What should I ask before I list my home with a Realtor, part 2.

This is the second of three blogs regarding things you should discuss with a potential Realtor, before listing your home with them. In the first installment I related information you need to know regarding the marketing plan, company reputation and volume of sales. In this installment we will talk about days on market and listing price to selling price ratio.

The fourth question you should ask: On average, how long does it take your listings to sell?

This information is easily available to any Realtor through their local Real Estate Board. Does this agent tend to sell faster or slower than the board average? Their performance on this measurement will help you predict how long your home will be on the market before it sells. This is also more often than not an indication of the Realtor "buying" the listing. "Buying" a listing refers to a Realtor recommending a listing price higher than it should be in order to secure your business. This is not an ethical practice, it will cause your home to sit on the market longer and become "market worn". A home becomes "market worn" when it sits on the market and does not get shown by Realtors due to pricing being too high. Even when the price is reduced to a more realisitic price the home is often overlooked or viewed as having some type of issues due to it being on the market so long.

The fifth question you should ask is: On average, when your listings sell, how close is the selling price to the listing price?

This information is also easily available through the local Real Estate Board. Is this agents performance higher or lower than the Board average? This is more than likely a very important statistic to many homeowners, because iot will determine the amount of money that will end up in your pocket. This also is a strong indicator of how well a Realtor prices homes. If their sales price to listing price is below 90% it can be assumed that they might be inflating their initial listing price.

Check back in a few days for the final installment in this series. If you would like to talk about getting your home sold with less hassle for more money visit our website at www.RoanokeRealEstateTeam.com or call me for more immediate attention.