How to find the right real estate agent?

I know, you are thinking I’m going to write something that leads right back to me.  I tell you, I almost wish that weren’t the case.  Having been around this business nearly 24 years, I feel like Custer’s Last Stand most of the time. 

There were about 250 Ukiah area licensed agents back in 1976 when I joined up.  There still are that same number, but only eight or nine besides me remain to tell the tale of the tape.  Of course, you could put a lot of that down to a long recession in the early 80’s or changing careers or just people moving on in a very move happy State.   But the opposite really is the case.  Small town desirable Northern California is exactly where must of us want to put our roots down and stay.  Ukiah is a most unique place, a small town in California where people really want to come and live!   Compared to much the rest of California, Eisenhower could still be the Pres around here and you don’t have to lock your doors at night. 

Anyway, whatever happened to all those real estate agents I find myself asking from time to time?   Hmmm.   By the time they figured out all the practical manifestations of country property, the myriad of laws California makes you proctor for, the ins and outs of zoning, road and utility easements, title issues, how to read a map, which way is North on the Compass, forestry and fire laws, underground pollution, overhead transmission lines… the economy or some sue happy attorney probably long ago terminated their career.   And I often wonder why I didn’t fall by that same wayside.  Orneriness I guess.  Or maybe it was my wife telling me to remember what it was like commuting eight lanes each way to get to work in L.A.

So anyway, here you are, a consumer, buyer or  seller, in my town hoping against hope you’ve answered the right ad or walked into the correct office, that the real estate agent you chose to help you through one of  the most dollar important things in your life has the “right stuff” for that job.

Well, if you expected me to provide you with a litmus test for what passes for the “right stuff” in my business, I’d be in a lot of trouble if I spelled that one out.  But I worry about you none the less.  Here you are, going to buy or sell property in Mendocino County, and you can’t even be sure that the agent on the other side of the table has a compass, knows what all the little lines mean on the topo map, and may have been doing something besides sell real estate the week before you got there.