Find The Right Realtor

Realtors are easy to find. If you own a home you might well get mail from them periodically offering to help you sell your home. Most of the time this mail is simply an annoyance. But now you have decided to sell. Should you just grab the next piece of mail from a realtor, sign up with them, and call it a day? Maybe. But maybe not too. This article will provide you with some tips that will help you find a realtor that is right for you:

1. Don't underestimate your personal relationship with the realtor. Selling a house is a major transaction and there is a lot of money involved. You need to feel like you have a good communication with your realtor. If you don't think they are listening to you, you will not want to take their advice. And if you won't listen to them, they become less motivated to work hard for you. Bottom line is that the relationship needs to have a positive give and take, even if they must give you advice that is not necessarily what you want to hear.

2. Find out about their experience and recent successes. How long have they been in business? If they have been around a while, this is a sign that they are good at it. How long have they been selling houses in your area? How many houses did they sell in the past year? These are all easy questions for them to answer, and they will help you understand how likely it is that they will be successful for you.

3. Find out what commission they expect. Typical numbers are between 5% and 7%. Don't be afraid to negotiate. One key tactic in lowering their commission is to make the realtor feel comfortable that you will have a no-nonsense approach to completing the sale. When a realtor finds a seller that understands their pricing advice, and looks ready to accept this and other advice, their chances of making a relatively quick sale go up. This is business they want. No one wants to deal with a difficult and demanding seller that will turn down strong offers because their ego makes it impossible to see a fair offer when it is placed in front of them. Your ability to present yourself as a smart seller who will recognize the right deal and take it can help you negotiate a lower commission with the realtor.

4. Ask the realtor how they will market your house. At a minimum, they should place you in the MLS system used by realtors to share listings. But will they provide newspaper advertising? An open house if needed? Find out what they will do and compare it to other realtors that you talk to.

5. Verify their personal involvement. Make sure that the realtor that you are talking to is actually the one who will work on your house. You don't want to build a great relationship with one realtor and find out that your house will actually be worked on by a different realtor (who may also be less experienced).

6. Ask for references. The realtor should be able to share the names and contact information other people that they have worked with in the recent past. Get the phone number and make the call. Then find out how the realtor's prior client liked working with them, how helpful they were, and how positive the final result turned out.

Last, but not least, make sure you talk to more than one realtor from different agencies. Ask each of them the same questions and compare the answers. Find out all you can about each of them so you have enough information to make the best decision for you.