5 Questions to ask when you’re choosing a realtor to sell your property
You’ve made the decision to sell. If you don’t want the hassle of a “FSBO,” for sale by owner (which I never recommend – blog post on that forthcoming), you have to engage a realtor to sell your property on your behalf. Here are just a few recommended questions to help you with that decision:
- What listing price do you recommend, and why?
By the time you meet with any realtor, they should come to the meeting prepared. If someone comes with no research about sales and listings in your area, you should end the meeting right there. Seriously. Someone who comes unprepared and just picks a number out of thin air is not the realtor for you. If their number is too low, well, you will be leaving money on the table. I can’t imagine anyone being satisfied with that. If the number is too high, that wastes valuable time and money, as you continue to incur day to day expenses on the property. Plus, the best sales momentum is usually within a couple of weeks of listing the property. Think about Zillow, realtor.com, or another real estate site. The newer the listing, the earlier your property appears in a search. - What marketing strategies will you use?
This is another very important question. A friend asked this question a month into their listing agreement, because she was getting frustrated that the multiple offers her realtor promised wound up being zero. The realtor’s response was “we pay a lot of money for search engines so your property will pop up first when someone does a search.” So the real answer was, absolutely nothing. You want a realtor with an actual, articulated strategy that appeals to you. - May I see examples of photographs from some of your prior listings?
Never underestimate the importance of the photographs. The photographer has to have a good eye. You don’t want too many photographs or too few. There should be a good balance—show the important elements in the photos but don’t show every aspect of the property. There are always some areas of a property that, let’s be realistic, aren’t pretty. No reason to highlight that in photos. The photographs should also maximize the beauty of every element of the property. There is no reason, for example, to post a bedroom shot where the comforter is dragging on the floor, or a bathroom shot where the towels aren’t folded neatly. - If we were to retain you, what would you expect from us?
Please see my blog post titled “5 Tips to Prepare for Showings” for more on this subject. In a nutshell, your realtor will expect you to keep the property tidy so that it is ready to be shown. - How much notice can we expect for a showing?
Good realtors use a service that sends you a text message when there is a showing request. You can confirm, deny or suggest a new time with most of these services. An example of a popular one is Centralized Showing Service. Ideally, you should have 24 hours’ advanced notice of a showing, but sometimes, you might need to be flexible and agree to showings on short notice.
Of course, if you want quick cash with no commissions or closing costs, call McCoy Wyman at 813-489-9600.
