If you’re like most people, your home is one of the largest and most valuable investments that you will ever make. Therefore, you wouldn’t want to let just anyone handle the sale of your home, especially in today’s volatile real estate market. Selecting a real estate agent is a decision that should not be taken lightly. These days it seems as though everyone has a good friend or family member that is a real estate agent, and just because someone comes highly recommended doesn’t mean that he or she is the best agent to sell your home.
You owe it to yourself to do your homework before selecting a real estate agent, and if your looking for which factors are important to consider when making your decision, we wanted to share the following tips for how to choose a good real estate agent to help sell your home:
Researching Real Estate
1. Ask prospective real estate agents for a list of their most recent clients
This information should include a list of the properties that the agent has sold over the past year, providing both the initial listing price and sales price. Other useful information to know about these sales is how long the properties were on the market. It also doesn’t hurt to ask the agent for the contact information for some of these recent clients. These clients will be some of the best and least biased references for the real estate agent as they will be able to tell you what it’s really like to work with the agent (the good, the bad, and the ugly).
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2. What is the agent’s strategy for marketing your property?
Your agent’s goal should be to get your home in front of as many prospective buyers and other real estate agents as possible. In addition to putting your home on a Multiple Listing Service, your home should be featured on popular home search websites such as Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia. Your agent should have your home professionally photographed to help attract more foot traffic to the listing. Does your agent offer a home staging service? How often will your agent hold an open house at your property?
3. Make sure that your agent has the right credentials to sell your home.
Realtors have their own areas of expertise and can get additional training to perfect their skills in certain areas. Examples of credentials to look for when interviewing agents include CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), ABR (Accredited Buyers Representative), and SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist).
4. Ask your prospective agent how long he or she has been in business.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking the agent this question straight out, you can find out for yourself by checking with the state licensing authority.
5. Ask the agent about homes on the market within close proximity to your property.
A good agent should know this information off hand and should be able to provide you with a few details about the property. If he or she is able to do this, it’s a good indication that the agent knows your market well.
Finding the Right Real Estate Agent
If you take the time to do the recommended due diligence outlined above when selecting a real estate agent, you will be more likely to be pleased with the end result of selling your home.
If you are thinking about buying or selling and have questions feel free to contact me. Andrew (AJ) Sherant 602.326.9473 or Andrew.Sherant@gmail.com. I would love to answer any questions you may have. Visit my home page for more helpful advice Home Page
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