Finding Real Estate Agent
Do real estate agents have some type of public record so that you can see if your dealing with a good or negligent agent. I want to know before i put my house on the market as to what to look for when getting a listing agent.
I don't want to get someone who sucks at selling houses if you get my drift. I don't want to have the house on the market for 3 months before I find out.
I have not heard of one. I would ask family, friends, or co-workers. Personal experiences will tell you a lot about the agents. Some just flat out suck & others can go the extra mile.
Ask family and friends. Meet with the possible ones ask the following questions.
How will you market my property to make it stand out. Make sure they give specifics. Will the do brochures,mailers, publications, announcements,open houses etc..
How many homes have you sold in the last month , 3 month etc.
For pictures do you take hem yourself or hirer a photographer. (Remember they are agents not professional photographers I have found best agent get a photographer to take photos)
How many new homes have you listed on the market in the last month. Ask to email you links of them so you can check them out. Pay attention to pictures and the description.
How long have they been an agent?
Ask what is 1 thing u could do besides lower price to make my property more appealing to buyers.
Hope that helps you find a good agent.
- Real Estate Attorney, Broker, Investor
- Indianapolis, IN
- 58
- Votes |
- 207
- Posts
Darryl,
In many jurisdictions, you can check with the state or local licensing board. For example, in Indiana, our Indiana Real Estate Commission under the State's Professional Licensing agency governs real estate agents, brokers, appraisers and more. Any disciplinary actions against licensed agents, brokers, appraisers, etc. are publicly disclosed.
You can also always Google the agent and do your own research on the internet. You may be amazed at what you find.
Make sure you interview thoroughly. See how many homes they've sold the last 6 months.
id just get my own license. My regular job pays a lot more than most agents make but I still decided to get my own... Most agents in my area are terrible, never return phone calls, or emails, or want to show property. even when i state I will pay straight up cash for a property. No wonder most agents fail.
Darryl,
If your home been listed more then 3 months the chances are that your home is over price.
Joe Gore
Thanks for the infomatione everyone
May be a little late daryl but most listing agents don't sell your house anyways. Listing agents job is basically to take pics, write some fancy comments in the MLS and take the calls from other agents to help show the property. Very rarely do they sell your home. Even the MLS shoots out all the info they enter in the MLS to 15-20 other sites too. Kinda waste of time to interview a listing agent... As the saying goes "a monkey could do it". Now if they don't return other agents calls in a timely manner, I wouldn't consider them at all. Answering the phone when someone calls on your listing and actually returning any vmails is huge to me. I also make sure they are full time.
Now if you have a rental property or investment prop, an agent can make a difference.
@Darryl Smith You can look up agents on Neighborcity dot com and see their rankings based on the number of listings, solds, and average Days on Market. It is the best site I have seen to find agents based on their sales. This is free and open to the public.
Another way is to find an agency office in the area you are selling the property and interview agents from the broker, on who has sold a property like your own. Investor property or a rental. If you can get access to the MLS, you can get a list of all the agents that have listed and sold properties in your zip code, which would give you an idea of who to interview. Check the local RE section of your paper as well, to see if there are agents you can call and interview. Most who spend money to advertise, have some experience in selling properties. But no system is fool proof, so understand that most agents will want a 6-month agreement and few are willing to market and maintain the property for less than 2.5-3 percent commission. If you get someone willing to sell the property for 1%, ask them what kind of marketing they will do, open houses, what are you getting for a rock bottom commission rate.
I disagree with the assessments that MOST Realtors who list are only there to put the property in the MLS. That was the case in 2005, when all you needed was a heartbeat and fog on a mirror to practice Real Estate. The game has changed now, with 94% of buyers searching the web before buying. Make sure your house has a great web presence for those people looking online. Ask to see examples from other houses that were listed and sold, see the DOM Days on Market data for each agent and their sales. You can quickly figure out who is worth your house.