How does one choose a a skilled agent? (contingency, feedback, recommendation)

[Zarathu]

New Question:

IF ONE IS A SELLER......

What questions should I ask a prospective broker to determine if they know what they are doing, and will have enough time to work for me. And is there any place to go to find out information about prospective brokers.

I am a skilled talker, but I don't know what questions I should be asking to find out and what answers I should hear. If you are a skilled Broker, then you will know what makes you a cut above the others, and how people would be able to identify you.


(If you are a broker and you find this question offensive for various reasons, please save me the time and don't bother to reply.)

Zarathu

[Charles]

Here are some of my questions plus some questions I found online. Personally, I would like to know the answers to Question 4 more than any others. The thing is, it is hard to get an answer. How do you really know if your realtor is pushing really hard in negotiations? Realistically, the realtor's main goal is to close the sale - by any means necessary. Two realtors can meet and I wouldn't be surprised if discussions included "My client would probably accept..." OR "My client is really desperate , have your client offer....".

2) In the past year, approximately:

How many sales transactions did you complete as a buyer's agent?
How many short sale transactions have you attempted?
How many short sale transactions have you completed?
For the short sale transactions you have completed, approximately what were the two longest durations, the two shortest durations, and the average duration from initial offers to closures? (The response should read something like: 8 months and 6 months, 2 months and 3 months, and 4 months.)

3) Will you show us homes not on the MLS?

4) When and after we make an offer:

What are your negotiation techniques?
How will you leverage the best deal for us?
How will you handle multiple offers?
How do we renegotiate the offer if the inspection reveals a problem?

5) Do you receive any compensation from professionals (such as inspectors) you may recommend to us?

6) From your experience and from comments you've received from previous clients, please provide three strengths and three weaknesses (pros/cons, pluses/minuses, advantages/disadvantages etc) for each of these communities.

(list a few candidate neighborhoods here)

7) Do you consider completed short sales to be valid comparables? Why or Why not?

[Zarathu]

Thanks, Charles. Most of your questions would be the ones that I would ask if I was looking to find an agent to find me a house to buy(not all). But I guess I should have been more clear in my original question in that I am the seller not the buyer.

I'm sure lots of buyers will benefit from your question set, so its not a wasted effort.

Z

[middle-aged mom]

I purchased 30 properties before becoming a licensed real estate agent.

The thing I valued most was local market knowledge. I wanted an agent who knew why a property sold for what it did, when it did. I wanted an agent who knew the back story or was willing to find out.

They knew that even though the XYZ property had terrific marketing, the basement ceilings were only 5 ' high or the yard sloped and made it unusable. They also knew of terrific properties that were poorly marketed
that would be a good fit.

They knew how to negotiate a win-win transaction and they did so in sall sorts of market conditions.

The best agents asked me a million questions and wanted to know why I needed/wanted what I did. In other words, they made the process all about me.

[sportsgal]

How we found our listing agent:

Acquaintances of ours from a neighboring subdivision sold their home for full price after 10 days on the market. This was shortly before we decided to sell ours (due to relocation). Asked acquaintances how they felt about the agent/transaction and they had great things to say except they were upset that they had to replace the roof before sale. In their initial consultation, the agent had told them they probably would have to replace it, but they requested a second opinion from a friend who told them he thought it would be OK. Buyer's inspection revealed roof had less than 2 years of life left and the buyers requested roof replacement by seller. Sellers were a little miffed that listing agent couldn't get them out of that contingency based on friend's assessment. This was their one and only beef with the agent, and it was a silly beef. They got FULL PRICE after only 10 days on market and the only repair they had to make was to the roof. Agent even recommended and paid for their staging and photos. Some people will never be happy. :-)

So I called the listing agent's cell (listed on her signs) and left a message. She called back 10 minutes later and we set up an appointment for the next day. I checked out the agent's website and was impressed. Good photos of her listings, loaded with information about her listings, well-known national agency, several listings in my part of town and our price range, her office in my part of town, etc. She specialized in listings, rarely handled buying and she was very knowledgeable about our neighborhood.

For our consultation she brought a four-color binder describing her services, detailing the entire home-selling process and including lots of information helpful to seller. It included all the information on our home and neighborhood and a marketing plan specifically geared to our home. She runs a weekly ad in the real estate section of the local newspaper and rotates her listings in those ads. She has a dedicated, full-time, real-estate-trained, knowledgable assistant who will be available to answer any questions or address any concerns on those rare occasions the agent isn't available. Premium packages on realtor.com and other real estate websites to maximize exposure for all her listings. She went through our home, looked at the improvements/repairs we were already making and made further recommendations to improve the appearance of the house for minimum expense and maximum appeal, e.g. neutral paint in bedrooms, repair siding, replace light fixture. After looking at RECENTLY SOLD comps, she recommended a listing price, which disappointed us based on our tax appraisal, the amount we still owed and all the improvements we had made. She said she'd try it for 5 percent higher if we wanted, and we did. The home sold at 3 percent less than her recommended list price, and it would have sold three months earlier if we had taken her sage advice in the first place and not wasted that intial listing period by pricing the house too high.

Since we had relocated 500 miles away, our agent checked on the house regularly, called a locksmith when a buyer's agent locked the keys inside, met repair people for estimates and repairs requested by buyer, etc. She kept in constant contact via email and phone. We got email notifications of internet activity on our home as well as information and feedback on showings.

Knowing that carrying two mortgages was financially taxing for us and we were considering leasing the house, our agent agreed to a 3-month contract and then let us renew month-to-month. She attended various real estate networking functions and continued to market our house to buyer's agents until we finally sold the home. She carefully walked us through and negotiated the contract, inspection and appraisal, which came back low. She and the buyer's agent successfully appealed the appraisal to make the deal go through. We closed on schedule despite some last-second surprises that she helped take care of.

So in my limited experience, there are some wonderful real estate agents out there who can help guide you through a complicated process and ensure a successful sale. It was the best 6 percent we ever spent.

[Brandon Hoffman]

You can ask friends and co-workers for referrals and you can scout out the local websites for the big companies for agents carrying a good # of listings. Realtor.com is also a good place, search by # of photos and see what agents are at the top and put in custom descriptions and virtual tours. Those agents will likely have strong marketing plans.

Then you interview at least 3 and ask these questions.
1)How many properties did you list in the last 12 months? (tells you if they are an active top producer)
2)What percentage of your listings sold? (tells you if they actually sell the listings they took - evaluates performance)
3)What was your sales price compared to your list price? (tells you if they priced right and negotiated well)
4)Do you have assistants? (if they carry a lot of listings, they'd better have help or they'll get overwhelmed)

If they don't track their numbers and can't answer those questions, move on to another. A truly great agent will know at least the market stats and ought to know theirs too. Other than that, talk to them and see who you feel good about. Are they polite and responsive or pushy and talking over you? Did they get back to you in a timely fashion? Are they familiar with your area?

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by Brandon Hoffman

You can ask friends and co-workers for referrals and you can scout out the local websites for the big companies for agents carrying a good # of listings. Realtor.com is also a good place, search by # of photos and see what agents are at the top and put in custom descriptions and virtual tours. Those agents will likely have strong marketing plans.

Then you interview at least 3 and ask these questions.
1)How many properties did you list in the last 12 months? (tells you if they are an active top producer)
2)What percentage of your listings sold? (tells you if they actually sell the listings they took - evaluates performance)
3)What was your sales price compared to your list price? (tells you if they priced right and negotiated well)
4)Do you have assistants? (if they carry a lot of listings, they'd better have help or they'll get overwhelmed)

If they don't track their numbers and can't answer those questions, move on to another. A truly great agent will know at least the market stats and ought to know theirs too. Other than that, talk to them and see who you feel good about. Are they polite and responsive or pushy and talking over you? Did they get back to you in a timely fashion? Are they familiar with your area?

Is there any way to check on any of their answers, just in case they might feel like blowing smoke? I'm sorry, but like cops, one of the liabilities of spending 40 years (almost 2/3 of your life) working in mental health services, you know that EVERYBODY LIES. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people all around you don't lie constantly.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

Is there any way to check on any of their answers, just in case they might feel like blowing smoke? I'm sorry, but like cops, one of the liabilities of spending 40 years (almost 2/3 of your life) working in mental health services, you know that EVERYBODY LIES. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people all around you don't lie constantly.

You can have the agent pull copies of his sold listings from MLS and compare the #'s to what they gave you. Your local MLS may give you the market stats if you call them.

[Zarathu]

Thank you, Brandon, for your assistance.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by Brandon Hoffman

3)What was your sales price compared to your list price? (tells you if they priced right and negotiated well)

Make sure you ask what the sales price was compared to the original list price. On my MLS we can print out the original price and it says original on it. This will tell you if the agent buys listings by telling you your house is worth loads and then screams "oh the market is so horrible you have to drop your price." Don't play that game.

I would also add that you should look on Realtor.com, your local MLS, Zillow, and Trulia and actually look at marketing. Your #1 priority should be agents that take good photos. If they have dark photos or photos of the corner of a room, move onto the next one. You should have a small list of agents that have good photos.

Then look at things like is the listing an enhanced listing on Realtor.com. It allows for video to be added as well as more text. See if they actually use those additional things.

This will give you a very narrow pool of agents. Those are the ones that you want to start to interview. Forget brand. A large national brand doesn't mean that the individual agent is good. That is the biggest mistake I see people make. There are good agents at all companies. Find a good agent regardless of what company they work for.

During your interview ask
1) Do you represent two sides of the transaction and how often do you do it?
2) Does your company increase your split (ie give them more money) if both sides of the transaction are from within the company? (You want to make sure that an agent will actively market the listings to agents in other companies)
3) Ask them the current average home price for your city, days on the market and inventory. If they can't tell you those things (ballpark) off the top of their head then they aren't studying the market enough.
4) Ask them to give you live links to current marketing. Anyone can tell you anything. You want to SEE what they are currently doing.
5) Ask them what you need to do to your house to get it ready for market. If they can't tell you anything then they are clueless and move on. I have had one home that was totally ready to go. Every other home needed something...even small things.
6) If an agent does a CMA before stepping into your house, I would be dubious, personally. I close on a listing next week that was listed with three other agents, all too high. While their pricing was inline with comps, they failed to tell the seller that they were messy and their messy home would cause a discount in the price. There were grease stains on the kitchen ceiling that you can't see from the outside of the house, which looked like all the other houses on the street. So..get an agent that wants to see your house before coming up with a price.

That's my .02.

If you tell us where you are the good agents on this forum might be able to give you a couple of names as a starting point.