Moving & storage are not the only tips “Simplify Your Home” is here to help you with when preparing for your move. Choosing a real estate agent is one of the most important decisions you can make when buying and selling your home. Here are some questions to ensure you are choosing the right one.
Choosing a Real Estate Agent
- How long have you been working in residential real estate? Do you do this work full-time? Like any other career, experience in real estate is learned on the job. Knowing they work full-time in real estate ensures that they have more time to spend on you.
- What are your credentials? Your agent should be licensed by the state meeting the minimum levels of education, training and testing. Ideally, you would like to get an agent with designations from the Graduate Realtors Institute and Certified Residential Specialists.
- Ask about their success rates. This means how many homes they sold and found for buyers in the last year. Find out how long it took to sell these homes and how that compared to the overall market. Information like this will help you understand the agent’s track record of marketing homes.
- Ask how close to the initial asking prices of homes they sold were to the final sales prices. If there are any large discrepancies, ask for the reasons behind them.
- Ask what their marketing strategy is when selling a home. Look for innovative approaches.
- Check to see if they are able to provide recommendations for other services such as mortgage brokers, repairs, etc.
- Check to see if they can provide you 3 quality references.
- Follow these rules and you are sure to team up with an agent that is able to sell your home for the right price and help you find the home of your dreams.
