Cindy’s Other Blog

Considering buying or selling in Destin are we? Great, hopefully you have spent time doing your homework and are now ready to go. After being involved in over $50M in real estate transactions, I am going to share some tips for you.

Personally, I think that about 95% of agents and brokers really won’t do all that much for you ? but the other 5% are truly great. While this may sound a little harsh, I’ve found this to be true in my personal experience; in Destin and every other market I’ve worked in. I’m going to assume here though that you are looking for a Destin realtor to buy a property.

Try this ? using Google, do a search for “Destin Realtor”. You’ll get a lot of results; check them out and what do you notice?

Most likely you will notice that almost all of them look the same! On most of these sites you’ll see exactly the same things ? a smiling picture, a MLS search and areas for the realtors own listings, as well as brief profiles of the realtor and the community. Everything you need, right? Well, almost?.

Having done my share of searching for real estate agents all over the country, I’ll tell you what you won’t find on these sites: no way to tell whether or not he or she has any idea what they are talking about. I know that any agent can show me the MLS and that they could take me around to look at some properties.

But why would you want to work with a broker or agent who isn’t truly an expert and knows the market in their area intimately? I know that’s the kind of agent I’d rather work with.

So how can you find the top 5% of Destin realtors? While there are a lot of ways to find a realtor, the first step to finding a truly great one is to become familiar with the market yourself. In a recent blog post, I suggested that buyers take some time and check out realtor.com to study the market in depth in any area where they are considering buying.

Why do you do this? Simply so that when you talk to a potential agent or broker to hire, you already have an idea of what is going on in the Destin market at that time. Then, tell them what you are looking for and shut up….. let them talk. If they are good, what they say will line up with what you already know but then they will add so much more value. If they are not so good, very little that they say will make sense to you and quite frequently, you will find them “pushing” one or two properties/developments.

Don’t stop once you’ve found one good Destin realtor; talk to a few more until you are certain you’ve found the right realtor. Now you’ll really be prepared to work along with the best possible Destin realtor to find the perfect property for you in Destin, Florida.