How to Choose a Real Estate Agent When Selling

Deciding to sell a property, whether it’s an investment or your own home, is a big step.

You might be planning to upsize, downsize, relocate, or let go of an investment; regardless of your motivations, selling your property comes with a lot of considerations.

Choosing the right real estate agent is key in helping you succeed in pulling off a smooth, stress-free, and profitable property sale.

But with so many real estate agents out there, where do you start when trying to find the right one for you?

Asking these 6 questions will help narrow your search and find your real estate angel:

1. What’s the best method to sell this property?

Essentially, there are three different strategies for selling a property: private treaty sale, tender, or auction.

Each method has various benefits and negatives and will suit different markets at different times.

With a great real estate agent on board, they’ll take a look at everything your property offers before guiding you towards choosing the strategy that best suits your situation and current market conditions.

2. How should we advertise and market the property?

Marketing and advertising can make so much difference to the selling price of a property.

So before you pick an agent, ask them how they’d approach this aspect of selling.

What sort of campaign would they suggest?

Do they recommend online, print, and/or social media marketing?

How would they create the most excitement around, and interest in, your property?

Their marketing and advertising strategy will create the first impression that potential buyers will have of your property – so it needs to make an impact.

Choose an agent that can give you a clear outline of the campaign, as well as the estimated costs.

3. Is now a good time to sell?

Obviously, the real estate agent wants your listing, so they’re likely to highlight the benefits of selling right now.

But a great real estate agent will be honest about current conditions: they’ll tell you how your particular market has changed over the last 12 months, which types of buyers are most active, and what kind of activity they expect on your property.

They should also be able to estimate how long they think it’ll take to sell.

A truly fantastic selling agent, however, will take this one step further, and advise you on the benefits of selling now versus selling later – even if it’s a matter of delaying the property going to market by a few weeks, or even several months.

This demonstrates their integrity and professionalism, if they’re prepared to give you unbiased advice, even if it has the potential to delay their sales commission.

4. What is your track record like?

Any agent worth their salt will be all too happy to prove they’ve got a successful track record in selling.

Whether they show you this by sharing their most recent sales statistics, testimonials from other happy clients or even providing contact details to references, it will always be a prudent question to ask.

Be sure to look for their results in the particular suburb that you’re selling in, too, as agents with local expertise will have the edge on ‘out of area’ agents.

5. How much is all of this going to cost?

A good real estate agent will be able to give you a good estimate of how much it’s going to cost you to sell, including selling commission, fees, advertising, and marketing costs.

This cost varies depending on your location, but most agents generally charge between 2-3% of the sale price plus GST.

Other costs to factor in include bank fees and charges for releasing the mortgage.

6. Why should I hire you?

This one is plain and simple, but so important.

Any real estate agent who really wants your business will be able to tell you why you should choose them – with confidence.

What are the benefits of choosing them over another agent?

Do they endeavour to be consistently and frequently available?

How do they work under pressure? What hours do they keep?

Can they relate well to clients by going light on the real estate jargon?

You may think all estate agents are the same, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Remember, you’re hiring them and entrusting them to assist you with something potentially life-changing: the sale of your lucrative property asset.

So, don’t be afraid to ask too many questions – as getting the right fit could make all the difference to your bank balance at the end.

ALSO READ: 9 Things I wish I knew before buying my first property