Being a realtor i have a larger understanding of what i can offer as an agent. But as someone who's never experienced looking for a realtor what should you look for. Here is a small list of what i believe is important when it comes time to choose, obviously i can sit here and list out dozens of things to look for but il leave that to you, for now i will start you off with a few important ones.
1) first important factor i believe is language barrier, are you going to be able to comfortably communicate with this person. Remember even the best realtor in the world can't help you if they can't understand what your needs are.
2) next important factor is area specialists. you might have been recommended an agent by friends or family that might have been just amazing. What you might not realize is your recommendation came from a family who just sold a property in west vancouver, but your home is located in downtown vancouver. Now does this make that much of a difference? any realtor can list my home and have a good chance of selling it right? wrong! when it comes to your most precious investment why take the risk, make sure to have a local expert who knows that particular market list your home. You can always have the recommended realtor refer you to someone with more local experience.
3) Get to know the realtor, ask a few questions about their personal life get an understanding of what type of experience they have in the real world. Im not talking about just as a realtor, but real life experience. Can this person go to bat for you, can they negotiate for you and can you trust that they will put your needs before their own.
thats just a few examples of what you need to talk about during your first encounter, try to ask relevant questions about the real estate transaction and try to jump off the rail a bit and find out if your realtor can handle unexpected questions. Remember the market is filled with expert realtors that are like wolves, make sure your not sending in a sheep to protect your asset.