With romance in the air this February, Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes a loving look at how we could fall head over heels with… a real estate agent.

Spring is round the corner and love is in the air. Yet spare a thought for poor real estate agents. These often undervalued creatures are amongst the least likely to receive a lot of affection from their clients on Valentine’s Day, or any other day for that matter.

But right at the moment in this challenging economic climate, good brokers and agents are a bit like perfect sweethearts.  There are times in life when it is best to have someone by your side who really values you, who will fight for you, who won’t answer back too much, who will only hang around your home when you want them to and has all your best interests at heart. Such a person may not make such a bad partner.

Of course there are good partners and bad partners. Selling real estate well rests heavily on the partnership built up between seller and agent.  A good agent will lovingly put your home on a pedestal and then negotiate fiercely to achieve the best deal for you. On the other hand, a lesser agent may just put your property on the internet with all the others and then haggle to find the easiest deal all round.

There is a great difference between the two – often many thousands of dollars.  You could come to love the former but hate the latter.  The trick is finding the right one at the outset. It’s a bit like finding the best date.  They all may look roughly the same but in practice they each act very differently.

So if you are searching for the type of broker or agent you could come to love this spring invite a few around to give you some marketing advice and see how you get on. Then ask yourself which you would prefer, the flashy one who brags a lot and is cheap or the one who you feel most comfortable with to act in the most decent way: the one you can come to depend on.