How to Choose a Residential Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home

While selling your home, a good real estate agent helps you set the right price for your property, professionally market the home, qualify the buyers, negotiate and seal the deal. Choosing the right real estate agent for the sale of your home is, therefore, crucial in ensuring that you get the best deal. You are going to pay the agent a substantial amount of money.  Aim to get value for your money.

1. Interview the Potential Agent

Like any other employer, you are hiring someone to carry out a job for you and you will be compensating them for their efforts.  You, therefore, want one who will serve your best interests while bringing on board professional expertise.  Find out the length of the agent’s career in the industry. There is unprecedented experience, knowledge and skills that come with having spent time in the real estate industry. Such a professional will know what to look out for and will give sound, professional advice on the best strategy of marketing your property.  They will also know how to best handle anything that comes up and any given situation. Additionally, find out if this is their only job.  If sealing real estate deals is what pays the bills for him/her, the chances are that they will serve you better as compared to someone else who has others options.

Interviewing will also help you understand the marketing plan they have in store for your property and whether it is likely to work out.  Most of the time, the marketing plan is all it takes to get a good deal on your home. Will they list you online? Will they opt for traditional marketing? All these questions help you figure out what chances you stand of getting an incredible deal for your home.

2. Testimonials

As a potential client, it is important to ask the real estate agent for testimonials from past clients. This will help you gauge their dependability and trustworthiness.  A good real estate agent always has testimonials to show for a job well done in the past.  From the testimonials, one can find out if the real estate agent delivered on their promises to previous clients. If an agent is not willing to provide you with testimonials, you are better off looking elsewhere.

3. Company

Researching on the company the real estate agent is affiliated to helps you find out how well-equipped the agent is to handle your property. The company should provide the agent with the necessary tools to help him/her do her job effectively.  This research should give you background knowledge on the company such as their reputation in the locality, how they rank compared to other real estate companies, the kind of web traffic the company website receives, together with the type of administrative support they offer to their agents. A real estate agent should readily provide you with such information to help you gauge their reputation.

4. Listing Price

A knowledgeable real estate agent should help you chose the correct listing price for your home. The listing price should neither be too high nor too low depending on industry factors. The real estate agent should also provide you with a detailed report informing the chosen listing price. From their market analysis, you will know if you will get a good deal or not. One should, therefore, watch out for agents who promise to deliver the sale of your home at the price that you want since market factors may not allow for such a price.

5. Commission and Incentives

While choosing a real estate agent, find out how much commission he/she will be earning.  This will help you know their motive to committing to the sale of your home.  If the agent you’re using to sell your home agrees to a lesser commission (as much as this is negotiable), this should be a red flag.  After all, who wants to earn less money from their job?  Additionally, if they offer guarantees such as buying the home from you if it doesn’t sell, check out the fine print of the contract.  There is always a catch in there that does not play in your favor.

All in all, choosing the right real estate agent for selling your home will save you a lot of trouble and give you value for your property.

Written by the experts at Columbia Real Estate, the most knowledgeable agents for real estate in Columbia, MO.