos every
thursday and sun sorry every thursday
and saturday and that's new
so i'm coming to you two times a week
all right so
first how can you find an agent if you
have no idea of how to find
you know a real estate agent then i'm
gonna suggest three things number one
that you ask for a referral from family
and friends
so you um what's good about a referral
is that person has already gone through
the transaction with this person
so they know exactly you know how they are
are
if they're responsive they know a lot
about them i wouldn't necessarily take a
referral from
a family or friend that doesn't own a
house like
they just know a real estate agent you
may want to use somebody that's already
used that person so they know firsthand
how they operate
the second thing that i would do is if
there's a particular neighborhood that
you're considering moving to
and there's an agent that does a lot of
business in that neighborhood
you can tell by maybe some of the for
sale signs
you might be able to tell a little bit
from zillow or some of the websites
things that have sold and what
listing agents sold them or if um
their real estate company is in that neighborhood
neighborhood
then you might be able to do that to
find an agent that way
the third thing i would do is to look
online just the way you found me on youtube
youtube
if you put in your city and real estate
agent you should be able to find
some agents that have some kind of
online presence through
youtube or google those sorts of things
so you can find an agent that way
once you have some potential agents that
you're interested in
now it's time to interview them and so
i'm going to there's a lot of sites if
you google
um you know questions to ask a real
estate agent you'll probably find a
whole bunch
i am just going to tell you about five
questions that i suggest you
ask so you can get a general idea of how that
that
real estate professional operates and if
you would be a good
fit for one another so i'm gonna go
through those and just be mindful that
while the real estate agent you're
interviewing them they're also
interviewing you to see okay do you guys match
match
up would it be a good fit for you guys
do you have similar personalities that
sort of thing
so it's kind of a two-way street they
may you know not every agent wants to
take every client
so you know when you are interviewing
them don't be so i have 30 questions i
want to ask you they may be put off by
that and may not want to go through that process
process
if somebody's willing to do that then
they probably don't have a lot of business
business
and so that could be a red flag for you
but most agents that are doing a good
amount of business may not have time for
a long lengthy
interview sessions so here are five
questions that i think you should ask
and i think they're reasonable questions
so number one is
how long have you been in real estate
and how many transactions do you
close on average so you have an idea of
how long they've been in the business
you're getting idea of that their experience
experience
and then how many transactions that have
they helped close or help people find
homes either on the buy side or the
sales side okay number two is
um how do you schedule showings and
how how will we communicate because
sometimes you'll find that if somebody's
a full-time agent versus a part-time agent
agent
they may not be able to show you homes
as quickly as you may like
or maybe you're on one schedule say you
say you work on the weekends and you
need somebody to show you homes during
the week
then your schedules might conflict if
they're not prepared to do that
and that's one of the major things when
people leave their agent and they're
coming i want to work with you
it could just be a communication thing
where they thought they were going to go
out every single day and look at every
house you see
you send me a house at two o'clock i
show it to you at three o'clock and
sometimes that doesn't always happen
it's not realistic
so you need to have a realistic expectation
expectation
of how quickly you're gonna go out and
see properties
um in my experience and i've had to do
this for my own business
is i will show you a house within 24
hours if i think you need to
see the house the first day the same day
depending on how competitive the market
i try to make sure you're in to see that
house that day but i don't have like one
hour two hour turn around
if you have a if you give me a house in
the morning more than likely i can try
to show it to you by the end of the day
but if you give me a house at seven
o'clock we're not gonna run and go see
it in like 30 minutes this is not possible
possible
so i think 24 hours to see a house in
this market
in this seller's market because things
are coming off the market within one or
two days so you have to be able to see
it within one or two days
so um you have to have that expectation
up front is how quickly
um are we gonna see homes that come on
the market
also and how will we communicate during
the week like
you know is your turn around same day if
i text you should i
receive a text back the same day next
hour immediately
so set those expectations up front
number three how is the market just ask them
them
how is the market for our first time
home buyers
and how do you um plan on being competitive
competitive
in that market like how can you advise
me to you know get my offers accepted
because particularly again in this market
market
as a buyer it's gonna be very
competitive so they should be able to
tell you some strategies
that they use to get their offers accepted
accepted
and you want to kind of hear those and
keep in mind
an agent can only use what they're given so
so
if a buyer comes to me and they're
saying oh i'm
a cat i'm a cash buyer i know that that
cash buyer is going to be somebody who
can get their offers accepted quickly
or if they have you know i have 20
percent down i'm doing a conventional loan
loan
that's somebody again that can probably
get their offers accepted but if you
come to me and you say
i'm doing down payment assistance i have
a thousand dollars um
what else i'm you know all of those
kinds of things
may hinder you from being as competitive or
or
let me i wouldn't meant to say and you
want closing costs so for example i'm
using down payment assistance
i have about 1 000 of my own funds
i'm using down payment assistance you're
not that much of a competitive buyer
so it's going to be a little bit more
difficult it's not impossible
but it's going to be a little bit more
challenging for me to get your offers
accepted in this market
than another client in the same market
for that same home
so that needs to be discussed up front
so you're not disappointed or i put my
offer in why didn't it get accepted and
you're blaming the agent when it's
really probably your financing constraints
constraints
that might stop you from getting the
home that you want so that needs to be
explained to you
fully um in a way that you can
understand and some strategies to counteract
counteract
uh maybe some of the the disadvantages
you may face
okay number four how familiar
are you with any down payment assistance programs
programs
again some first time home buyers need
some down payment assistance programs
or they need to know they need to know
loans that
um take lower down payments so how familiar
familiar
are they with the programs and the loan
types that are best for first-time home
buyers that
don't have a lot of down payment money
so as
for me i have lenders okay this lender
is for this person this lender can do 100
100
financing like i know in my database
uh that the lender or lenders that i can match
match
up with a particular buyer that you know
would be the best
fit for so they should have some idea of
how they
you know could serve you best or
recommend eight um
lenders um that can help you the most or
down payment assistance programs
so you want to see how knowledgeable
they are about that
number five just ask them why should i
hire you
they should know something about what
what makes them different what makes
them stand out
what makes them different from another
real estate agent so just ask them kind
of like an interview question like a job interview
interview
why should i hire you as my agent and
then number six
just ask them are they going to be
working with you directly
or will they be working with a member of
their or you will you
be working with a member of their team
so once you have those
six questions answered
then and you're ready to work with that
agent they're likely going to have you sign
sign
a buyer's brokerage agreement basically
a contract between you and the
agent that they are now your client
and so when you're filling that or when
they're when they're filling it out and you're
you're
signing it it's going to have a few
different components number one
have them explain the entire contract to you
you
so you understand it do not sign
anything that you do not understand
and i'm going to tell you how to
properly like
ask them questions about it and then if
it's not working out and you want to
terminate the agreement
how you can go about doing that the
right way and how somebody tried to do
it to me and did it the wrong way
so um it'll have a date you don't have a
date that your agreement starts and then
a proposed date that the
the agreement will end i do my
agreements for 90 days
other agents may do 120 days 30 days 60 days
days
that is negotiable between you and the agent
agent
it's basically a time period that they
think it should be enough
time for them to find you a property um
so i just use 90 days because then if i
can't because sometimes
the type of property that that person
wants may not be available like maybe
they are looking too
high for their price range they don't
have enough down payment for the house
that they want
so i like to do 90 days to say okay if i
can't find you something in 90 days we
probably need to reevaluate
um the agreement especially in this
market now we weren't
um in this type of market maybe i could
do shorter time periods but
it all depends on the market and the buyer
buyer
as to how long our agreement is in place for
for
and it doesn't go through closing so
if we're if we sign our agreement august
1st and it's for 90 days it's going to go
go
august september and october and i find
you a house
in say october but that house doesn't close
close
until december we don't need another
agreement in place necessarily
because i found you a house and were
under contract
in the time period so it doesn't really
matter when it closes it matters when
did they fulfill what they were supposed
to do
find you a house within that time period
and that makes them entitled to the commission
commission
another part of the buyer's brokerage
agreement that
you may need to negotiate is
how does the agent get paid if you have
not watched my video about how real
estate agents get paid please watch that
um but basically most buyers agents get
paid because the listing agent
shares their commission with the buyer's
agent that's how it's generally free for you
you
um to have buyer representation
now some agents um
if for whatever reason the seller does
not pay that commission
will charge you that commission so you
pay out of your own pocket
um for the buyer's agent you want to
make sure that's very
clear i probably wouldn't sign it because
because
um a lot of agents you'll find more
agents than not i think
will not charge you that commission if the
the
if the seller's agent does not share
their commission
with them but that is something to be discussed
discussed
i don't basically in my agreements i
don't charge
the buyer if for some reason the seller
doesn't split their commission with me
um but again every agent all ages are
pretty much
independent contractors they run their
own businesses so there's no set rule
about how exactly they need to charge so
just be mindful of
you know make sure you understand how
how the agent is getting paid
and what your role and that is um
and then some agents may try to charge
an admin fee or some kind of
fee up front and a lot of them are doing
this because
say you don't find a house in that time period
period
but they've spent maybe two three four
months with you they've driven you
around they've used their time
um that's a risk that they're taking
that you don't find a property
and they've spent a lot of time with you
and you either change your mind
you don't want to buy anymore you just
couldn't find anything so
a lot of agents have started or you know
they have that
where they'll charge you an admin fee up
front just in case
you don't buy something or that's just
part of their business practice
so if you're comfortable with that then
go ahead and do it if you're not
comfortable with it
then you may want to find another agent
i don't
charge an admin fee it's not part of my
business practice
but i am that's why i said when you are
interviewing an agent an inter
an agent is also interviewing you i do
during like my buyer consultations
before i take a client
on i'm really trying to figure out how
serious they are about buying before i
take them on as a client
because you know we're not window
shopping at this point like if you sign
with me we're going out to look for a house
house
if i find you a house that meets your
criteria you should be ready to put an
offer on that house so i
am you know we're both vetting each
other to make sure
that it's a good fit and you know you're
taking a risk they're taking a risk
and i feel like we're both in it
together to try to find you a house
another part of that buyer's brokerage
agreement would typically be some sort
of protected period
so how the protected period is so say i
do a 90-day
agreement my protected period is about
60 days it's going to vary by
agent because remember where everybody
runs their own business for the most part
part
um it's 60 days so for example say we
i showed you houses over a three-month period
period
you um saw a house that you liked i
showed it to you but you decided not to
make an offer on it for whatever reason
and then after our agreement terminates
and you always could so say you have a
90-day agreement
y'all can choose to go back under
contract for more
time after that agreement expires
is to completely up to both of you so
but what if it expires
you move on they move on and
then maybe a week later they go back to
the house that you showed them with a
new agent and they go ahead and purchase it
it
in most cases it's going to vary by
state and
probably a few other things but in most
cases that first
agent is entitled to that commission
because that's the house that they
showed you
during the time period that you guys
were in agreement or in that buyer's
brokerage agreement
so be very mindful of that i mean is to
protect the agent because sometimes
agents work really hard try to find you
something and then you find out that your
your
um your sister got her real estate
license and you want her to get the commission
commission
so you terminate that contract and you
go buy the house with somebody else
so that's why it's in place i do mine
for 60 days just in case um
and i guess it's something you'd have to
follow up on or the agent has to follow
up on to see if that's happening
also so with signing that so i told you
i'm going to tell you how to hire and
fire so
when you sign it they sign it you get a
copy of it and then you
that you are officially officially that agent's
agent's
client and you're both into in that
agreement but what if
in this agreement for whatever amount of
days you've decided on
um you decide that you that is not
working out either you don't want to buy
a house anymore you don't like the service
service
you don't you know something about it is
something that you
no longer like and on the other side as
well they can terminate the agreement with
with
you as well so on both sides as long as you
you
are i'm terminating that agreement in writing
writing
you should be able to terminate it so
you probably need to call them or email
them do an email
and say for whatever reason or no reason
at all i would like to turn
terminate my buyer's brokerage agreement
in most cases
that agent should send you some
termination paperwork and the
termination paperwork will say
our agreement ends on this date you sign
it they sign it
you are no longer in a buyer's brokerage agreement
agreement
with that agent and they have that paper
to show them you know this is when we
were in agreement this one our agreement ends
ends
just in case you go back and buy
something that you know they showed you
during your time period
and generally it's very simple you want
that termination though
because if you do hire a new agent by
licensed law and licensed laws vary but
for the most part
by licensed law i cannot take you on as
my new client if i have
reasonable reason to believe that you are
are
being represented by somebody else so most
most
agents will ask first you know
especially if they know you've been
looking you already have a pre-qualification
pre-qualification
are you in a buyer's brokerage agreement
with someone else or are you working
with another
agent they should be asking you that
first now if you don't tell the truth
and you're like no
i'm not working with anybody and they
take you on as a client
that's between um you know that's that's
something should be settled
um later because that other agent may be
entitled to that commission so it's very
is the best way the right way to end an
agreement is ended in writing
where you sign and the agent signs that you're
you're
terminating that agreement because once
you have that you are free to work with
whoever you want
and when i take on a new client i always
ask that question
if they are they're not sure i go back
to that agent
i will do the termination paperwork or
have it initiated
if they didn't do the termination
paperwork i do not take on a new client
unless i know totally
that they're out of agreement with that
client now
why this and let me tell you an example
of how it happened to me
so i was working with a client a buyer
and i've been working with her
say about a month or so maybe five five weeks
weeks
and we found a house we were under
contract we got to the inspection
portion of the um of the buying process
and she just didn't you know want it
anymore it was a newer house but she
thought it needed too many repairs
um for the age of the house so okay we
terminated our
um our sales contract she no longer
bought the house
and she wanted to look at another house
so we we had just gotten out of that
termination she was you know back
looking for a new house and so um she
worked during the
week and so typically we would see homes
on the evenings
and on the weekends so when we were
scheduling our appointment
she said she found a house to say that
she found a house at 11 o'clock during
the day
and she said oh i would like to see this
house and i said okay let me call
because i don't know if i'm going to be
able to show it to you today
let me see how long you know how many
offers it has if any
and we'll be able to get in to see it
the next day so i called the
listing agent and she said we have no
offers the property um is available to show
show
i said are we fine to show it tomorrow
if you get any offers
would you please let me know so my
client has time to get one in
all right so this you know i told my
client that i said well we're on
schedule to see it tomorrow afternoon
there are no offers on it right now
and you're at work anyway so you know
that sort of thing for whatever reason
she got off work early that day so she
got off work early she still wanted to
see the house
she didn't want to wait till the next
day to see it and she had a friend that
was a realtor that showed her that house
they put an offer on the house she did
not tell me
they put an offer on the house their
offer got accepted
because at that time the agent didn't
know um
the agent did not know that this was a
new person
so their offer got accepted not the same
day but the next day
they made she made a decision that next
day and
so when i was calling her like that
night i was like making sure we're all
set for tomorrow at two she said oh i'm
not feeling well so i want to cancel our appointment
appointment
so i said okay and i didn't say anything
but at that point she had already made an
an
offer on that other house without me
with the other agent and so come to find
out i did find out that they made all
from the house
that offer got accepted about two days later
later
and um so i'm at the position when i did
find this out because she then she
wanted to terminate the agreement
once the her offer got accepted using
the other agent
she came back to me and she said oh i
want to terminate our agreement and i'm
like why
well i found another house and i put it
under contract because you weren't
available that that day to show it to me
and i said well the proper way to do
that would be would have been to
terminate with me first
before you got under contract with that
other agent
because two things number one i could
have got the commission from her directly
directly
because i earned it even though i didn't
show her that house or put the house
under contract i was still her agent so
if you look at the fine print
i'm your agent during that time so i'm
entitled to that commission
regardless of that other agent or i can
go to that agent and say
you know we had a buyer's brokerage
agreement you are aware of the buyer's
brokerage agreement because there were
some emails that went back and forth
so she the agent knew that she was
already under agreement
hope this makes sense that agent already
knew that she was under agreement with another
another
agent he didn't know who and maybe he
was a newer agent and didn't understand that
that
so long story short i was entitled to
the commission earned
even though i didn't even have it under
contract so to avoid
messy situations with that i mean how it
was resolved i negotiated with the agent
because i could have you know complained
to the licensing board
and that sort of thing but i don't want
to take somebody that's how we make money
money
um so we did a 70 30 split on the
commission i got 70
they got 30 we decided on that um based
on how he did it because he knew
based on license law it was something he
should not have done
so she closed i totally was outside of the
the
my agreement now was with him not with her
her
she he represented her on the closing of
that sale for 30 percent i
got the 70 when they closed so you need to
to
make sure especially if you're bringing
somebody new into the transaction
they you know may not be entitled to
their commission because i
always show that listing agent that
they're sharing the commission with
that they don't have a contract together
so it gets really messy and brokers have
to get involved it's just
best as you know as a buyer to be
up front if it's not working out go
ahead and say you know i want to
terminate you don't have to give much
much explanation it would be helpful if
you did
but you say i want to terminate they're
already termination
contracts in place it's not something
that's not common
they should be able to you know turn it
around to you in the same day
you're out of that contract and you're
free to work with whoever you want to
work with
because in this business the reason why
a lot of agents don't like working with
buyers there's a saying in real estate
that buyers are liars
because um you know because we have a
choice either to list homes or to
you know represent buyers is because
buyers you're not
guaranteed that it's going to close they
fall out all the time they terminate
they change their mind
there's a lot of things that go on when
you're working with buyers that
is not the same when you're working with
sellers when a seller puts their house
on the market for the most part they're
ready to sell it
it's an easier transaction you don't
have to take them out every day to all
of these homes
so you're really in a risky situation
when you're working with some buyers so
it's just
best to just be up front as possible
this person is here to help you
so really be um transparent up front
professional on both
ends if you want to terminate send them
an email explain to them why and they'll
send the termination paperwork you both
sign and you're out of that agreement
so i hope this was helpful um when
you're trying to decide what real estate
agent you should choose and then how to hire
hire
and fire them if you haven't already
please like and subscribe to my channel
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