If you had to give one piece of Advice for Hiring a Grand Rapids Realtor, what would it be?

Isn't it interesting how people love to ask questions in elevators?  Being one of those people who can talk to anyone  and being a Realtor in the the Grand Rapids Real Estate Market, the question I hear the most is, "If you had to give one piece of advice for a seller interviewing agents to sell their Grand Rapids Home, what would it be?"

That's easy . . . .HIRE ME!!  Ok all kidding aside, it is a question that is very easy to answer and one I have been answering the same for several years!

If I had to give just one piece of advice on hiring an agent to sell a home in this difficult West Michigan housing market it would be to Google the agents name. 

While there are a lot of important considerations to make, this one will certainly tell you what decade the agent is operating in.  The days of  the Realtor being the keeper of all the information pertaining to a house are gone!  It used to be, the only way to find out the listing price on a house, was to call a Realtor and ask.  The internet has changed that idea tremendously.  No longer are Realtors the keepers of the information.  They are distributors of the information. 

Will your realtor know how to distribute that information out on the world wide web to market  your home to its fullest potential?

So what does Googling their name have to do with anything?  What it will show you is what type of on-line presence they have.  An agent who has very few hits on their name is not one that has a huge presence.  The probability of being able to Google one of their listing addresses and have information come up is slim to none.  One site is not enough because different buyers search in different areas. 

When you Google a name, put it in quotes.  Jennifer Kassick could return, Hal Kassick, but if you Google "Jennifer Kassick", the search will make sure the first and last name are kept together.  Once you have your list of hits, look to see if it has to do with real estate.  So what is a good number of hits?  When my name is Googled, "Tami Vroma", there are 3,890 hits.  This is something I have worked on for over 5 years.  The agents with hits in the 1000's take internet marketing very seriously.

There are a lot of Grand Rapids homes for sale, so this is not the only parameter you should use to guide yourself when hiring an agent but it will certainly give you a good place to start.  For more guidance on hiring your Grand Rapids Realtor, check out my series, How to Hire a Grand Rapids Realtor. 

Photo Attribute: Elevator; Google