Through the endless debates about the merits of coaches, players, general managers of the my favorite hockey team, discussion can lead to other subjects such as politics, personal interest (off topic discussions), and other weird things. Through the thousands of posts that I've written and probably the hundreds of thousands I've read over the years it becomes easy to get to know some of these fellow members even though I've never actually met them. Over the years I have let it slip that I am in the real estate biz when off topic discussion have arose on the real estate subject.
Today I received the following private message from a fellow discussion forum member.
We're interviewing Realtors over the next couple of days to sell our house. Any advice on questions we should ask?
I have answered this members request for information. It was a lengthy response and I figured it would be a good blog post so I'm sorta killing two birds with one stone.
Here is my response...
Find out what they do for marketing, and make sure they are willing to market on the web at places like googlebase, trulia.com, craigslist, etc.
Find out if they are willing to send you proofs on any print advertising they may offer before such ads are run. See if they are willing to let you have some input.
Make sure they are one way or the other internet savvy. Email, web pages, maybe even a blog. Digital cameras are a must for an agent, and agents need to take really nice photo's. Photo's on the Internet are the main reason a potential buyer will have interest in your home.
The sales market is slower than it was a couple of years ago and marketing must be the number one key in hiring an agent right now.
Don't let the agent give you a run down on the brokerage they work in. Find out what THE agent does for you. Big firms like Century 21 and RE/MAX are good, but the quality of the agent is still the most important factor. Plenty of duds hang their license in these big shops. I'm in a RE/MAX office myself but I don't consider the other agents in my office to be part of my team. I hope you are understanding what I'm trying to say here.
You obviously want your listing to appear in the local MLS... it is still the best marketing tool to sell homes (for now). Find out if the local MLS has a data feed to the broker site (if the broker has one). Also find out if there is a data feed from the MLS to Realtor.com, it normally does. Also see if the feed may go to places such as I listed above (google base, etc.). If the agent has their own site ask them about web traffic. Agent web sites aren't all that great for the most part, but anywhere you can have your property listed on the Internet is a plus. Thousands of more people that want to move to Kingman Arizona visit Google Base to search for homes than my sales site, it's good for me personally to have my site but it's better for the sellers that their listing appears where millions of people search the Internet every single day.
Make sure the agent discloses to you what you are paying for out of your proceeds. Meaning if you agree to list your home for the standard 6%, ensure that half that is offered to any cooperating agent in the MLS. Then try to find out what the advertising budget will be monthly for your listing. I typically spend about $200 a month on each single family home listing. My market may be waaaayyy different than your market is though so don't be married to that dollar figure (on certain properties I have spent over a thousand dollars a month on average). It is important to find out where the money goes. It is a perception that if you have a $400,000 home listed for 6% of the sales price that $24,000 ends up in the agents pocket at the close of escrow when in reality they may end up, after all expenses to market and sell the property, with just a few thousand dollars for many months of work.
The reason that online advertising is so important is because it is really inexpensive. It is definitely a better bang for your buck. If my clients and I agree that I don't have to do print ads I will charge a lesser fee to my client. You may just want to see how flexible the agents you are interviewing are on fees. In today's slower market I am NOT discounting listing fees as much because I am spending more money on marketing. When homes were selling in a matter of days I was offering deep discounts to clients because my costs were lower per listing. It wouldn't hurt to have this kind of discussion with agents.
Also have the agents disclose to you how they may handle a situation if they represent the buyer as well as you in a transaction. I'm not as comfortable representing both parties in a transaction, I prefer to firmly negotiate for MY client. When I'm representing both sides, my loyalties are to the contract. Working both sides can be done and there are plenty of capable agents that can pull this off, but sometimes there can be conflicts of interest. When I'm listing a home and a buyer comes to me most of the time I refer out the buying client to another agent either in house or to another broker. But... that is just me.
Now I'll say that I am not a 'typical' agent by any stretch. I'm basically a maverick and I'm on a mission to change my profession. You may get a lot of weird looks from more 'typical' agents if you bring up some of this information above. That is okay, if you are interviewing a very successful agent he/she got there by doing successful things. Bottom line is to sell your home.
Be realistic on setting the price on your home. If your sales market is anything close to mine... the price point is the biggest determining factor in the success of the sale. There is simply a lot more inventory on the market right now to expect a premium price. You are competing against a much larger field than ever most likely, other sellers on that list have really nice properties as well, some better than yours. Trust me. Be sure to check the comps that are offered and pay particular attention to any sales in the last few months at the most. I'll bet the prices are stable at best and could be slipping at worst.
If the agent is really pushing a higher price than comps show be careful. You will end up getting frustrated with the process of reducing price to meet the market. Your neighbors may not appreciate a lower priced home in the neighborhood, but you want to sell the home there, not protect the value of the area. Again, base what I've just said on YOUR market as it might be quite different than what I know here in Arizona.
Sorry this was so long, I'll be happy to answer any questions or feel free to run anything by me before you make a decision on who to hire. I'll do my best to help.
Todd Tarson
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