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7 Essential questions to ask when the real estate agent at the appraisal interview.
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Do you have any extra fees if my property doesn't sell ? You have to also be prepared if the sale does not go as planned. |
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If this happens and you decide not to sell at a latter date or you decide to change agents, protect your self by finding out if there are any charges from the agent if the property has not sold.
A lot of agents have advertising and marketing charges which are on top of selling commissions and these are chargeable regardless of whether the property is sold or not
Be aware if this is the case with your agent, look at as a form of risk management, used to protect yourself against any undisclosed potential financial loss.
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How many properties have you sold in my suburb ? Enthusiasm is probably more important in sales than experience. But you also want to employ a real estate agent who has reasonable track record in your neighborhood. Providing they can report that they have been active with a couple of recently negotiated sales in your suburb, is probably sufficient. This may even give you a opportunity to speak to one or two of their past clients, which is a great way to get a true insight into the agents ability. You can do this if you know which properties that they have sold. |
Real
estate appraisal Question 3.
What is the average time the agency takes to sell a property ?
This is the type of information any decent real estate agent will probably offer to you anyway, but if they don't tell you ask the question, and make a note of the answer. Follow the question up with "Why does it take that long ?" this is a little bit more probing and the type of question you want to fire at the agent, remembering this is probably more than a $10,000 fee you are going to be paying, you want to know your agent has all the answers particularly when they are dealing with potential buyers for your property.
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Are your selling commissions negotiable ? Now we are talking their language. I would be probably more impressed if the agent answered that they don't negotiate on their fee on initial questioning because what you are really looking for in a good real estate agent is someone who knows how to negotiate. If the agent is prepared to quickly drop their own pay/fee just because you asked it is a fair guess that they will probably also quickly drop your selling price when asked by potential buyers. Most agents will probably offer you some type other type of incentive to get the business of selling your property so definitely ask the question the answer you get and how it is handled will give you a terrific insight into what type of negotiator your potential agent is. |
If you can't get a reduction in selling fees perhaps they can offer some other type off incentive to make it more attractive for you to sell with them, particularly if they are confident of selling your property, ask them to pay for the advertising or marketing, there are still plenty of no sale no charge real estate agents which at the end of the day is a fair system.
Real
estate appraisal Question 5.
How long is the listing agreement for ?
This too should be negotiable, most agents will want a listing agreement for between 2 - 3 months, I would advise any potential sellers not to list for any longer than this and to be fair a good agent will be investing a lot of time and effort into selling your property and this amount of time is a reasonable time bracket for them to work in, but definitely do not list for any longer than 3 months.
Some agents will insist to you that they have a buyer for your property and will only need to list it for one or two weeks to sell it, be very skeptical of this type of approach as it could do damage to the value of your property if you list with one agent for a couple of weeks and then change to another agent.
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As an agent do you recommend auction or private treaty sales ? A good real of thumb for suitable auction properties are properties that are unique and hard to accurately assess for market value. Perhaps also properties that there will be extremely high demand for and you are almost guaranteed there will be more than one party who would be interested in bidding for, may be suitable for auction. Having said that in most cases an auction increases the margin for error, and it puts an extra amount of pressure and stress on everybody who is to be involved in the transaction. An auction will bring the marketing and advertising to an end day and will possibly deliver a result because of this deadline, but this is also what puts the pressure on the potential buyers, you the seller, and the agent and their agency. |
I personally prefer to avoid pressure and stress where I can, I find I make better decisions when I am relaxed.
How do you operate ? If auctions are popular in your area it may make it more attractive for you but I recommend you consider seriously if an auction campaign is right for you.
Real
estate appraisal Question 7.
Will the agent let you rate them on service on our web sites ?
This will test most agents, and if they agree to this it shows they are really committed to customer service.
What you are saying after the sale is done and the commissions are paid is a true indication of how the agent performed!
This puts the power back in your hand and is designed to encourage the agent to deliver good service all the way through the sale transaction.
Hopefully ensure that the rating you put on our web site for the agent be positive and a glowing endorsement for the agent that will bring them more business.
If your real estate agent does not want to participate in this system be careful because there will only be one or two reasons why a real estate agent would not want to participate in this system:
1. They don’t want their service levels monitored by their own customers!
Research here to see if any of your local agents have been rated, in your area..
Interviewing real estate agents other things to consider.
If possible have all property owners present when the real estate agent makes their presentation, this saves mixed messages being passed from one property owner to another about what the agent did or didn't say.
It also can give you some extra confidence to ask the agent the hard questions if you have some strength in numbers , remember the real estate agents are trained sale professionals and a large percentage of their training is taken up learning how to list property for sale.
Be prepared to ask the hard questions, don't be misled by the some large price some agents may mention just to get you to list with them.
Focus on the person and find a sales agent who you feel you can trust, one who offers a sensible marketing campaign and who gives you some sort of written guarantee that if the sale is not progressing as you had expected within a reasonable amount of time you can be released from the listing agreement.
Do your research before listing your property for sale it may save you from some heart ache down the line if the property takes longer to sell than you first imagined.
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