Five Questions to Ask a Real Estate Agent Before Hiring Them

 

Are you thinking of selling your home, but are completely overwhelmed by the process?

 

I think every single homeowner goes through this in the beginning stages.

 

And the thought of picking a real estate agent is even more overwhelming.

 

There's just so many of them!

 

In this short article, we are going to break down a couple of questions you need to ask each potential real estate agent you are considering working with.

 

Now although we do recommend asking this question our reason why might surprise you.

 

Most homeowners want to know that the agent they are planning to work with has sold a lot of homes in their current neighborhood and although this is nice we actually think that it isn't even close to as important as you think.

 

I hate to see homeowners turn agents away just because they don't have as many sales in one direct neighborhood even though they have a long list in another neighborhood.

 

I think you should be aware of the volume of their transactions, but you shouldn't get too caught up in where those sales are located.

 

There are so many agents that think that putting a home on the MLS is a marketing strategy.

 

It is definitely necessary, but not a strategy by any means.

 

Your agent should be able to be able to provide you with a plan of how they are going to get your home sold.

 

We recommend plans include email marketing, print marketing, digital advertising, and a video strategy.

 

Plus on top of that, we are big believers in hosting an event at the homes we are trying to sell to get even more people through the door.

 

Now, I bet you are going to have to agree that this sounds better than just putting your home on the MLS?

 

Now we technically aren't supposed to share an average listing agreement length because it's kind of an industry secret, but we are going to do it anyway because we create content to be completely upfront with you.

 

The average listing agreement is typically going to be six months.

 

Now we use the word "average" because a listing agreement can be any length that both you and the agent want.

 

We strongly believe in six-month listing agreements because they allow us to adjust and property market our strategy over at least two seasons if we need it, but there are some agents out there who try to push for a year.

 

At the end of the day, it's going to come down to whatever you are comfortable with.

 

And regardless of what you decide you should be aware of how long your agreement with them will last.

 

Now some homeowners aren't aware that when they work with an agent they are agreeing to pay both a buyer's agent commission and a seller's agent commission. 

 

Typically they are split in half, but sometimes if a seller's agent is going to be spending a lot of money on advertising they might factor that cost into the commission and ask if they can take a larger commission because of this.

 

This is completely up to you how you decide to handle that with your agent.

 

Both options are fair as long as you are aware of how much it is going to cost you and how it's going to be distributed between the two agents.

 

We are probably the biggest believers in this type of marketing!

 

Did you know that using video marketing makes your home 403% more likely to sell?

 

We love sharing that stat and hope it shocked you as much as it shocked us the first time we heard it.

 

The sad part is most agents to this day don't use video marketing, even though the results make it very clear that they should.

 

We have three different types of video marketing that we recommend for every homeowner and we actually created a free guide going over them that you can download.

 

We hope this helped you figure out what you should be asking a real estate agent when you are in the interview process.

 

The person that you choose to work with should be able to answer all of this for you.

 

At the end of the day who you choose to work with is a personal decision, but you also need to remember that your money is on the line here as well.