7
Essential questions to ask any real estate agent at the appraisal
interview.
 Real
estate appraisal Question 1. Do you have any extra fees if my property
doesn't sell ?
The sale may not goes
as planned, if it doesn't and you have a change of plans at a latter
date or you decide to change agents at a latter date protect your
self by finding out if there are any charges from the agent if the
property has not sold.
A lot of agents have
advertising and marketing charges which are on top of selling commissions
and these are chargeable regardless of whether the property is sold
or not, be aware if this is the case with your agent, look at as
a form of risk management, used to protect yourself against any
undisclosed potential financial loss.
Real
estate appraisal Question 2. How many properties have you sold in
my suburb ?
Although enthusiasm
is probably more important in sales than experience, you do want
to employ a real estate agent who has reasonable track record
in your neighborhood.
Providing they can
report that they have been active with a couple of recently negotiated
sales in your suburb, is probably sufficient.
This may even give
you a opportunity to speak to one or two of their past clients,
which is a great way to get a true insight into the agents ability,
you can do this if you know which properties that they have sold.
Real
estate appraisal Question 3. What is the average time the agency
takes to sell a property ?
This is the type of
information any decent real estate agent will probably offer to
you anyway, but if they don't tell you ask the question, and make
a note of the answer. Follow the question up with "Why does
it take that long ?"
this is a little bit
more probing and the type of question you want to fire at the agent,
remembering this is probably more than a $10,000 fee you are going
to be paying, you want to know your agent has all the answers particularly
when they are dealing with potential buyers for your property.
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Real
estate appraisal Question 4. Are your selling commissions
negotiable ?
Now we are talking
their language, I would be probably more impressed if the
agent answered that they don't negotiate on their fee on initial
questioning because what you are really looking for in a good
real estate agent is someone who knows how to negotiate.
If the agent
is prepared to quickly drop their own pay/fee just because
you asked it is a fair guess that they will probably also
quickly drop your selling price when asked by potential buyers.
Most agents
will probably offer you some type other type of incentive
to get the business of selling your property so definitely
ask the question the answer you get and how it is handled
will give you a terrific insight into what type of negotiator
your potential agent is.
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If you can't
get a reduction in selling fees perhaps they can offer some
other type off incentive to make it more attractive for you
to sell with them, particularly if they are confident of selling
your property, ask them to pay for the advertising or marketing,
there are still plenty of no sale no charge real estate agents
which at the end of the day is a fair system.
Real
estate appraisal Question 5. How long is the listing agreement for
?
This too should be
negotiable, most agents will want a listing agreement for between
3 - 4 months, I would advise any potential sellers not to list
for any longer than this and to be fair a good agent will be investing
a lot of time and effort into selling your property and this amount
of time is a reasonable time bracket for them to work in, but
definitely do not list for any longer than 4 months.
Some agents will insist
to you that they have a buyer for your property and will only need
to list it for one or two weeks to sell it, be very skeptical of
this type of approach as it could do damage to the value of your
property if you list with one agent for a couple of weeks and then
change to another agent.
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Real
estate appraisal Question 6. As an agent do you recommend
auction or private treaty sales ?
A good real of
thumb for suitable auction properties are properties that
are unique and hard to accurately assess for market value
also properties that there will be extremely high demand for
and you are almost guaranteed there will be more than one
party who would be interested in bidding for, may be suitable
for auction.
Having said
that in most cases an auction increases the margin for error,
and it puts an extra amount of pressure and stress on everybody
who is to be involved in the transaction.
An auction will
bring the marketing and advertising to an end day and will
possibly deliver a result because of this deadline, but this
is also what puts the pressure on the potential buyers, you
the seller, and the agent and their agency.
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I prefer to avoid
pressure and stress where I can, I find I make better decisions
when I am relaxed, how do you operate ? If auctions are popular
in your area it may make it more attractive for you but I
recommend you consider seriously if an auction campaign is
right for you.
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Real
estate appraisal Question 7. Will the agent let you rate them on
service on this real estate web site ?
This will test most
agents, and if they agree to this it shows they are really committed
to customer service.
What you are saying
after the sale is done and the commissions are paid is a true indication
of how the agent performed!
This puts the power
back in your hand and is designed to encourage the agent to deliver
good service all the way through the sale transaction, and hopefully
ensure that the rating you put on our web site for the agent be
positive and a glowing endorsement for the agent that will bring
them more business.
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If your real estate
agent does not want to participate in this system be careful because
there will only be one reason why a real estate agent would not
want to participate in this system:
1. They don’t
want their service levels monitored by their own customers!
Interviewing
realtors other things to consider.
If possible have all
property owners present when the real estate agent makes their presentation,
this saves mixed messages being passed from one property owner to
another about what the agent did or didn't say.
It also can give you
some extra confidence to ask the agent the hard questions if you
have some strength in numbers , remember the real estate agents
are trained sale professionals and a large percentage of their training
is taken up learning how to list property for sale.
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Be prepared to ask
the hard questions, don't be misled by the some large price some
agents may mention just to get you to list with them.
Focus on the person
and find a sales agent who you feel you can trust, one who offers
a sensible marketing campaign and who gives you some sort of written
guarantee that if the sale is not progressing as you had expected
within a reasonable amount of time you can be released from the
listing agreement.
Do your research before
listing your property for sale it may save you from some heart ache
down the line if the property takes longer to sell than you first
imagined.
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