How Do You Know if your Real Estate Agent is Doing a Good Job?

Many home sellers hire a real estate agent either from a referral from a friend or relative or from a piece of the real estate agent’s advertising. Once the seller interviews the agent, many times he or she is hired on the spot. After hiring, how do you know if your home is getting the exposure that it deserves or know if your agent is doing a good job on your home sale? Many times this is hard to determine, especially when you have many other concerns and other items to worry about, i.e., work, imminent move, and other normal things. There’s little time to think about your real estate agent and the job he or she is doing for you.

Here are a few tips to help you know exactly what type of job and representation you are getting from your agent or brokerage company.

How often does your agent update you regarding market conditions and your home sale? A good rule of thumb should be at least once every two weeks and preferably once a week. He or she should call you with a detailed update on the number of showings, sign calls, and other measurable data to see how the marketplace is responding to your home. I would also recommend that agents complete at least one open house during the first 30 days your house is on the market. Many times, this will help get neighbors and others who live close by to see the property, which in turn sometimes makes a sale because they may pass the word along to relatives or friends regarding what they saw at the open house down the street. As a seller, you should also try to ask all questions about the transaction as you think of them so that your concerns can be taken care of ASAP. This will also help you to determine how much knowledge your agent truly has.

Agents who seem to be exceptionally knowledgeable about every aspect of your sale should also be given more room to operate then someone who never really has an answer to your questions quickly. I say this because many times, as a seller, you will have questions about the transaction process as it evolves. An agent who does not give you answers right away or who gives you dubious answers should be watched very closely. There’s nothing worse then an agent who does not gain your confidence that the right things are being taken care of correctly for your transaction.

A real estate agent, as everyone knows, is typically well paid to obtain a buyer and handle the transaction of your home sale. For most locations, the sale is for hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. The reason agents are so well paid is simple. They are in charge of large sums of money, and only when they get a property closed do they get paid for their services. Having said this, I would only consider a real estate agent or brokerage that was going to market and advertise my property in several areas. For me, as an agent, I know every marketplace is different and what works for a single family home here in Tucson, Arizona, may not work for a large farm property in the center of Ohio. But the general advertising that works for most properties, i.e., Internet advertising, newspaper, and home magazines should all be considered by the real estate agent you employ. I employ a very sophisticated and complete Internet marketing portfolio for my sellers. It works for them because in this part of the country, many people move here from other states and the Internet is the best way to expose the property to those buyers who would not know of the home any other way. I would suggest that regardless of which advertising avenue your agent wants to use, the advertising follow a complete and solid plan to give your home exceptional exposure. If they say they are going to run newspaper ads, make sure you get the run dates. Buy a paper that day and look up the ad yourself to see what it looks like. A sloppily written ad or an ad with a poor picture of your home should set off alarms that your agent may not be doing a good enough job representing your home and your interests. This is extremely important. Don’t think that because your agent works for the largest brokerage around or has been in the business for 20 years means that they do a good job. I cannot tell you how many agents out there do the absolute minimum for their sellers and nothing more, and only you, the client, suffer.

Hopefully these quick tips help you to select a highly competent real estate agent to represent your home. When people have negative experiences with real estate professionals, they often conclude that real estate agents, in general, are horrible and that they themselves could do a better job of selling their home. The truth, however, is that they happened to hire the wrong agent to represent them. It’s a fact that the top 10% of real estate agents complete 90% of the real estate sales in the local marketplace. Do yourself a favor when hiring an agent and get a top producer who knows how, and has the track record to get your home sold and get you top dollar. If you need help selecting an agent, I have an extensive number of contacts across the nation and will have no problem recommending one for you. Just send me an email and give me some details about your home. Also, if you live in the Tucson or Phoenix, Arizona, or surrounding areas, please consider my team in your choice of representation to get your home sold.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 1:32 am and is filed under Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.