The Number One Question You Should Ask a Potential Real Estate Agent
Earlier this year, the Washington Post online edition included an article by Michele Lerner, entitled "How to hunt for the right real estate agent before hunting for a home". Under the heading of "Agent Interviews" was Would you like to know what the author's first suggested question was?
The first item in Lerner's list of things a real estate customer should ask was "How long have you been in business? How many transactions did you have last year?
Good question.
Actually, I'd have added "what was the total dollar value of your closed transactions last year?" How many folks searching for an agent even bother to ask an agent about their track record?
Prospective buyers and sellers are buying a service, not a product. Comparing service providers is almost always more subjective and challenging than comparing product features or reading product reviews.
So why do customers almost seem to be reluctant to ask an agent to prove their worth or talk about their track record? Do consumers believe that it's rude or inappropriate to ask these questions?
It's perfectly acceptable to ask an agent to show statistics, such as ratio of closed sale price to list, days on market, and closed sale totals. How else is a customer to compare and make an informed decision?
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