Choosing a Real Estate Agent - The Initial Listing Appointment
The goal of your initial appointment with prospective agents is to become acquainted with them in order to make a final choice. A smart seller is prepared and the house is staged before making the appointments.
After asking for recommendations and doing preliminary telephone interviews, you've narrowed the field of candidates to those agents you've invited to make a listing appointment, so you can make your final choice. If you're a smart seller, you've made repairs and your house has been staged before scheduling these appointments. You want the house to impress the agents in order to establish the highest initial listing price. Even those agents who are not chosen are more likely to return with a prospective buyer, or say positive things about the house to their colleagues, because they've seen it at its best.
The appointment should include time for the candidates to take a thorough look at the house and property. You should be prepared to answer some basic questions, including the age of the house, when you bought it, description and cost of significant improvements and repairs, as well as utility costs for the past year. Ideally, each agent's presentation will include his qualifications, marketing philosophy, experience selling houses like yours, samples of his marketing materials, a listing contract to review and references. Pay particular attention to his internet expertise and capabilities, and those of his firm, because more than 80% of prospective buyers search the internet before contacting an agent. Discuss your plans, including your timetable for selling. Discuss your expectations. How often should the agent communicate with you? Don't plan to have a discussion of the listing price, just yet. At this meeting you're evaluating each agent's qualifications and deciding if you're confident in his abilities and comfortable with his style.
After the meeting, be sure to check references and ask questions, including these: Does he respond promptly to requests? Is he punctual and reliable? Does he work well with others? Is he creative in his approach and to solving problems? Is he calm when things go wrong? Does he have energy and enthusiasm? Would you work with him again?
By now you will know the best agent for you. Call with the good news and make an appointment for the listing presentation when the agent will recommend an initial listing price and discuss a marketing plan in detail.
Smart Selling Tip: The goal of your initial appointment with prospective agents is to become acquainted with them in order to make a final choice. A smart seller is prepared and the house is staged before making the appointments.
©2009 Mary Stephens and Sandy LeRoy
Comments(0)