1.28.2013

Interviewing A Real Estate Broker Made Easy

When you choose someone to represent you in selling your home, the deeper you dig, the better feel you'll get for who's the right choice. Here are five points to make it easier.


1)   If a prospective agent says, ‘I did XXX million in sales in 2012 and have been in the Chancellor’s Club 7 years in a row,’ move on.  Look, I’m an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church (really, I am) but I don’t think you want me conducting your wedding. Designations mean little. Is this process about their awards or about the sale of your home? What’s your sense of how they’ll treat you?  How innovative are they? What are they doing differently?

2)   If an agent tells you….‘I’m the neighborhood specialist,’  their vision is VERY narrow and not totally honest. One agent virtually never has a majority of all of the sales in one neighborhood. What kind of sense does this person give you about who your competition is?  What do they say about other neighborhoods that are also direct comps to your home?  How will they market your home against those neighborhoods? ‘Neighborhood specialist’ usually means they don’t see the bigger picture.

3)   Ask the agent if they use a professional photographer. If they try and give you some nonsense about how great their camera is and how they really have a ‘bug’ for photography, dismiss them immediately.  Pictures are the single most important element of your marketing campaign. An agent who insists on taking their own pictures is doing it on the cheap. Non professional photographers simply don’t have the best equipment. Do you really want ‘on the cheap?’

4)   Ask the agent approximately how long it takes to get their pictures in the MLS/BLC after your listing is entered. If the answer is ‘usually within 24 hours,’ show them the door.  Thousands of web listing sites get their information from Realtor.com and your local MLS very quickly after a listing gets entered. Here’s a little secret most agents don’t know about that. Many of these sites make one pass of Realtor.com to gather new listing information and never come back. If your pictures aren’t uploaded immediately, some sites will never have them. Ever looked at a listing with no pictures?  I didn’t think so. They MUST go in within an hour of MLS/BLC entry. NO EXCEPTIONS or it can cost you money!

5)   ‘My team will be updating you as we move through the process.’  Let me translate this for you. They’re really telling you you’re not going to hear from that agent again until it’s time to get paid. You need to know that when things happen, THE AGENT will be calling or emailing you. THEY will be analyzing the market data. THEY will be sharing news about your home’s sale with you directly, good or bad. This is a transaction worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do you want to go through this just speaking to an assistant? greg cooper, top selling carmel indiana realtor agent broker, east carmel indiana homes for sale, east carmel indiana neighbhrooods 46033