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We want to put our house on the market this week. We interviewed a real estate agent in July that we liked. She gave us tips on how to improve our house (replacing a window, new carpet, etc.) We followed through on her advice.
I read that I should interview at least three agents. Yesterday I interviewed a 'team' of two. They were okay. They were stuck in traffic downtown and didn't call us to tell us they'd be late. They were 15 minutes late. I thought this was unprofessional, as this was my first impression of them. All of these agents are from surrounding towns. Their offices are not located in my town. Today we are stopping by an office down the street from our house. Is there a benefit to using a realtor that has her office in the same town? We have a metro area of approximately 1.5 million people so it's common here for realtors to work the entire area.
How do you know which agent to choose? I asked the first agent I interviewed how many houses she's sold in the last six months and she said that because of the current market conditions, it wasn't a very accurate picture of her and wouldn't give me the info. She said she'd give me the names of references instead. What do think of this?
Any guidance in selecting a realtor?
Beware of a pessimistic realtor who just wants to tell you how bad the market is right now. If a realtor doesn't believe he or she can market your house for the price you believe is fair and reasonable, then don't go with that realtor.
I believe marketing is the key. Ask the realtor:
1. Specifically, what would you do to market my home at a price I will be satisfied with?
2. Tell me what you will do to generate qualified propsects.
Summers, rather than repeat many previous posts on this site about how to choose a realtor I'd suggest you look at all of the topics on this site and go to the previous discussions. There has been much discussion and good suggestions on how to choose a realtor. There is also a list of questions that is fairly good regarding what to ask a realtor when interviewing them. This question seems to come up fairly often so you shouldn't have much difficulty finding the previous posts.
I would go local local local. The agent knows the area better. OUr first agent was not local, and she basically put in a sign and that was it.She wasn't able to network in our area. We relisted after we expired with this realtor and went with a local agent. She was with a big company that is all over my area. I started paying attention to what company was selling homes. I started going on real estate sites and looked up the "pendings". They were mostly this big company. I also paid attention to which agent was selling. I was lucky, because it was easy to do since my agent sold two in my neighborhood. WE sold with her in a month. She is a great agent and really has some contacts and negotiating skills.
I think I would be concerned with the agent saying that this market isn't a fair representation of her skills. So she may have been a great agent in the high times...but how does that help you? YOu need one that can sell in the tough times. Look at what has sold and who is doing the selling. At least it is a place to start..then interview them.
Beware of a pessimistic realtor who just wants to tell you how bad the market is right now. If a realtor doesn't believe he or she can market your house for the price you believe is fair and reasonable, then don't go with that realtor.
I believe marketing is the key. Ask the realtor:
1. Specifically, what would you do to market my home at a price I will be satisfied with?
2. Tell me what you will do to generate qualified propsects.
Just a note of caution. I don't consider myself a pessimistic realtor but rather a realistic realtor who gathers the facts and makes recommendations based on those facts(i.e., what have true comps sold for in the past six months?). No amount of quality marketing will bring qualified prospects to a house, and eventually a buyer, if the house is priced above what the market will bear. In my opinion, the best route to go to sell your house is to price it properly(based on true comps and what the market will bear, not on what you want), to market it aggressively, and to stage it to sell. In staging it to sell I would include fixing things that need to be fixed before you list it and to clean, declutter and dress it up for showing.
1. Have you experienced selling in a buyers' market? If you haven't, off my list. This market is what seperates the "men from the boys"....
2. Must be extremely familiar with my neighborhood. Including selling homes or living in the neiborhood. One of the two is a must.
3. Contrary to most, I'm not big on open houses. They are mainly a waste of time. I'd rather the agent spend time and pound the pavement in other ways.
4. Most importantly, price my home to sell. Tons of agents have no clue where the market is going or get their marching orders from the NAR. I want someone whos not afraid to tell it like it is and give me the bad and the good.
These are just some off the top of my head, but they are a must....
I would use the local agents, find the best out of all of them. The reason is because non locals don't really know your market unless the usually list there. Another because someone driving by your house won't be using a non local agency to buy a house (for the most part). Hubby & I have found houses, then found the nearest real estate office.
If you use someone non local, the locals may not show your house because they don't know the agent you picked and have no clue if they are competant.
To find a local agent: look at their web sites. Most will have agent profiles showing their listings. Remember that some times agents "share" listings, so it may not be really accurate. You don't want someone that has a ton of listings.
Once you find their listings, go to realtor.com and find them. Do they have better listings then everyone else? Now, granted, this is not true for every market, but for a lot people use realtor.com and don't want to have to go to google to find the listing agent. They want as much info as possible right there.
Just a note of caution. I don't consider myself a pessimistic realtor but rather a realistic realtor who gathers the facts and makes recommendations based on those facts(i.e., what have true comps sold for in the past six months?). No amount of quality marketing will bring qualified prospects to a house, and eventually a buyer, if the house is priced above what the market will bear. In my opinion, the best route to go to sell your house is to price it properly(based on true comps and what the market will bear, not on what you want), to market it aggressively, and to stage it to sell. In staging it to sell I would include fixing things that need to be fixed before you list it and to clean, declutter and dress it up for showing.
I agree with your comments. It is extremely important that a home be properly fixed in areas where it needs fixing and also beautified so it shines. However an Owner-Seller can spit shine a home from stem to stern and that doesn't produce any results if there is not aggressive marketing to draw in qualified lookers.
how would you like to pay to completely paint the inside and outside of your home, polish all the wood floors and completely refurbsh the home with new door knobs, hinges, outlets, switches, fixtures, etc. only to have a realtor post one photo of the front of the house online without showing any of its dazzling interior? When I looked online for a home in the past, I always passed by ones which only displayed an outside photo and none of the interior. I assumed they were hiding a lousy looking interior and didn't want to waste my time and gas checking it out.
I would suggest one other question in my area, which MLS or MLS's do you use. We have 2 in the town and 3 in the area. One is used by over 90% of the agents and by about 60% exclusively. The second is used by only about 40% of local agents but has the largest statewide number of agents. The third gets very little local agent use but is trying to make inroads. While I use the first and second mentioned, I would recommend a local agent that uses at least the local MLS which is where most of the buyers agents will come from.
I would suggest one other question in my area, which MLS or MLS's do you use. We have 2 in the town and 3 in the area. One is used by over 90% of the agents and by about 60% exclusively. The second is used by only about 40% of local agents but has the largest statewide number of agents. The third gets very little local agent use but is trying to make inroads. While I use the first and second mentioned, I would recommend a local agent that uses at least the local MLS which is where most of the buyers agents will come from.
You bumped a 3 year old thread to inform the OP that your area uses 3 different MLS'?!
Seriously? I thought there was at least a little oversight... So I could start up my own little MLS and try to sell it to agents if I wanted?
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