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Old 03-14-2017, 09:15 AM
 
Location: Midwest
29 posts, read 24,316 times
Reputation: 23

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We are getting ready to put our house on the market and I'm having a difficult time choosing a real estate agent. I found one agent to interview from other homes for sale in the neighborhood, and the other from looking on a real estate website - that was kind of a crap shoot and it's not clear how legitimate the reviews are.

For anyone who has sold a house recently, how did you select agents to interview and what helped you to determine who you chose to list your home? Is there something you wish you had done differently? Something you are glad you considered when hiring an agent?
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:21 AM
 
Location: Raleigh NC
25,119 posts, read 16,107,702 times
Reputation: 14408
1. who sold you the house?
2. who would your friends recommend - who did they use?
3. did the one "neighborhood agent" - are they the only agent who has listings? Can you study how their performance compares to the market at large (stats put out by local market-watchers/economists, etc)?

You should choose an agent based upon their plan for marketing your home, their ability to justify their suggested list price, and their willingness to consider a different list price that you may want. And if what you want to list is well above what they suggest, the ability to plan in detail with you whether that's a good idea or not, and how to get the price correct if your hoped-for price doesn't work.
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:56 AM
 
Location: The Triad
34,090 posts, read 82,575,378 times
Reputation: 43650
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paths View Post
We are getting ready to put our house on the market
...how did you select agents
I went right to the top of the heap.
The Grande Dame of the local agents with the most listing activity.
These people are NOT hard to find.

Qualified buyer was under contract within 3 weeks.
Settled and done in another month.
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Southwestern OH
247 posts, read 360,398 times
Reputation: 513
Our last two we went with using our previous buyer's agent and not interviewing anyone. The first time worked out well but was an early learning mistake, one that we paid for with the second house by going with the agent we bought that one through and ultimately not selling as high as we wanted. We're going to interview this time even though we liked and appreciated our buying agent with this third house. She'll be one of the ones we interview, but we want to make SURE that we're going with the right one this time.
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:11 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
19,381 posts, read 27,635,389 times
Reputation: 36003
Quote:
Originally Posted by merewenc View Post
Our last two we went with using our previous buyer's agent and not interviewing anyone. The first time worked out well but was an early learning mistake, one that we paid for with the second house by going with the agent we bought that one through and ultimately not selling as high as we wanted. We're going to interview this time even though we liked and appreciated our buying agent with this third house. She'll be one of the ones we interview, but we want to make SURE that we're going with the right one this time.
We had EXACTLY the same experience. When we were selling our home in 2007, our prior realtor failed to mention that she was changing business models to concentrate on bank owned properties. It sucked to be us for the next 7 months of paying two mortgages. And even though she reduced her commission %, I never even considered using her to sell our home in 2012 nor any referrals.
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Old 03-15-2017, 08:24 AM
 
Location: Midwest
29 posts, read 24,316 times
Reputation: 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by merewenc View Post
Our last two we went with using our previous buyer's agent and not interviewing anyone. The first time worked out well but was an early learning mistake, one that we paid for with the second house by going with the agent we bought that one through and ultimately not selling as high as we wanted. We're going to interview this time even though we liked and appreciated our buying agent with this third house. She'll be one of the ones we interview, but we want to make SURE that we're going with the right one this time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jkgourmet View Post
We had EXACTLY the same experience. When we were selling our home in 2007, our prior realtor failed to mention that she was changing business models to concentrate on bank owned properties. It sucked to be us for the next 7 months of paying two mortgages. And even though she reduced her commission %, I never even considered using her to sell our home in 2012 nor any referrals.
I'm realizing how different the skill set is to be a buyer's agent or a listing agent. Also, many of the top sellers have been around a while, which brings up the question of how current they are on their marketing practices. That's been an issue for us - outdated websites and so-so photos on current listings. We have another agent coming over this afternoon. Hoping she's good!
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Old 03-15-2017, 11:31 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles (Native)
25,303 posts, read 21,330,462 times
Reputation: 12313
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrRational View Post
I went right to the top of the heap.
The Grande Dame of the local agents with the most listing activity.
These people are NOT hard to find.

Qualified buyer was under contract within 3 weeks.
Settled and done in another month.
I'm doing something similar . Found the top listing agent that does a lot of deals .
He's been in the business since the late 1970s . He has tons of great reviews on a number of different sites .
Zillow ,trulia , yelp etc

Haven't signed up officially yet but just spoke to him last night and already sent contract this morning for me to review and sign .

Congrats on your sale .. I'm hoping for something similar .

Market seems pretty strong in my area so hoping for the best .
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Old 03-15-2017, 07:24 PM
 
1,200 posts, read 1,152,858 times
Reputation: 3158
I live in an urban area so there are literally thousands of agents to choose from. Going 'straight to the top' wasn't a consideration for me--first of all, it would be hard to figure out who that was, and second, I wasn't selling something worth enough to get their attention, and third, I felt like the 'top' agents are mostly directing a team of people, not selling properties themselves. I wouldn't actually be getting THEIR expertise.

In the end, I picked a couple of agents off of yelp, and interviewed them, and picked one I felt most comfortable with. I was amazed at the differences. One was very slow in even returning my calls. The second was very apathetic about finding a buyer...after only spending about ten minutes talking to me about the house and my asking price. Didn't even do a full walk-thru of my place (which is very small) to evaluate the key listing points. The third spent close to two hours talking to me about his strategy ideas. Obviously I went with the third agent. The sale went very quickly, he always answered my emails right away, the closing went without a hitch.

As said above, selling and buying require different skill sets, so the agent that sold you the home may not be as good at finding you a buyer. Ask for friends' recommendations but keep in mind, they may have needed something different than you need. Condos are different than homes, historic homes are different than new homes, first-time sellers are different than experienced ones.
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Old 03-15-2017, 08:03 PM
 
1,767 posts, read 1,733,465 times
Reputation: 1439
Interviewed a few of the local well known agents- it was interesting to see the different approaches. The first agent we interviewed pretty much mentioned everything that our house was lacking and what potential buyers would be seeing, she also bragged a little how she was the top producing agent in our area. When she suggested an offering price I realized why she was the top selling agent- her approach was to price the house on the low set and hope a bidding war ensues.
The second agent we interviewed commented on everything he loved about the house and also mentioned how we could claim more sq footage by including a partially finished attic space. He wanted to price our house on the higher end.


I think it was good to here what was wrong with our house but I also wanted an agent who could sell the house to us all over again.


Interview several agents & hire the one you think would be best to get your house sold
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Old 03-15-2017, 10:12 PM
 
9,868 posts, read 7,620,238 times
Reputation: 22118
Quote:
Originally Posted by merewenc View Post
Our last two we went with using our previous buyer's agent and not interviewing anyone. The first time worked out well but was an early learning mistake, one that we paid for with the second house by going with the agent we bought that one through and ultimately not selling as high as we wanted. We're going to interview this time even though we liked and appreciated our buying agent with this third house. She'll be one of the ones we interview, but we want to make SURE that we're going with the right one this time.
Yup. We had previously worked with someone who had sold one house we had owned much earlier, and on our next house he first worked as buyer's agent and then as our listing agent many years later. Good experience with both types of transactions...with that person, who was also a friend.

So, after we moved to another state and bought a property there, my husband insisted that we use the same person as our listing agent to sell it a few years later. I remembered some things that I hadn't been wild about the first time but caved to DH's demands. I should have insisted on interviewing other agents both in and outside of the town. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that my instincts from the first transaction were right. We just didn't realize that some agents are better at serving as buyer's agent or listing agent, not equal at both.
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