My Interests

I interview the real estate agents to get an idea of what they’re like before I get into the buying process. As I talk to them—and this can happen in their office, at an open house, whatever—I want to see if they’ll listen to me. Are they going to take my needs and concerns to heart when they’re trying to find me a house and negotiate? Or are they just giving me information they could leave on an answering machine? If they’re asking a lot of questions about what I want and going into depth on my needs, then I feel much more confident that they’re not going to waste my time by showing me things I don’t want or that they’ll fail to emphasize what I think is important to the other side. If I tell them something is not what I want, I expect them to remember that and be able to translate it into the next listing I see.

I also want to feel I can trust them to be honest with me. Not to put my interests above theirs—nobody really does that, at least not in a business relationship—but to be honest with me. You have to trust the other members of the team. It’s like a long-term relationship in a short period of time. If you don’t trust them at the start, where are things likely to go afterward?

Personally, I don’t care what kind of negotiator the agent is. I can’t really tell until they’re involved in the negotiation anyway, and generally it’s irrelevant. No, not because I can give them pointers, though obviously I could if they want. My feeling is that as commander, I can always say no, and that’s all the control I need over the negotiations. A great negotiator, a bad negotiator—it’s the goal I’m focusing on, not their style. Bad negotiators make good deals all the time, and vice versa.

One other thing: If I’m saying no a lot to the negotiator, I made a bad choice about who the negotiator should be in the first place.