What are the 3 most important criteria in selecting a seller's RE agent?

February 12, 2013 8:11 PM

If you were looking for a real estate agent to list your house for sale, what would be the three most important things you would look for in that agent? For example, one list might be: 1. experience selling houses in your price range. 2. Promised amount of feedback from potential buyers who view your house. 3. Commission rate.

I am a home owner researching hiring an agent to market my house.

posted by JohnnyGunn to home & garden (12 answers total)

1 sounds right--with the caveat that knowing the right price range for your house is the essential question. The agent should be able to give you the key feedback you need--they should be able to anticipate the market. So, feedback from potential buyers/lookyloos would not be high on my list. All agents essentially get 7% with some haircuts on high value properties, so don't go bargain shopping.

I'd want to know how facile the agent is with the internet. Is their plan for my house just listing in the real estate classifieds, or are they savvy enough to build out a website for the house, tweet about it, etc.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:21 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

I would agree with number 1...but, once you pick the person that you are going to use....commissions usually CAN be negotiated down a bit....both from the agents side and their agency....Always make this a part of the deal.
posted by pearlybob at 8:46 PM on February 12

I've bought and sold several times and have been lucky to have brilliant agents. (Really - just sold a house for a 100% cash offer, over list price in under a week.)

1 - A good agent should have a strategy for how use online. People only buy a house when they go to see it - no one buys from the website. If you're getting tons of web hits, but not a lot of foot traffic the website is a problem. The site can be beautiful, but it's more important to get your house effectively shown in the aggregator sites.

2 - Merciless feedback about your home. A good Realtor goes through your house and tells you what to move to storage, what to paint, what to fix, what to plant. The Realtor should also have a list of repair people that she's screened and will give you a good price/quick turnaround on repairs. You want to sell? Get your house looking move in ready.

3 - Low days to close at market price per square foot. Someone who can close quickly is gold. The agents I've used have continued to work as Realtors whether the market was up or down. Knowing how to sell in down market is the mark of someone who's going to get your house sold.
posted by 26.2 at 8:51 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

Look at their current listings. Do they have good photos? Are they well-written? Are they publicized on the sites people in your area use to house hunt? Commission would be just about the last thing I'd be concerned about. Perhaps followed only by the amount of feedback from viewings. Almost no one will give honest/useful feedback anyway. If you obssess over that, you're wasting your time IMHO.
posted by primethyme at 8:51 PM on February 12

1. How many sides they've done in the past year.
2. How does the DOM for their last ten listings compare with the average for your area? What about the list to sale price ratio?
3. What is their marketing plan, and does it seem to have been written in this century? Do they give you a clear sense that they know your specific market?
4. Do you feel like you can trust them? Do they get back to you on time and by your preferred method of communicating?

1. Real estate is a very 80-20 business --- 20 percent of the agents do 80 percent of the business. If you're listing your home, you want to make sure your agent is in the 20 percent. You can take it too far --- there are some super-agents out there who have so many assistants they're basically firms unto themselves, and there's no guarantee with one of those that your home will get sufficient attention. But overall you'll be a lot better off with someone who's handled 10 listings in the past six months than you will be with someone who's handled ten listings in the past six years. You want someone who knows enough people and is involved in enough recent transactions to have a sense of where your local market is and where it's going.

2. That's why I'd look at days on market (DOM) and list to sale price ratio as well. If houses are selling in two months on average in your area, and all Agent X's listings are taking six, that suggest that either they're putting the houses on for too high a price and not getting any bidders or their marketing plan is shitty and no one's coming to see the house. Likewise, if the average house is taking two months to sell and all their listing are selling in two weeks, that suggests either a) they are the most awesome agent ever or b) they're lowballing the listing price in order to get a quicker sale. That's why its important to look at the list price vs. the sale price for the house --- if they're consistently listing for way higher than what they sell for, that suggests an inexperienced agent who's "buying the listing" by butterring up the owner and suggesting they can sell the place for way more than it's worth.

Regarding (3), it's helpful to have someone who knows what's necessary for your area and your price point --- you're selling a high-end home, you'll need professional photography and quite likely someone to stage it. You're selling a starter home to a young family, not so much --- but you may want someone then who has more of a social media presence. Etc. Either way, you want someone who has more of a plan that "throw it up on the MLS and pray" and can explain to you what they want to do and what they hope to accomplish with it.

4. I know you said three things, but I'd say this is actually probably most important. Everyone selling a home is guaranteed to have at least a few freak-outs over something, and you'll want someone who you can rely on. And someone that whose judgement you trust enough so that you'll listen even if they're saying things you don't particularly want to hear, like "I think we need to cut the price" or "you might want to get rid of the living room carpet, it's a turn off for buyers." If your agent is flaky and you don't have the rapport you need to have those kinds of discussions, it's headaches all round.

Necessary caveat: It's true what they say about it all being local. Right now where I'm at the market is hot and inventory is thin, and any fool could sell any house, and probably get multiple bids, too. In other places things are still slow, and having a skillful agents who really knows how to market a property in your specific neighborhood can make a lot of difference. Unfortunately, it's in the latter case and not the former where you'll have your best shot at making them take a bit off the commission. Good luck.
posted by Diablevert at 9:04 PM on February 12

Interview three agents, preferably that have been recommended. You can also visit open houses in your area to see how agents perform on the job. You can also contact local offices and get recommendations from the manager. Don't get recommendations from the person answering the phone.

During the interview, ask what their marketing strategy will be for your home. Look on MLS/trulia/zillow/realtor.com to see what they have posted for previous homes they were selling. I've seen agents put up one blurry picture taken with what looks like an old cell phone. How descriptive is the text, is it cursory, i.e. 2 bedroom Mayberry home, or is the sales text engaging, i.e. charming mid-century Mayberry 2 bedroom home on cul-de-sac street, with fireplace, roomy walk-in pantry, located near biking/hiking trails. They should explain how many open houses they'll do and discuss private showings with you. What's the quality of the flyers they'll provide. How tech savvy are they?

Different markets have different customs. Is the first broker open house going to offer snacks to generate visits? Does the area do evening open houses? What recommendations do they make for preparing the home for sell - staging, purging, painting, cleaning, etc? You may have a lovely home that you think is well decorated but almost everybody's house has stuff that should be boxed up and put into storage while the home is on the market.

How easy is the realtor to get in touch with? You don't want someone that takes a couple of days to get back to you. Do you have a good rapport with them?
posted by shoesietart at 9:30 PM on February 12

Look for an agent who is familiar with your area. S/he will be better at recommending a realistic price range, and s/he may have clients looking for your neighborhood.
Do you have any new neighbors? Ask for the name of their agent if they think they were well represented.
posted by Cranberry at 11:59 PM on February 12

Having learned the hard way, I'd say its like real estate itself - location, location, location. Most agents will take a listing anywhere, but you want one who is all over the local area within just a few miles of your property and is involved in that community.

Ask around your area, and I mean close by. Drive around and see who's got multiple signs in yards, preferably for similar properties. A few names will emerge out of the clutter - interview them.

My reasoning here is that the agent who's got the listings in your area will already be bringing in the prospects who want to live in your area. The bait is their group of listings, not just the one listing. Otherwise, the realtor is just passively waiting (like mine was) for hits in their line.
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:30 AM on February 13

And along those lines, find the chamber of commerce directory (usually online these days) and start there for your long list.
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:34 AM on February 13

Thank you very much for all the input so far. I have met with three agents and their managers. All three brought a team of 4 or 5 brokers through the house before they gave me a price point at which they would recommend listing it. All three agents (and their agencies) are as local as local gets. All three of them I know to varying degrees from living in town for 18 years. So far, two of the three have been very responsive and willing to communicate in person, by phone or by email. Narrowing it down to those two, both work with very professional firms that have established protocols for listings including web page design, professional photography, Facebook pages, etc. One is more experienced than the other by a not so immaterial amount in terms of years in the business. Both have offered similar suggestions on preparing the house for sale although one is more adamant about some of the items than the other.

I am a numbers type of person. I have not looked at their listings from a DOM standpoint nor have I looked at the sales as a percentage of list price. I will check both. In shear volume, the more experienced one has a higher total value sold over the last 5 years although I need to see if that is total sold on both buy and sell side or if it is listing side only.

To be honest, I am not so worried about the commission. There is a pretty consistent number in this town that is what it is. One would probably give me a small discount from their side so that the buyers broker would still be seeing half of the standard rate and the other has shown a willingness to either cover a few expenses of preparing the house or stepping in at the end to close the deal.

The big difference between the two besides experience (and to be clear, the difference is like comparing a player late in their career with a long track record of producing and winning and a player about 4 or 5 years in who has a very good track record, albeit it shorter) at this point is what price they suggest I list it. The third broker who is out of the picture suggested the middle ground price, a price closest to what I would have guessed based on my own tracking of the market. The young gun was the highest and the long-time producer was the lowest. I know I can list it at whatever price I want (within reason) and they will go along with it. I have seen comps that appear to me to be valid for either price.

I am trying to differentiate between the two. Like everything else, I wish it were a clear cut, black or white, type decision. In the absence of a clear differentiation, I will just have to go with my gut.

I picked those three items simply as an example although #1 was my number one. The other two were things I was considering, but just put out there hoping to generate responses of either you're right, or you're wrong here is what I would look at.

Any and all responses suggestions welcome.

Thank you.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:31 AM on February 13

I will add, in re numbers --- I mentioned 'em, and I like 'em, precisely because they are quantifiable. But bear in mind that you're inevitably looking at a small sample size --- even a good agent can get saddled with a stubborn seller who insists on putting the house up for too high a price, and in the past few years price cuts have not been uncommon, particularly with high end listings.

I just mention it to say that I think breaking it down into numbers is very useful, but don't let one weird listing put you off an agent you otherwise respect.
posted by Diablevert at 9:49 AM on February 13

1. Someone who knows the neighborhood, and has represented sellers in this neighborhood.

2. Someone who is well-versed in this style of house. Many of our light switches are 1930s-style buttons. I wouldn't want a realtor who stares at them, Easter Island-style.

3. A realtor who is realistic about what the house can sell for. We don't have a dishwasher. That's not a big deal to us, but some potential buyers would just pitch a pissy-fit over such a trivial thing. The smart realtor screens such entitled types out and encourages cool buyers who dig Craftsman-style.
posted by BostonTerrier at 3:24 PM on February 13