Once you have decided to sell your home, one of the first steps is going to be choosing who will represent you on this complex process of selling your home. Handling the sale of the most valuable asset you likely posses. It is clearly not to be taken lightly.
Let’s walk you through some of the key factors that should determine your choice of REALTOR®.
Doing Due Diligence
Gather referrals and search out local top agents.
While it often happens that sellers will choose someone they know, a friend or relative.. you may want to go a step further to make sure they are the right agent to represent you. Talking to those you do know is a great starting point. If you happen to know someone with lots of experience and track record in your area, that may be a logical choice. HOWEVER, do not make the mistake of choosing someone who is out of the area or perhaps new in the business. In order for you to get the most for your house, your agent must know the local market, not just georaphically but also understand the nuances of the local sales conditions and enviroment. California is definitley devided in customs from North to South. Even within the different counties, there are local rules and regulations your agent needs to be aware of.
Someone new in the business may not have sold homes in your area and be aware of things that will have an impact on the closing of your home. I have personally been involved in transactions that have been delayed and turned into “less than ideal” situations where an out-of-area agent represented a seller, and closing was delayed because they were not aware of local requirements.
Read Online Reviews
While you may have received a strong recommendation from one person, that is a limited number of experiences you have to base your decision on. You would be well served to check impartial reviews from more than one past client of the agent. Websites like REALTOR.com, Zillow, Yelp, etc. have a lot of reviews that are legitimate and vetted. Most of these websites have secure processes in place to make sure each review is legitimate and not from a ghost person just trying to game the system.
Review Past Sales History
One good way to see if your choice of agent is likely to have success with selling your home is to look at their past track record. Again, you can turn to realtor.com / Zillow as well as asking them directly for their list of the last homes they have sold. Agents with only 4-5 sales a year are probably not going to be as experienced and knowledgeable as someone who has a dozen or so sales a year.
BEWARE: There are agents selling 75-300 homes a year or more. Consider if that agent is going to have the time to sit with you and patiently review your needs and goals when they are selling at such high volume. It is practically impossible to dedicate much time to each client when you are doing such volume. You may end up talking to sales assistants and independently contracted team members to handle the sale of your home.
Google Them
Part of your due diligence should definitely be seeing what’s online. In order to market your home, the right agent will have a strong online presence. They must have a website and social media accounts. What shows is that they are up to date with the skills needed for the business.
Questions to ask a rEALTOR®
Once you have narrowed your search to a few agents, you need to know some very specific things about how they will handle the sale of your home. Among them are:
- Are you familiar with my local area?
Local knowledge does not necessarily have to be your city block. Very often agents operate in a larger demographic area and a city or zip code. County-level knowledge is more than sufficient. - How Will You Market My Home?
Some of the tools agents need to use during the course of their business is a website to showcase listings, they need to use a professional photographer, social media marketing and syndicated listing resources are also key to bringing the most exposure to your listing. - How much do you spend on advertising your listings?
Although the market is rather hot and listings don’t spend a lot of time on the market, certain properties may benefit from spending money advertising it to attract more buyers. - How many houses did you sell last year?
As was previously addressed, an agent with no track record may not be the best investment of your money. After all, you will be paying them a commission to sell your house so it is only fair to make sure you are getting your money’s worth. - What is your track record of listings to sales?
You want to know if the agent sells most or all of their listings. Especially in today’s market, if an agent sells less than 90% of their listings, you may want to think twice about hiring them to list your house.
Lastly, as you interview agents no doubt the subject of commissions will come up. Make sure that you don’t choose an agent just because they are willing to charge less than others. Agents that jump at the chance to list your home at a discount, are likely to do the same with offers on your house. You want someone who stands by their worth, and will stand by getting you the most for your home.