Top Three Criteria For Selecting A DC Listing Agent
When selling your DC home, your choice of listing agent will be a determining factor in how quickly your home sells and at what price. Many sellers have difficulty selecting the right agent and Internet advice can be contradictory and agents' claims annoyingly similar. So what should your criteria be when choosing a real estate agent to list your DC home? Here are our top three:
1. Accessibility
The first of the top three criteria for selecting a DC listing agent may seem like a no-brainer, but it is surprisingly common for buyer agents and unrepresented buyers to have trouble reaching listing agents for information, showing appointments and even to submit offers. If your agent isn't responding to leads, how quickly will you sell your home? Did you know that Days On Market (DOM) is directly related to final sales price?
So immediate response will affect your net profit. Coldwell Banker offers Rapid Response, a tool unique to the real estate industry. Buyers call the Rapid Response number on your listing. We're notified immediately. If we don't respond within minutes, the next agent in queue will take the call. Rapid Response assures sellers that a qualified agent will speak to buyers about your listing whether we're in a meeting, on another call or showing your home to another buyer.
Read our client reviews on Zillow, Yelp and Trulia. Note how often they mention our excellent response time!
Other accessibility points to remember:
Sellers often think it's a good strategy to list with the agent with the most listings on their roster. Certainly you'll want a motivated and savvy, well-established agent offering a strong brokerage presence in your market, but make sure also that the agent has the time to give your listing the attention it deserves.
- Will the agent handle your listing personally, or pass it off to junior team members?
- Will the agent be responsive in answering your questions and keeping you regularly updated on marketing efforts and showings?
- Does the agent's brokerage offer a system that provides sellers with data on Internet activity to share with you? (We do!)
- Will they be responsive to other agents when information and access is needed, and during your sales transaction?
2. Visibility to Buyers
Visibility to buyers is the second of our top three criteria for selecting a DC listing agent. When interviewing agents, ask:
- Will your listing get the best visibility available in the DC and national marketplace?
- Does the brokerage market new listings internally prior to posting on the MRIS? How? (This can be a key tool in selling your home quickly and at the best price.)
Coldwell Banker is the most visited national brand on the Internet. CB has 96% brand awareness among American consumers and is the #1 Washington DC brokerage, with 18 offices and over 1,000 agents and nearly 3 billion in closed sales volume. Coldwell Banker Dupont is the #1 NW DC brokerage office for both listing and selling sides.
Listings sell fast when powerful brokerage offices promote them from within. Coldwell Banker has more offices, more agent partners and more internal promotion power than any other DC brokerage and Coldwell Banker's Dupont Office is the best at taking full advantage of these assets to promote your listing. In addition to our external Internet, local media and event marketing campaigns, we generate internal pre-listing alerts, internal eblasts, and hold previewing and pre-pricing events that help your listing attain maximum exposure before it hits the MRIS. Days On Market (DOM) are crucial in meeting your sales price goals so why wait to generate buzz?
3. Relationship
The third of our top three criteria for selecting a DC listing agent is relationship. You don't have to be 'besties' with your agent to sell your home, but a good working relationship really helps. Finding a true partner in your home sale doesn't have to be difficult. Consider these questions:
- Is the agent you're interviewing really listening to you?
- Good partners tell each other the truth. Is your agent providing you with the whole story, not just "yessing" you to secure the listing?
- Do you feel comfortable asking questions?
- Are the agent's answers vague and general in nature or do they include specifics?
- Is the agent's reputation well documented? Can you look up reviews online? Do their reviews match what you're looking for in an agent?
- Is the agent aggressive enough to get the job done? Creative enough to help your listing stand out Truthful enough to inspire trust?
- How is the agent's overall presentation? Does their style match yours?
Put all these factors together when you're on the hunt for a good listing agent and don't be afraid to work from a checklist. We do!
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