What should I ask my real estate broker before hiring?

Nearly 90% of home sellers use a listing agent and there’s a good reason for that: selling a home takes hard work. This includes time, negotiating skills, and an in-depth understanding of neighborhood trends.

A good agent markets your home aggressively. That’s putting it simply. An experienced agent will provide you with multiple approaches to make your home look great. After all it is apart of their job to maximize your home’s selling potential. Your real estate agent must also screen potential buyers so you only deal with serious prospects.

We’ve highlighted some important questions homeowners should ask about before hiring an agent to sell their home.

What’s your experience?

The sale of a home is often the most expensive transaction a person will be involved with in their life. This is why finding the most experienced realtor is extremely important. When interviewing potential candidates, ask about their experience.

There is no magic “sold” number when it comes to judging experience. What is recommended of home sellers (sellers) is to look for agents who have successfully seen the sale of homes from listing to closing more than a handful of times.

How will we communicate?

You and your agent will be communicating a lot. So as a rule of thumb, you should ask how your agent intends to communicate with you.

You, as the seller, should have expectations as to how how often you will communicate and the channels that will be used.

Will your agent call you on the telephone? Do they prefer email? Understanding upfront how you will receive updates about your home’s status is vital. Your agent should approach the sale of your home as if they are apart of a team.

You can work on this question early in the interviewing process. How has he or she communicated with you thus far? If your potential agent has failed to follow up or not responded to your emails, what is their incentive to change after he or she is hired?

How do you plan to market my home?

Every real estate broker should have an answer for this question. After all, if you don’t market a home it won’t sell. Each agent has their own beliefs about how to properly market a home and understanding what they will do after taking your listing is important.

It is good practice to look at their past listings. As a seller you can review how well an agent raises a home’s visibility, online. Does the agent you hire use professional-quality photos for the online listings? Do they market your home on popular listing sites where potential buyers are? Your agent should be able to show you examples of virtual tours they’ve created, as well as other listings they’ve created online.

How often do you work in this specific price range of homes?

Can your agent see through your buyer’s eyes? Questioning your real estate agent’s experience with buyers in your price range may give you insight as to their success selling your home. If they have experience selling homes around your price range that may make them a more effective negotiator.

What do you know about home loans?

This last question deals with the financial side of selling your home. It’s important to choose an agent who has an understanding of home financing because loan issues play an important role in the selling process. For your home sale to go effortlessly, you will be looking for a buyer backed by a reliable and reputable lender.

If you begin negotiations with a buyer who has a dubious lender, this can stall the sale of your property. In a worst case scenario the entire deal could fall through. Your agent should be your middleman in these negotiations only bringing the most qualified buyers to the table.

After all, your time is valuable and respecting that should be one of your broker’s top priorities.

Selling your home to Buy My House Now?

When you decide on a real estate broker to sell your home you are also agreeing to pay their commission fees at the end of the transaction. The average commission fee is around 6% of the final sale of your home. On a $250,000 dollar home, that comes out to $15,000. This is one of many additional fees that must be paid at the end of your home’s sale.

Buy My House Now purchases homes in cash and without the need for a real estate attorney. Because we purchase your home in cash there is no need for loans, banks, or any complicated documentation. When working with Buy My House Now you also work with a separate third party entity that ensures the integrity of our business transaction.

Our goal is to make the process of selling your home pain free and FAST.

If you are selling, we offer free over the phone consultations.