Selecting a real estate agent: What's in it for me?

2010-05-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Selling your home is very serious business. At risk, in most cases, is your largest financial investment, your emotional well being and a few grey hairs. Your aim is to maximize your return on investment, escape with minimal emotional scaring and have your agent advise and assist you on everything while minimizing your costs.

There are some very simple questions that a great real estate agent should ask you to find out what your needs are and how they can best help you achieve your goals.

1. Have they asked me what my plan is? I may be selling in 12 months, I may need to sell immediately, I my wish to renovate first. This question is all powerful and yet rarely have I seen another real estate agent use it.

It is my first question when discussing real estate needs with almost anyone.The best advice I give my clients is to formulate a plan. The effect is twofold. Firstly, it will help you understand where you are at and what your needs are. Secondly, it will help you understand what you can do. Your real estate agent should be part of this plan, in fact, they should help you formulate the plan, not when you need to sell but from day one to build your wealth through real estate...but that's another post(A copy of this plan will be posted later and I will go into planning later). If you don't have one when they ask this question, then they should immediately help you formulate a quick plan in your head.

2. Do I have a time frame that I need to be sold by? Simple enough eh? I may need to be sold before the end of the financial year for tax purposes. Does my agent understand this? It may be that we have to sell immediately because we've bought another home. I may need to be in my new home before the start of the school year. This leads into the next question old.

3. Do I have a preferred sales method? You may have used a method before and it didn't work and you don't want someone shoving that same old method down my neck! It may be that because we need to sell sooner that we need a sales process that has a defined time frame, that showcases my property and puts buyers in competition and insures that we get the premium price. Some thing like Set Date Sale (SDS) or Auction. Is there a method that will help my set of circumstances? If your real estate agent doesn't have this terminate the interview immediately

Let me be perfectly blunt here, if the agent is just telling you to put your property on the market in the normal for sale process and they'll take care of marketing. Ask yourself, if they have your best interest at heart? How are they going to get more buyers through the door? How are they going to get buyers to compete for my property? How are they going to insure that they've got the best price on the market? How have they going to maximise my Return on Investment?

4. Are you comfortable with? Home opens, a sign in your front yard, your home in the paper or on the Internet. For the overwhelming majority this is not a problem but for a few there are issues associated with some of these, some people don't want to advertise to the neighbourhood. You may be one. The point is, that the agent is asking you, they are seeking your permission.

5. Ask yourself this question. Do they appear genuine? A great real estate agent will have a genuine interest in helping you, I get excited when people answer the sort of questions above. They tell me about what they want to achieve I know that if they choose me I get to be part of that success. Does your agent?

6. Communication. Communication is the key! I don't know how many times I have heard people complain that they can never get their agent on the phone or once they had an offer they never heard again from the agent. This drive me nuts!!!

I call all my clients regularly, that means once a day or at minimum every second day while the home is on the market. A great real estate agent will be able to tell you what the activity has been around your home during this period and it gives the two parties the opportunity to fine tune the sales process. Once it is under offer at least once a week. This is simply to reassure them I am still there and that everything is going alright.

Ask them if they do any form of reporting? (I'll post my list of communication must soon)

Disclosure: I am a real estate sales associate in Perth Western Australia. I work in the inner Northern corridor in suburbs like Scarborough, Doubleview, Innaloo, Karrinyup, Osborne Park, Nollamara, Mount Hwthorne, Joondanna, Tuart Hill, Yokine, Mount Lawley, Maylands.

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Selecting a real estate agent: What's in it for me?