Selecting the right agent to sell your property can be difficult. Sure everyone looks great on paper, They have have sold bazillions of dollars of real estate, are local experts and have thousands of buyers wanting to buy your property. But how can you cut through all the blah and research to make sure you pick the right person to work for you?
In fact earlier this month I had my team do just that just to see how we stacked up. Off they went to attend as many open houses as they could. I wanted to find out for myself if everyone was doing things properly. Let's just say the results were surprising.
Ask any agent, an open house time is SHOWTIME! This is where we should be at our very best. Everything should be just right, no mistakes.
Here are some of the questions I think anyone looking at selling real estate should ask of any agent they are considering employing to sell there property.
Will the agent take contact details of prospective buyers who inspect your property?
My research says 30% don't even bother to get a name and phone number of people who inspect a property. They have absolutely no chance of following up an interested buyer now or in the future
Is the agent enthusiastic about selling the property or do they look like they couldn't care less and standing around at a property is wasting there time?
It's showtime! If your agent can't get excited about a possible sale how can they possibly get a buyer interested.
Can the agent answer questions about the property? (or get the answers quickly for you)
OK so you can't know every intimate detail of every property, but we are supposed to be the experts. If an agent doesn't know the answer can they find out?
Will the agent ask people if they would like to buy your property?
Astonishing! 70% of agents don't even ask if the prospective buyer has any interest in the property. Back to Selling 101, a buyer just isn't going to make it that easy for you.
Is your property well represented by the marketing material the agent produces?
The average selling price for a property in this area is close to $500,000 some many times that amount. Is a black and white photocopy of something from the internet a good enough representation of what you are trying to sell for a premium price? I don't think so. I don't know about you but if I was ever in the market for a $500,000 car I would expect the marketing to be absolutely spot on, I hope the Ferrari dealer never hands me a print out off his website and says here is the info, I want to be dazzled. Why should the sale of your home (which probably costs more than a Ferrari!) be any different?
Will the agent do any follow up work with buyers to make sure I have the best chance of selling my property?
Surely if you go to the trouble of advertising a property, get it ready to show people and print the brochures it's worth at least one phone call to follow up anybody who actually comes to inspect. Right? Again my research says 50% of agents never even bother to check in with prospective buyers after they inspect the property.
Thinking of selling? I would love you to put my team to the test. Call in to any of our open houses, I am confident you will get a YES on every one of these questions.