When you’re choosing a REALTOR® to represent your interests as a buyer, your choice should be based on strong recommendations from a reliable source about your prospective agent’s attention to detail and communication skills.
You will likely rely a lot on your own instinct, too, to decide whether you are compatible with a particular agent and will feel that he is someone you can trust.
One more step you can take is to understand your REALTOR®’s training. In fact, the first step is to check that your sales agent is indeed a REALTOR®, which means she is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and therefore adheres to NAR’s code of ethics.
Designations REALTORS® Hold
While all licensed real estate agents must meet the minimum requirements of their state laws, you may also have noticed a string of letters attached to the REALTOR®’s name on a business card. These abbreviations mean that the agent has taken additional courses, has documented experience and has passed a test to earn a particular designation. The following list of designations shows the most common designations and what they mean to you as a buyer.
ABR—Accredited Buyer Representative: As a buyer, you may want to look for someone with this designation since it means the agent has taken a course in buyer representation, passed the test and has extensive experience with buyers.
ABRM—Accredited Buyer Representative Manager: This designation is for brokers, owners and managers who have documented experience and education managing agents who represent buyers.
ALC—Accredited Land Consultant: If you’re looking for land to build a custom home, you may want to consider this type of specialist.
CIPS—Certified International Property Specialist: If you want to buy overseas or you’re from another country and want to buy in the United States, a CIPS designation means the REALTOR® has specialized in the international marketplace.
CRB—Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager: This designation means that the broker or owner of a real estate company has completed advanced classes and has extensive experience.
CRE—Counselor of Real Estate: Membership in this elite group of REALTORS® is by invitation only to professionals with extensive experience.
CRS—Certified Residential Specialist: If you want a REALTOR® with more experience and access to a network of other highly successful agents, you may want to look for one with a CRS who therefore has advanced training as a listing agent and buyers’ agent.
Green Designation: Buyers interested in finding an environmentally friendly home can work with an agent with a green designation who has more knowledge about this type of dwelling.
GRI—Graduate REALTOR® Institute: Graduates of the REALTOR® Institute have received extensive additional education related to residential real estate.
MRP—Military Relocation Professional: This certification emphasizes experience and education with current and former military personnel and their families.
RSPS—Resort & Second-Home Markets Certification: If you’re in the market for a vacation home, look for an agent with this certification.
SRES—Seniors Real Estate Specialist: REALTORS® with this designation have expertise meeting the needs of buyers and sellers over age 50.
Your choice of a REALTOR® should be based on interviews and research, but you can also check on their designations to see whether their experience and education meets your needs as a buyer.
Comments
62 responses to “What to Consider When Choosing a REALTOR®”
I like your suggestion to partially rely on our own instinct, and choose someone we think we can trust and are compatible with. My husband and I want to find a real estate agent soon to help us find a house that’s closer to my husband’s workplace. I wasn’t sure what factors to consider as we start our search, so I really appreciate your tips about trust and compatibility.
Glad you enjoyed the article!
Really helpful article, Now I better prepared to find a realtor. Thanks for the info.
Glad you liked it and good luck finding the best REALTOR!
Experience is certainly a big plus for a broker because it tells that the person have a good know how regarding this industry and he / she might be able to get you a good deal.
Susan, completely agree
My wife and I are thinking about moving and using a realtor to help us find a new house. I never knew that there were so many licenses for realtors. This is good to know so that I can find a realtor that specializes in exactly what we are looking for.
Michael, yes it is a very intricate business with a lot of training and knowledge, so hopefully this helps put you on the path to finding the best professional to help you with your home search needs
I appreciate how you mentioned that it’s important to find a realtor that is recommended by people in the community for their skills and ability to communicate effectively. My husband and I are thinking of selling our home and downsizing by moving across town. We really want to make sure we accurately price our home and get the best deal. We’ll have to find a realtor that is capable of communicating with us and interested buyers so we can maximize our profits and successfully move into a new home. Thanks for the tips!
I really appreciate your tip to try and find a certified residential specialist to help you find your house since they are qualified with advanced training. My wife and I have been thinking of getting a bigger house so our growing family won’t be as cramped. I will be sure to tell my wife that we should try and find a CRS since they will be the best at finding a bigger house for us!
I agree that the credentials of a realtor are important to consider before you choose them. It would make sense to find someone who is qualified and experienced first. My husband and I are looking for someone to help sell our home, so we’ll have to check their credentials first.
I liked it when you talked about the ABR and how that proves that the agent has taken extensive training in representing buyers and is knowledgeable in it. This will be taken into consideration when I buy a house in the near future. After all, this will be my first time to buy, so I need someone who is well-versed in looking for and assessing potential homes to do the search for me. I know that an agent with this accreditation will help me a lot.
Thanks for helping me understand that a realtor who has these abbreviations will have different expertise. With that in mind, I will be choosing the one with the specialization that will be best for us. We just needed someone to help us sell my parents’ house as fast as possible because the money will be used to help my sister financially. She has been diagnosed with an illness that will need her to undergo a surgery.
Me and my husband are trying to saell our old home, and find a new one! Thank you for sharing, “As a buyer, you may want to look for someone with this designation since it means the agent has taken a course in buyer representation, passed the test and has extensive experience with buyers.” This was important to read because we do need to find a great real estate company to go to for help.
Hi Lilia,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
Thanks for mentioning how a real estate agent should have a lot of experience. I also like how you said that they should be trained and educated as well. My husband and I need a friend and professional real estate agent to help us find a new house that we can afford and that we will love.
Hi Ashley,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
It’s great that you talked about hiring based off of your interviews and research. I have a good friend who is looking to hire some realtors so she can start investing in real estate. I think I will talk to her about interviewing and researching to find a reliable professional.
Hey Kyle,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
It’s great that you elaborated on finding someone you are compatible with and feel that they are someone you can trust. My uncle is looking to hire a real estate agent in order to start investing in real estate. I’ll be sure to talk to him about finding a professional he can trust.
Thanks for explaining that choosing a realtor should be based on strong recommendations from reliable sources. Finding someone who is qualified and experienced as well would be really ideal. Now that both of my daughters are old enough to want their own room, I’ll have to find a reliable realtor to help me buy a bigger house for them.
I agree that you need to rely on your instincts when choosing a realtor. It would be good to consider this because you would want to find someone you can trust. My sister needs to move for work, so she’ll have to find a realtor that she likes to help out.
I appreciate how you say that you would want to consider how easy it is to communicate with a realtor. Considering their communication skills would ensure that you find someone who you can easily talk with. My sister needs help buying a new home, so she’ll have to consider how easy it is to communicate with a realtor before getting them to help.
Hi Hannah,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
Thanks for the tip to get a CRS realtor when looking to find someone that has more experience and access to a network of other successful agents. I am looking to sell my current home so that I can move across the country. Getting help from a realtor that has a lot of experience and resources is the type of realtor that I want to work with.
Hi Larry,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
I agree that considering the certifications of a realtor would be helpful. It would be good to consider this because it would show their experience. My sister is looking for someone to help sell her home, so she’ll have to find someone who is certified.
Hi Gloria
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
It really helped when you mentioned how you should take the time to look for a real estate agent who you can trust. I understand that taking the time to do some research and read online reviews can help you find an agent that knows how to help you trust them. Personally, I would want to take the time to check with the BBB and to check out ratings can help you find an agent that has the best experience to deal help you close the deal on the house you want.
Hi Marcus,
Glad to hear you found this helpful and thanks for your input!
I had no idea that there were so many options when choosing a realtor since they can specialize in different fields. You talked about how a certified residential specialist is best for someone that needs advanced training as a listing agent. That sounds like exactly what my husband and I need so that we can sell our home and find a new one for our growing family.
I liked that you had mentioned that it can be important to look for someone that is an accredited buyer representative to show that they have a large amount of experience with buyers. My wife and I are looking into buying our second home, and we have such a specific home idea, we might need a realtor to help with the process. Once we start looking for a realtor, we’ll be checking that they are certified and have taken a course in buyer representation as that would be something that would help us greatly.
I agree that experience and education need to play a role when choosing a realtor. It would be good to find someone who has the right kind of experience that you are looking for. My sister is looking for someone to help sell her home, so she’ll have to check their experience first.
Thanks for the great tips for hiring a good realtor. My wife and I really want to buy a home this year, but since neither of us have done it before, we need professional help. I’ve never heard of the ABR designation, but it’s good to know that. We’ll try to find a realtor who specializes in helping builders.
I like how you talked about relying on your instinct when it comes to choosing someone to help you find real estate for sale. My wife and I could really use some help from a professional realtor, especially someone who has experience finding particular real estate for sale. My wife has been very specific with what she wants, and I think that finding a realtor who can find the real estate for sale that fits her list, we’d be very happy.
I loved how you said that when choosing a realtor it is needed to conduct interviews to see if they are the best for you. It is hard to imagine how anyone would go through a process like this and not employ the help of someone they can trust and who has experience with it. As I see it, taking the time to assess your needs can help you make sure you find a real estate agent that can reduce the stress of buying or selling houses.
I found your talk on finding out what kind of things a realtor specializes in really interesting. I like how you say that if you are looking for a green design, for example, it would be smart to find a real estate agent that deals with this kind of property. My sister is looking for a new home so she’ll have to find someone who is specialized in the type of home she wants.
knowing they have accreditation means they have the qualification in being an expert realtor. Knowing who is you are hiring is important so that it doesn’t ways your money and time.
A friend of mine has been thinking about finding a new home, but he wasn’t sure how he would hire someone to help him out. I really like your point about finding out if they have done additional courses to help them out. It would be nice to know that you are going to get someone that is always trying to improve their skills.
I agree that understanding a realtor’s training is important when you are hiring one. It would seem important to look into their qualifications and their education to be sure they are properly able to help you. I’m looking for a realtor to help me buy some land so I’ll have to find one that is properly trained.
We are looking to buy a home, and we want to find a realtor that will help us with this process. Finding a new home can be overwhelming, but having a professional by your side will definitely help relieve stress. I didn’t realize that there were additional credentials a realtor could have just as ABR. Thanks for sharing!
I agree that the best way to choose a realtor you should go off of references from friends and family. References allow you to go with someone that you can trust because that have helped some of your friends in the past. I also agree that communication is key. If your realtor doesn’t have good communication skills, you should think about finding someone else that can better represent you.
I would never dare buy or sell a home without a realtor’s help. I like how you talked about looking at all of these different certifications, depending on the type of home you want. I like the idea of a CRS agent helping my buy a home.
We are wanting to move since we won a $500,000 on a game show last month! I didn’t know that your choice should be based on strong recommendations. I will be sure to talk to my friends and family that have moved before to get the right agent to help us find the best house for us!
I appreciate the information on things to consider when choosing a realtor. I agree that it is so important to find a realtor based on strong recommendations from others you trust and know. I would imagine that you can really learn a lot about a realtor by asking people who have worked with the realtor. My mom is looking to use a realtor to sell her home. I will be sure to share this information with her.
Thanks for sharing this article. This is so informative I didn’t know that realtors have a lot of designations. I thought finding a realtor is already enough but realtors designations is also important.
I agree that our instinct can tell us a lot about which realtor is right for us. We are all so different and work better with different personalities. When it comes to house hunting, it’s especially important to feel like you can talk with your realtor comfortably to find what you’re looking for.
I agree that you would want to consider a realtor’s training when you are looking to sell your home. I would imagine that it would be really important to consider your real estate agent’s training before you choose one. I’m looking for someone to help list my home so I’ll have to find one who is well trained.
Hi Olivia, glad you found the article helpful and yes their training/knowledge is definitely a key asset to look for in selecting a REALTOR as it is a very complex process, so the more knowledge and experience they have, the more likely things will go smoothly and your interests are protected.
I like that you said that you should understand realtor training and certification. I think that it’s important to find a realtor who is certified and also cares about your specific wants and needs. You shouldn’t feel like you are just making them money, in my opinion; to me, you should feel like they are serving you.
Hi Zachary, glad you found the information useful.
I had no idea that ABR means the realtor has taken a course that has given them experience with dealing with buyers. I can see why this would be good to look for when hiring someone as your realtor. I am looking to sell my house next summer. I’ll definitely be on the look out for this.
Glad it helped you out Scott!
Thanks for your advice that some realtors have additional credentials above and beyond the minimum requirements of their state laws. Knowing what the abbreviations you list here mean would definitely help choose a realtor. I am sure that asking friends and relatives for referrals would also help find a reliable option.
Your welcome Luke, glad it can help and yes having those credentials is a big key as it shows the REALTOR went above and beyond to improve their business through education
My wife and I have been living in our parents basement for the last 6 years. We thought it was about time to move out and try and find a place for ourselves. After reading this article I feel better prepared to find a realtor. I liked the tip about getting a realtor with a green designation. I’ve always been interested in living in a green home. Thanks for the info.
Glad this helped you out Greg, happy house hunting!
Thank you for the terrific article. I particularly liked what you said about how you should rely a lot on your own instinct, too, to decide whether you are compatible with a particular agent and will feel that he is someone you can trust. My best friend is moving across town and is looking for a trustworthy agent. I definitely agree that the only way he’ll feel completely comfortable with an agent, is if he meets with him and feels like they are compatible. Thanks for the advice.
Your welcome Dennis, glad it helped out!
I have seen many of these short acronyms showing the realtors designations. I didn’t know what they meant or what to look for. After reading this list, I have a better idea about what kind of realtor would fit me the best. I would probably choose an ALC realtor.
Sounds good Jasper, glad it helped out!
Wow, I had no idea that there would be so many designations that a realtor could hold in their career! I figured that there might be certifications for people who specialize in residential buildings, like the CRS, but I didn’t think there was much more than that! When my husband and I start looking for a realtor, we’ll definitely make sure that they have a few of these. Hopefully they will help us narrow down our search quickly as well!