Hiring a Real Estate Professional

Greetings Everyone,

In my last post about putting your home up for sale, we covered the first few steps sellers should take in the transition process, including educating themselves on their home’s value, attending open houses in their neighborhoods to check out the competition, and getting started on preparing their homes for sale.  With these steps out of the way, sellers need to address selecting real estate professionals to help them market and sell their homes.

For Sale By Owner?

In the interest of avoiding a real estate agent’s commissions, some home sellers decide to go the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) route.  While I’m in no way disparaging the FSBO companies, I do encourage sellers to do their homework.  Make sure you understand what services are available and what you will pay for them.  Typically, FBSO companies offer a menu of services, with everything from a FSBO Web listing only to a complete package with yard signs and a listing in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).  Real estate professionals earn their commission for a reason.   Effectively marketing and selling a home takes a good deal of time, effort and knowledge.  Be honest with yourself; if you aren’t ready to sign on for that, get help from a professional.

Finding the Right Real Estate Agent

Look for a well-connected, experienced, and enthusiastic real estate agent who is familiar with your neighborhood.  One of the best ways to find such an agent is through someone you already know and trust.  Ask friends, neighbors and associates to refer you to someone.  Before you call anyone, take a few minutes to consider what is most important to you in the process.  Do you have a price threshold?  Maybe you need a certain amount from the sale of your home in order to move up into a new home in a particular neighborhood.  Is selling your home quickly most critical?  Are you concerned about the disruption of showing your home because you have young children or pets?  These are all concerns that should be addressed when a seller starts making calls to find a real estate agent.  Start with a phone conversation, and note the agent’s communication style and listening skills.  If you have a good rapport and your personalities seem compatible, arrange to meet the agent in person.  Arrange three face-to-face agent meetings and prepare to interview each one before choosing a real estate agent.

Interviewing a Real Estate Agent

What questions should you ask an agent in the interview process?  Here are some of the most important questions to ask:

1. Are you a full time or part-time agent?
2. What type of license(s) do you hold?  What does that mean to me?
3. How much experience do you have?
4. How many homes have you sold in my area?
5. How many homes have you listed within the last year, and how many of them have you sold?
6. How many sellers are you currently representing?
7. How do you plan to market my home?  Tell me about you marketing package.
8. How much can I expect to pay for your services?
9. Can you provide the names and phone numbers of clients you have recently represented for references?
10. Is there anything else I haven’t asked that you feel I should know?

Weigh an agent’s answers carefully.  Don’t completely discount an agent with less experience if he/she is enthusiastic and has an aggressive marketing package.  You also won’t want to eliminate an agent from consideration because he/she has more homes on the market than any other agent; sometimes the busiest agents are the most efficient and effective.  Ultimately hire the agent you feel the most comfortable with and confident in.  The key to hiring the right agent is to find one you feel compatible with - one who will market and sell your home in a manner that meets your needs.

With a real estate agent on board, be prepared to once again address preparing your home for sale.  The good news is…if you followed the recommendations outlined in my last post, you’ve already tackled a good bit of the work to be done.  Since touring homes is something agents do all the time, your agent will be more keenly aware of any items left undone or potential trouble spots.  An agent brings a set of new eyes and can be more objective than the sellers who have lived in a home long enough to become accustomed to the home the way it is.  The agent may also recommend bringing in another real estate professional - someone who specializes in preparing homes for sale.  In my next post, I’ll discuss the role of this professional called the home staging specialist.

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