‘Farmer’ Brings Local Expertise to House Hunt

Anyone who has ever sold a home on commission knows what “farming” means. In real estate, it has nothing to do with raising fruit, vegetables or dairy cows. Rather, it’s about cultivating a piece of turf where an agent seeks out homeowners willing to list their properties through him.

An agent’s “farm” is an area where he or she watches the market closely, targets direct mail and provides seasonal gifts, like a jar of apple butter, to sweeten a potential seller’s morning toast.

The advantages of engaging a local “farmer” to sell your home are obvious. After all, such a listing agent should be able to correctly peg your price and keep you closely abreast of rival properties in the neighborhood.

Southern California real estate specialists say it’s equally important for a would-be buyer to engage an agent who specializes in the particular area where the purchaser is stalking the right abode.

“You want to get a buyer’s agent who knows the lay of the land and has a strong feeling for different parts of the same neighborhood,” said Robert Irwin, the Los Angeles-based author of “Buy Right, Sell High” (Dearborn Financial Publishing, 1997).

All too often, buyers engage perfectly acceptable agents who, nonetheless, know little about the neighborhoods where they’re searching. Yet there are clear tell-tale signs when an agent is working beyond his area of expertise.

“If the agent needs a map to locate the neighborhood that interests you, you’re in deep trouble,” Irwin said. Likewise, you should be skeptical if the agent showing you around has to grope for the names of the public schools that serve your target community, he said.

A wise agent will not seek to take business beyond a reasonable reach.

Take the case of Fred Libardoni, a broker-associate for Re/Max Realty Centre in Yorba Linda, who has farmed the large suburban community for 21 years and has sold some of the houses there two or three times.

As it happens, Libardoni was born in Paris. But as a Yorba Linda specialist, he would no more agree to show homes to a buyer seeking a place in Newport Beach than he would accept a client moving to a Paris suburb.

“A good buyer’s agent knows his or her turf. If he’s outside his farm, he’s not going to know the trends or what good properties are available in the market you’ve chosen. He’s not going to know the better parts of the neighborhood,” Libardoni said.

“You have to have someone who works the territory,” said John Rygiol, the broker-owner of Buyer’s Agent, based in Seal Beach.

To be sure, there is plenty of statistical information now readily available on both homes and communities. Finding out how many bedrooms there are in the stone house at 620 Elm St. doesn’t take a masterful agent. The Internet has so many home listings that you probably wouldn’t need an agent at all to learn the bare facts about 620 Elm St.

But that’s not the point. A true farmer in the neighborhood surrounding 620 Elm knows more than the raw features of the stone house. He or she may well have seen the home’s interior floor plan during a preview tour with agents from his office. That means he or she can tell you immediately whether 620 Elm has the two-story entrance you’re seeking in a property.

By the same token, the true neighborhood farmer will know whether the house is on a street with drainage problems, whether it was constructed by a builder with a good reputation and whether it is served by an excellent elementary school or a mediocre one.

Just as important, the true farmer in the neighborhood should have a good feel for price trends in the section of the community where 620 Elm is situated. He or she will be able to readily identify factors that are causing prices to rise or fall in that section and help you predict whether investing there makes sense.

Here are three tips for purchasers seeking the right specialist in the region where they’d like to live:

No. 1: Ask telling questions of a prospective buyer’s agent.

Everyone knows there are hundreds of shopping malls and strip retail centers dotting the California landscape. But only a true specialist in a particular area could name and direct you to the closest regional malls serving, say, Redondo Beach.

If a real agent doesn’t pass this simple know-your-turf quiz, there’s good reason to be suspicious he or she may not be the most prudent choice to help you locate the best possible home in the vicinity, Irwin said.

No. 2: Be wary of using a friend or relative in the business.

With more than 600,000 real estate agents in America, it’s no surprise that many potential buyers have a friend or relative in the business. but is your one-time college roommate or Aunt Betty really the best guide to making one of the largest investments of your life?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Your Aunt Betty could be the most congenial and competent real estate agent in Southern California. But if you want to buy in a suburb that’s around 620 Elm (which is a 30-minute drive from Aunt Betty’s base, in, say, Long Beach) she’s undoubtedly the wrong agent for you.

The problem is that Aunt Betty doesn’t focus primarily on your area of choice. That means she’s unlikely to know about the freight train line that runs near 620 Elm or the office towers that are due to be constructed nearby.

Granted, these facts could eventually come out in disclosure forms. But by then, you may have wasted a good deal of time and energy crafting an offer on 620 Elm.

No. 3: Remember that agents are typically paid for out-of-town referrals.

You needn’t worry about Aunt Betty: If she refers you to another agent who works in your part of the universe, she’ll get a reward for her generosity.

Chances are a referring agent would be eligible for a fee representing 20% to 30% of what she would make had she found you a home yourself, estimated Libardoni, the Re/Max broker-associate from Yorba Linda.

Sharing commissions in exchange for referrals is a long-standing practice among real estate agents, Libardoni said.

Anyway, your first concern in picking an agent should not be to make a relative or old friend happy but to select a trusted guide who can lead you directly to the right habitat for the right price, said Irwin.

“You don’t just buy a house. You buy the feel of walking through the right house, you buy the landscaping and you buy the neighborhood. Homes and communities aren’t interchangeable,” he said.

Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.