You’ve located a real estate professional who claims to be a real estate consultant. But what kind of supporting information including credentials and letters of reference could help convince you that the person you’re hiring can deliver on his fee-based consulting promise? The following questions form a solid basis to back up the consultant’s claim of experience and expertise. They fall into the categories of:

Time/Tenure:

How long have you been providing fee-based consulting? This could be expressed as the number of years as a paid consultant, the annual number of consulting hours billed, or approximate number of engagements per year and the median length of those engagements. While it’s not imperative that you choose someone who consults on a full-time basis, you will want to work with someone who prioritizes solving your problem and doesn’t wait until time frees up to sandwich you in.

Specialties:

When screening a prospective consultant, it’s important early in the interview to determine her areas of specialization. If you ask the consultant this question before she assesses your needs, you won’t waste valuable time with someone who can’t adequately assist you and/or jumps in to help even though another person could be better suited.

Satisfied clients:

Recommendations are the hallmark of the successful consultant. He should be able to provide you with kudo letters from several clients and perhaps even phone numbers of people willing to share information with you. Make sure to note the date on reference letters. Ideally there would be one from the initial onset of his consulting practice, with other kudo letters received periodically up to the present time. This shows continuity, longevity, and may also back-up claims of the specialty areas he consults in.

Samples copies of typical consulting engagements, especially copies of final reports:

This information can help you gauge how thorough the consultant is, especially in documenting her final analysis/outcome of the problem. If you need well-annotated findings and her norm is to sketch down several sentences, ask if your results can be deeper in detail or decide not to work with the consultant. In order to protect the privacy and information of the previous client in the report, the name, address, and any other identifying information should be eliminated before the sample report is shown to you.

Ask to see a copy of the final report from one or more previous consulting engagements (in order to keep the client’s name and situation confidential, the name, address line, etc. should be removed from the report before it is shared with other potential clients)

Licenses, proof of professional liability insurance:

Last but not least, be sure to check the professional licenses (such as real estate broker, appraiser, etc.). You have the right to call any and all licensing bureaus to double-check the validity of the license. Proof of professional liability insurance is usually done by seeing a copy of the policy and/or proof-of-insurance certificate.

Working with a fee-for-services real estate consultant can be a dream come true---your needs are met, you move quickly to solve your real estate problem(s) and you pay only for the assistance you receive. Just make sure that you’re contracting with the very best person to address your needs before signing on the dotted line.

Published: November 20, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Julie Garton-Good, DREI “The Frugal HomeOwner™” As a syndicated newspaper columnist, author and international speaker, Julie Garton-Good DREI, C-CREC™, is called “America’s Home Affordability Expert”, addressing more than 25,000 persons annually on topics of real estate industry trends and home affordability. She is the author of five real estate books and is the sole two-time recipient of the international "Real Estate Educator of the Year" award from the Real Estate Educators Association. In 1997, The National Association of Realtors® nominated Julie as one of the fifty most influential people in the real estate industry. She shared the list with only three other women.