I am going to sell my house. I want to interview several realtors to determine which one will be best for me. While I have a few thoughts about what I am looking for, I want some more ideas. What are good questions to ask the candidates? What is important? What should I be looking for. Thanks for your input.
Head to your bookstore and check out House Selling for Dummies (Authors: Brown & Tyson, I think). It has a list of questions you should ask your agent before hiring him/her.
Off the top of my (non-real estate expert) head, I would make sure that:
(1) the agent is license and reputable,
(2) has a very good knowledge of my neighborhood – I’d ask him/her for a list of the last homes he/she has sold and the prices and how long the house was on the market,
(3) what the commission rate is for the sale (this is always negotiable),
(4) how they handle “open house”
(5) do they work with another agent (splitting fee) or alone),
(6) if they have a buyer interested in your property and what would happen with the commission
(7) what costs are foreseeable (inspections, reports, escrow etc.) – when I bought my house, I got an estimated breakdown of various “misc” costs and I don’t see why a seller’s agent can’t provide the same thing. (FWIW, I used the * Home Buying for Dummies* and wish I had the book before selecting my agent.)
(8) will s/he take you through the whole escrow process until key turnover time and what escrow/title company will handle the transaction
Call your local Realtor board & ask them 
Do not get just a real estate agent. Get a Realtor. They aren’t the same. Although, all Realtors have a real estate agent, not all agents are Realtors.
Watch out for part timers. Many brokers are just looking for something to get them out of the house a few days a week and only sell a few houses a year.
Ask a broker how many houses they sell. Also, they should know how much total business per year they do as a dollar amount. 5 million, 2 million, none, etc.
Do you know anyone who has worked with a good broker? Getting a referral would be a good way to get started rather than going into or calling an office and randomly getting whoever was on floor duty that day.
My suggestion is to not use a realtor. For around $1500 you can do it all yourself and probably half that if you really know what you are doing.
Around here there is something called “homes by owner” which claims to have an average sale cost of around $900 for people selling on their own. I’d see if you have something similar locally.
About the only thing a real estate agent can do that you can’t (as far as I know) is make your house available on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). If you advertise right, this won’t hinder you at all.
In Oregon real estate commissions are fixed at 6% and isn’t negotiable. Wherever you are will undoubtedly vary. But I would guess you are paying at least several thousand per $100,000 value of your home. Think of how much advertising you can do for that money, and selling the house is all about advertising.
I’ve known 3 people to sell houses in the last year who did it themselves. In all three cases they had full offers on the house inside of a month for a fraction of the cost of a realtor. I know, it’s anecdotal, but perhaps it is a clue to something.
Bear in mind, if you do decide to sell on your own you can tell all the local realtors about your place, and they will likely show it to prospective buyers.
I strongly agree with lint lubber. Mrs. Giraffe and I have been casually going to open houses in our neighborhood (we’re not in the market, but hope to be in a year or two), and as a potential customer, there’s nothing that makes me leave a house faster than a realtor who won’t leave us alone to look at the damn house. It’s not a friggin’ car stereo – you’re not going to pressure into buying your house just by talking at us.
Also, make sure whoever you go with is friendly and outgoing – once I do start talking to someone, if they seem genuinely interested in chatting with me about the neighborhood and answering questions, it’s a big plus. Some realtors are obviously bored and just want you to either write them a check or shut up and go away. (Which is good for us, since we mostly just want to look at houses, but will be bad for them when we’re ready to buy.)
Make sure the realtor sells houses in the price range you plan on selling your house.
A few years ago I tried to sell my house. I picked a realtor that seemed like he would do a good job. He was a very nice guy and seemed honest. The only problem, he was used to selling $500k and up houses. My house was priced at $136k. At the end of the day he wouldn’t have made very much money off it, so he didn’t work very hard to sell it. In all, he showed my house once in six months. I had even found that client and sent her to him.
That said, it was on the MLS system so a few other realtors showed it.
I currently still own the house and have renters in it. My contract with him is over and will NEVER be renewed.
If the house does go on the market, I think I do a “for sale by owner”
Check out the tax assessed value of your house and what similar houses have sold for lately. DON’T go with a realtor who seems to price your house too high. That’s called “buying a listing,” and you’ll end up having to lower the price.
I don’t know where you’re located, but in New Jersey brokers have to co-broke with each other. So anyone can sell any house listed with any realtor.
While normal commissions are in the range of 6% or so for mid priced houses there is no such thing as a “fixed”, non-negotiable real estate commission agreement among brokers. This would be some variant of price fixing and would be highly illegal. Having said that, it may be the commission norm in your area (as it is in most of the US), and agents may not want to spend their time on a commission discounted listing as the risk/reward ratio is not particularly attractive, but it is not “fixed” in any sense except by what the individual broker decides what commission ranges he/she will allow their agents to accept listings within.
With respect to choosing an agent the main issues are choosing some one who:
1: You get along with and have a clarity of understanding about the sales process for your house. Someone who is too busy to explain things in depth is more than likely too busy to service your listing properly. Having said that, make sure they are a full time professional agent and not a part timer.
2: An agent that does a high voume of sales within the price range your house sells within. This is not necessarily the very tip top earner, but is often an agent in the upper tier of earnings as the tip top earners tend to sell fairly expensive houses, and may not have a good pipeline of prospects that would be suitable “fits” for your listing.
3: With respect to personalities slighty pushy or laid back can be both be excellent agents if they know how to handle themselves intelligently with clients. All things considered I would personally prefer to have a more (intelligently) aggressive vs less aggressive agent as I have seen vastly more sales lost by back “clerking” tour guide agents vs agents that want to put the deal together. But going too far in either passive/aggressive direction is not going to be successful either. Go with your gut and comfort level with their personality on this.
Astro- Commercial real estate agent, Realtor, and CCIM.
Sorry for the hijack, but the main thrust of the thread seems to have died…
astro - Do you know for a fact Oregon doesn’t have a fixed 6% rate? Your location says MD, but your credentials would seem to indicate you know a lot more I do about this.
Here is a link which seems to suggest Real Estate agents in Oregon cannot share any part of the commission with anyone who is not a licensed agent (section 696.290).
Also, the last several times I went looking for a house I was told by multiple agents the rate was fixed at 6%. Multiple agents in mutliple cities said the same thing: “6% in Oregon”.
As a final piece I found this from RealEstategopher.com:
**
No state or group of brokers can “fix” a real estate commission rate. To attempt to do so is illegal. To the best of my knowledge this rule/law is nationwide.
This is true. Agents in most states (don’t know if rule is nationwide) are not allowed to split their fees or other wise pay “bird dog” fees to unlicensed people.
In practical terms if 90% + of the agents in Oregon are utilizing 6% commission rates in marketing their properties saying “It’s 6% in Oregon” may be a correct statement of facts on the ground in buying/selling houses in that area vs a legal ruling.
You are being lied to if they say “It’s an Oregon State rule” . They are telling the truth if they say “I” or “My real estate agency/broker” will not work for less than a 6% commission, but that’s a business decision they can make depending on the market and what they feel their time is worth. I have taken commissions on multi-million dollar commerical buildings for 5% and refused small business listings that were less than 10%, because of the time and complexity involved in listing and marketing these properties vs the projected return. Most of my listings are in the 6-10 % range with the large majority being 6-8%. I would guestimate that 90% + of most residential listings in our office are in the 6-7% range.
asro -
Thanks for the reply and feedback. I’ll check around a bit more and see if I can find out for certain one way or another, mostly because now I’m just curious. I might call a real estate lawyer tomorrow just to see what they say.
For some reason, I’d be stunned if the federal gov’t made it illegal for a state to fix real estate commission rates. This just doesn’t seem like a federal matter… but then again, I’ve been stunned many times in my life.
I’ll add this to my ever growing list.
Thanks.