Finding the right agent could take some time. An agent's knowledge of her turf is one of the major benefits of the service. In heavily populated areas with contiguous towns, one agent may handle a strip of two or three communities, knowing all of them well.

How do you find a top-notch agent? The best method is through personal referral. Ask for recommendations from family, friends, and coworkers who have recently purchased homes. Read the large-display advertisements in your local paper or the paper for the town where you would like to move.

That is where real-estate offices congratulate their top performers. Call one of those stars and make an appointment for an interview. You should find someone with whom you feel comfortable. You also want someone who knows the market and works hard.

You may have attended a few open houses by now. Talking with the agent stationed there for the day incurs no obligation on your part and may yield an agent with whom you can work.

Two of the chancier methods of finding an agent are to call an office in response to an ad you have seen and to walk into a realty office with no appointment and say you want to buy a home. Most realty offices assign their agents floor time. Any prospective buyer who calls in response to advertising or who walks in the door with no appointment is assigned to the agent who is handling floor time that day. A slight improvement on that poor strategy is asking for the listing agent for the property in the ad you have noted. That will at least direct you to the person who is most familiar with the home that interests you.

You don't need more than one agent (unless perhaps you are searching for homes in multiple towns that are not located near each other). You are not restricted to only the properties listed with your particular agent. When you see another realty office's ad in the paper for a property you think you might be interested in tell your agent — he can find out more about it for you. Even when a property is not listed on a multiple listing service, most realty offices are happy to cobroke — that is, allow another agent to show their listing for a split commission if the house hunter buys that property.

By remaining loyal to your agent, you will save yourself countless phone calls from every agent who gets your name. You can also save yourself a lawsuit. This is rare, of course, and certainly drastic, but here is how this could happen. Agent X shows you a home; you decide that it is not right for you. Three weeks later, Agent Y convinces you to look at it again. Well, now it looks better somehow. You buy it. The first agent sues. The legal question is whether the first agent deserves part of the commission. The answer is often yes, but each case is decided individually, and court time can delay a sale. Do you want the aggravation?

Loyalty, however, does not make sense if you feel your agent is not doing the best job for you. If that is the case, find another agent. This is a major and important purchase, and you need the best.

Evaluating real-estate agents is an art, not a science. An agent you might not like could rate a “terrific” from another house hunter. You can compare agents by answering the questions in Worksheet 5.1, giving each agent one point for each of the factors listed there and then adding up the points. Remember that five points on the plus column is the highest grade, and five points on the minus side is the lowest. Zero signifies either no opinion or no information.

Worksheet 5.1 Rating Real-Estate Agents