Enthusiastic

• – Eager and able to generate excitement.

Professional

• – Presentable and instills confidence.
• – Associated with a “known” firm.
• – Well prepared.
• – Realistic as to price and timing based on the evidence presented.
• – Sensitive to your unique needs.

Market Savvy

• – Prepares a comparative market analysis (“CMA”) and suggests an asking price for your home.
• – Justifies the price with recent sales comparables (“comps”) in the area.
• – Knows current market conditions. For example, what’s selling and what’s not selling, and the average time a house stays on the market before it’s sold.

A Strategic Planner

• – Presents a preliminary marketing plan and shares some ideas of how to best prepare the house for sale.
• – Follows up with a more detailed plan, including the type and frequency of advertising and marketing.

An Expert at Preparing a House for Sale

• – Makes good, common sense recommendations..
• – Gives advice that’s neither too aggressive nor too passive.
• – Explain all the steps of getting your house ready for sale.

Ethical

• – Explains the laws of agency; the legal duties of sellers’ and buyers’ agents.
• – Doesn’t pressure you to sign a listing agreement on the spot.

Personable

• – Creates a comfort level for you and your spouse.

What questions should I ask in selecting the right real estate agent?

Here are 12 questions to ask (reprinted from the Realtor Magazine with permission of the National Association of Realtors) when choosing your Realtor:

Make sure you choose a REALTOR® who will provide top-notch service and meet your unique needs.

• How long have you been in residential real estate sales? Is it your full-time job? While experience is no guarantee of skill, real estate – like many other professions – is mostly learned on the job.
• What designations do you hold? Designations such as GRI and CRS®, which require that agents take additional, specialized real estate training, are held only by about one-quarter of real estate practitioners.
• How many homes did you and your real estate brokerage sell last year? By asking this question, you’ll get a good idea of how much experience the practitioner has.
• How many days did it take you to sell the average home? How did that compare to the overall market? The REALTOR® you interview should have these facts on hand, and be able to present market statistics from the local MLS to provide a comparison.
• How close to the initial asking prices of the homes you sold were the final sale prices? This is one indication of how skilled the REALTOR® is at pricing homes and marketing to suitable buyers. Of course, other factors also may be at play, including an exceptionally hot or cool real estate market.
• What types of specific marketing systems and approaches will you use to sell my home? You don’t want someone who’s going to put a For Sale sign in the yard and hope for the best. Look for someone who has aggressive and innovative approaches, and knows how to market your property competitively on the Internet. Buyers today want information fast, so it’s important that your REALTOR® is responsive.
• Will you represent me exclusively, or will you represent both the buyer and the seller in the transaction? While it’s usually legal to represent both parties in a transaction, it’s important to understand where the practitioner’s obligations lie. Your REALTOR® should explain his or her agency relationship to you and describe the rights of each party.
• Can you recommend service providers who can help me obtain a mortgage, make home repairs, and help with other things I need done? Because REALTORS®. are immersed in the industry, they’re wonderful resources as you seek lenders, home improvement companies and other home service providers. Practitioners should generally recommend more than one provider and let you know if they have any special relationship with or receive compensation from any of the providers.
• What type of support and supervision does your brokerage office provide to you? Having resources such as in-house support staff, access to a real estate attorney, and assistance with technology can help an agent sell your home.
• What’s your business philosophy? While there’s no right answer to this question, the response will help you assess what’s important to the agent and determine how closely the agent’s goals and business emphasis mesh with your own.
• How will you keep me informed about the progress of my transaction? How frequently? Again, this is not a question with a single correct answer, but how you judge the response will reflect your own desires. Do you want updates twice a week or do you prefer not to be bothered unless there’s a hot prospect? Do you prefer phone, e-mail, or a personal visit?
• Could you please give me the names and phone numbers of your three most recent clients? Ask recent clients if they would work with this REALTOR® again. Find out whether they were pleased with the communication style, follow-up, and work ethic of the REALTOR®.

• How long it will take to sell my house?
  Condition of your property, desirability of your neighborhood, seller’s motivation, pricing, average days on the market, whether it is a sellers’ versus buyers’ market, your competition, etc. are some of the key factors that determine how fast you’ll be able to sell your house. We will give you a detailed answer to this question during our initial consultation meeting.
• What will my house sell for?
  Again, the list of factors in the answer to the previous question will play a major role in answering this one. During our initial consultation meeting, we will provide you with a price range. Then we will look at your competition and discuss the list price before actually putting your house on the market. We will give you our recommendation, but it will ultimately be your decision. Generally, clients who follow our preparation, pricing and marketing strategy when selling their house have received offers very close to the list price.
• What do I need to do to prepare my house for sale?
  Typically, preparing your house for sale involves inspections and repairs, as well as cleaning, upgrading, staging, etc. We will guide you through all these steps and what needs to be done to get your house ready for sale. We will provide more detailed explanations of these steps during our initial consultation meeting.
• I would like to sell my house, but I don’t think the sales price will cover my loan! What do I do?
  Call us for a confidential consultation. We will review your house and situation, and discuss potential options with you, which may include a straight forward sale, a short sale, or not selling your house at the current time.

  A short sale is when the proceeds from the sale of a house fall short of the balance owed on the property’s loan. It often occurs when a borrower cannot pay the mortgage loan on his home, but the lender decides that selling the property at a moderate loss is better than pressing the current debtor to pay up. Both parties consent to the short sale process because it allows them to avoid foreclosure, which involves hefty fees for the bank and a diminished credit report for the borrower. We know how to handle short sales. Call us for a confidential meeting.