There are several decisions you need to make when you sell your home – both financial and emotional. Often it’s one of your biggest assets, and of course, you want it in the best hands.
Therefore, one of your biggest and most important considerations when deciding to list your property is who will sell it for you.
While everyone approaches the sale of a home differently, there are some key things you should look for when choosing an agent to list your property with.
Do your research
As with anything in property, research is key.
It’s highly advised you look for an agent with a history of strong results in your suburb, or surroundings. Take into consideration metrics like average days on market, or auction clearance rates. These give you are a clear insight into what it’s like to work with that agent.
Find agents working in your area and put together a shortlist. Look at things like how many listings they have, their previous sales, and how they market both properties and their agency.
Go for local knowledge
When you meet with agents, find out how long they’ve worked in the area and test them on their local knowledge.
A good real estate agent should know as much about the property and the locality as the vendor.
This shows they’re invested in the local area and have a good understanding of the marketplace. It will also help them bring extra energy to the sale of your home.
Ultimately, they need to have a great understanding of the marketplace and local area they are selling in.
Take them for a test drive
Your agent is presenting your home to the public, so it’s important to see how they engage with buyers.
Go to open for inspections that your shortlisted agents are running to see how they present properties and how they interact with buyers.
Statistics show that 80% of the decision-making process when buying a property is emotional, so a good agent should know what buyers are going to respond to.
The agent people should be looking for is someone who can engage and nurture buyers. Respect and transparency are going to get the best outcome.
Ask questions, and ask some more
Remember that the more you know, the better prepared you’ll be for the sales campaign.
Ask agents to take you through case studies of other property sales and to talk you through how the sale happened and how the results were achieved.
Set benchmarks early
Any good real estate agent should come armed with a strategy to sell your home so make sure you set clearly defined objectives and check in regularly to see how the agent is tracking.
Lay everything out upfront and then test them on delivery – set your benchmarks upfront.
Make sure you’re comfortable
The last point is perhaps the most important – are you comfortable having this real estate agent sell your home?
Property sales are essentially a partnership between the agent and the vendor, with both workings to achieve the same goal.
If you would like to speak with one of our friendly and professional agents, please get in contact with us today!