How to Hire the Right Listing Agent

Posted @ Mar. 01 2010 11:55AM by Ray - home-garden

The typical search for a listing agent goes something like this. You talk to several agents and set appointments for them to come to your home and give you their presentation. The presentations are all pretty much the same – agent talking about how great they are and all the wonderful things they are going to do to sell your home. Each one gives you a market analysis and ultimately asks you what you want to list your home for based on their information. You tell each agent the same number and you end up picking the one that you feel the most connected to; that is willing to list close to or at the price you want and of course, the lowest commission.

Property Not Moving?

The problem is that most of the time your property ends up sitting on the market and you either get frustrated with the agent and get a new one, or decide that it is not the agent’s fault because the market is so bad and no one is selling. Here’s the ugly truth – it is the agent’s fault, no amount of advertising or open houses will help because properties are selling when they are priced right.

The New Normal

The real estate market is in a new era that is unlike any we have seen before. The practice of real estate will never be the same and it is critical that you connect with someone that not only understands this, but has been trained to successfully work in the new era. Keep these five things in mind when interviewing your next listing agent.

1. You are interviewing the agent. Make sure you ask a lot of questions and really understand the agent’s approach to the business and what he or she is going to do for you.
2. We are in a declining market (prices are going down). You need to prepare yourself for that fact. You are hiring a professional whose job it is to understand the market and be able to give you the proper list price that is going to get your home sold for the most amount of money, right now! (If this doesn’t describe the agents you are interviewing, then you need to keep looking.)
3. The amount of exposure your property receives is crucial. It’s important that all possible buyers get a chance to look at your home before they pick one to buy. The most effective exposure is done online. Just because an agent says they have great internet presence doesn’t mean they really do. A personal website is like finding a needle in a haystack on the vast World Wide Web. You need to look at their presence and see how easy it is to find them. Do an internet search on your prospective agent and see what comes up – you may learn some interesting information. (If you cannot find the agent you are interviewing online in less than a minute, then you need to keep interviewing other agents.)
4. Your agent needs to be a great negotiator. Bad negotiators can cost you up to 10% and a great one can make you an extra 10% (that’s a 20% margin), so you can see how this is an important skill for your agent to possess. One point that I think a lot of sellers miss is that if you can negotiate down an agent’s commission – how good of a negotiator are they? (If you are a better negotiator than the agent you are interviewing, then you need to keep looking.)
5. Your agent’s attitude is everything. If your agent is down about the market and the possibilities of selling your home, what do you think is going to happen? (If they’re not smiling, then you need to keep looking.)

The key is that you are supposed to be hiring a professional to represent your best interests. You don’t want someone telling you what you want to hear or what sounds nice. The market is not nice right now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t agents who can help you make the most of your situation. You may just need to talk to more of them to find the right one.