Not all Realtors are the same. In fact, neither are all doctors, lawyers or accountants. In every instance, there are professionals who do a better job, take better care of their clients and provide better value for their services...
This holds especially true when selling your home. You may not have known it, but hiring the wrong Realtor could cost you as much as 5% to 7% of the value of your home. That's at least $5,000 for every $100,000 of value!
What's worse, is that if you try to sell your home yourself, national statistics say that you may give away as much as 18% of your equity. But you don't have to give up a dime of value in their home if you simply hire the right Realtor for the job.
How do you choose the right Realtor? We suggest you ask these 10 questions to every Realtor you interview:
- What experience do you bring to the table? Typically, busy agents are the best agents, because they understand market dynamics better, have systems organization, procedures and allied resources in place. We suggest you hire someone who is closing on at least one home per month on average.
- Do you work on your own, or as part of a team? We recommend a Realtor who has a staff of full-time specialists to handle every aspect of selling your home and servicing your needs. Solo agents have to juggle responsibilities and eventually something important may fall through the cracks. If working as a team, ask about the responsibilities of each team member.
- What systems do you have to manage a listing? A professional listing agent has processes, procedures and systems in place so that the countless variables that need to be managed professionally for your home to sell without a hitch are known and controlled. eliminating the risk of improvisation.
- How much do you invest in Marketing & Advertising? True listing professionals re-invest a significant percentage of their revenue in advertising and promotion of their listings, to drive up the demand and get their clients top dollar.
- How do you communicate with your clients? One of the main reasons why some homeowners are dissatisfied with their Realtors is the lack of consistent and clear communication.
- Do you provide staging advice? Professional listing agents have a staging advisor as part of their resource team.
- Do you take professional pictures? Since professional pictures are expensive, some agents decide to take their pictures using a cell phone or their own camera. The thing is, most buyers are savvy and the internet is unforgiving: If your house does not catch the buyer's attention in 2 seconds, that buyer will move on to the next home. Staging and professional pictures make a huge difference!
- Do you offer 3D virtual tours and drone pictures/video? Especially important for those listings where the lot offers a special feature like a pond, marsh or water.
- What is your past success rate? What percentage of your listings end up selling?
- How do you market your listings? Most agents will do the 3 "P's": "Place a sign in the Yard", "Put it in MLS" and then "Pray that some other agent sells it soon". Look for an agent who adds another 2 "P's": "Promote your listing (online)" and "Prospect for Buyers for your listing".
At The Alan Donald Team, we meet or exceed all of the above criteria. Call us today on 843-900-0155 to receive a FREE copy of our "99-Step to Sell Your Home" publication.
Contact us today at 843-900-0155 or by email at info@alandonald.com for a no-cost, no-hassle consultation about your specific selling needs. We look forward to working with you!
Warmest regards,
Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.