When you’re thinking of hiring a real estate agent to sell your home, it pays have some questions prepared to help you figure out if they’re a good fit. Your questions should help you to verify they have the right experience and expertise selling properties like yours, with a track record to prove it.
Here are some questions to get you started.
Ask about their experience, local knowledge and performance
- How long have you been selling residential real estate?
- How many properties have you sold in your real estate career?
- What properties have you marketed in my area in the last 6 months? What did they sell for and why?
- Who are the active buyers in my area in the last few months?
- How many of your listings in the past 6 months were successfully sold?
- What is the median days-on-market in my area at the moment?
- For how many days were your recent listings on the market before selling?
Ask about the appraisal process
- What approach do you take when preparing an appraisal?
- How often do you sell for less than your appraised value?
- How often do you sell for more than your appraised value?
- What properties did you select when looking at comparable sales? How is my property different?
Ask about their proposed sales strategy
- How will you achieve a top price for my property?
- How will you promote my property to existing buyers in your database? How big is this audience?
- How will you describe my property to potential buyers? What are it’s best features?
- What advertising do you recommend?
- What is the profile of the likely buyer for my property?
- How do you follow up with buyers after they have viewed the property?
- How will you generate a sense of competition among buyers?
- What method of sale do you recommend?
- How should I prepare the property for sale?
- How should I present the property during the marketing process? Is home staging worthwhile?
- What negotiation techniques do you use when working with buyers?
Ask their previous clients
- How was your experience working with the agent?
- How likely are you to recommend the agent? Have you recommended their services to any friends or family already?
- Was your initial appraisal accurate?
- Were you happy with the ultimate sale price?
- Was the agent responsive and did they provide regular updates?