Selling your home is most likely one of the largest financial transactions you will ever encounter. With something this important, choosing the right Realtor® to help you is critical.
First off, you need an agent with experience. An agent you feel that will best represent your needs and get you the most money possible for your home. Most importantly, an agent that you trust.
How do you find someone with all the qualities? How can you be sure that you aren’t just falling for “the hype” and not actually seeing what the truth is? Today, to help you out, we want to share a few tips to consider when interviewing Realtors® to represent you.
1. It’s all about the testimonials
Anytime you are interviewing a potential Realtor®, ask them to provide you not only a list of properties they have sold in the past, but also a list of past clients that you can call as well.
When you call these clients, it’s important to find out how they felt when working with this Realtor®. It’s also important to find out how the transaction went. Did it go according to plan? How long was their property on the market? What was the final sale price, in relation to the list price? Would they hire this Realtor® again, and why?
Agents can talk about themselves all day long, but when someone else is speaking honestly about them, it gives a whole new level of clarity to the situation.
2. Are They In Good Standing?
Every state has a governing body that licenses and disciplines Real Estate agents. Many of these governing bodies (California for sure) also have websites that will allow you to check and find out if a Realtor® you are interviewing has an active license, is in good standing with the governing body and has no complaints or disciplinary actions against them (past or present).
Again, remember, this is probably the largest transaction you will ever experience. You do not want to leave anything to risk when interviewing Realtors®. If they have lots of problems showing up on their record in the past, it is most likely indicative of how the transaction would unfold, were you to hire them as your agent.
3. Look for successes
Top producing Real Estate Agents got that way by doing on thing: Successfully representing their clients. When you interview agents, look for the agent that has a track record of successes that line up with what you hope to achieve with the sale of your home.
For instance, if you need to sell quickly, look for agents that have a track record of quickly preparing a home for sale and getting it sold quickly. If selling over asking price is most important, look for agents that have had successes in selling homes over the asking price.
Success means different things to different people, based on their needs. Finding someone that is successful in the aspect that are most important to you though will ensure that you have a good working relationship with your Real Estate Agent and increase the chances that the transaction will turn out exactly as you were hoping it would.
