You'll find that residential real estate agents fall into two main categories: generalists and specialists.
Most agents are generalists. They cover a broad range of homes styles and locations and if you as a home buyer or seller don't have a specific need requiring an expert, then your typical real estate agent will be able to help you just fine.
But sometimes your needs are more specific:
- a particular style of home (new contstruction, patio homes, condos, horse farm, mid century modern, Craftsman, etc.)
- a specific location (e.g. a particular subdivision)
- raw land
- luxury homes
- foreclosures and short sales
And for categories like we listed, there ARE specialists (for instance we do a LOT of work in the low maintenance living category of patio homes and condos).
Those categories require extra study and knowledge to best take care of the client.
Now sometimes we see someone asking if there's an agent that specializes in a certain type of transaction, and we know there's not enough of that type of transaction for any agent to truly be a specialist, but yet in a public forum like Facebook agent after agent will be lining up with "Sure, I can help you with that!".
Now as a consumer, if you NEED a specialist, agents that are specialists can back up their claims with closed and active transactions that match your need. If they can't back up their claim, it's time to say NEXT and send them on their way.
And here's also the thing, most specialists can help you with general needs too. While about half our work is in out Cincinnati patio home niche, the other half is helping buyers and sellers with homes outside our niche. We started as a generalist and added a specialty.
Questions about buying or selling real estate in the Cincinnati/Dayton corridor? Just give us a call at 513-520-5305 or email Liz@LizSpear.com.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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