Picking a realtor to sell your home is not easy! For so many of us, our home is one of our largest financial investments. Yet we seldom take the time to interview agents to determine the most capable one to do the job. Instead, we entrust this asset sale to a friend’ or a ‘neighbor’ or even a ‘neighbor’s friend’ who has their real estate license, without giving consideration to their experience or skills. If you want to ensure you pick a qualified real estate agent to sell your home, then consider interviewing more than one and prequalify them by making sure they are:
- A full-time realtor
- Working for a reputable firm in your market
- Selling real estate for more than 2 years
Once you have pre-qualified the agent, here are twelve (12) other questions to consider when interviewing them to determine if they would be a good choice:
- How long have you been selling real estate?
- Home many homes have you listed and sold this year and last year?
- What was the average price of the homes you sold?
- What was the average days on market for homes you listed?
- Will you provide me with a Broker’s Market Analysis that includes comparable properties from our neighborhood to justify the suggested list price?
- Does your real estate firm charge out of pocket marketing fees?
- How do you differentiate the homes you sell on the market?
- What is your commission rate?
- Do you always recommend staging? What is the typical cost?
- Do you offer any concierge services through your real estate firm (i.e. fronting and coordinating home improvement, interest free bridge loans, or iBuy programs)?
- What is your typical plan for hosting open houses?
- How will you communicate with me about showings?
A good selling agent will do a great job of educating you on the market and will have a well thought out plan for how to position your home to sell. But it’s also important that you feel comfortable with the agent. Taking the time to interview them will allow you to get to know them on a personal level to not only see if you’d enjoy working with them over the next few months, but to make sure they have strong communication skills and are someone you feel you can trust. After all, it is one of your largest financial assets on the line.
