2 Questions to Ask Your Agent Before You Hire Them

Raleigh Real Estate Podcast with Chris Gorman

Today, I’m going to be giving you the two best questions that you can ask a real estate agent while interviewing them to help you sell your home. Real estate agents in the business often make promises to their clients that aren’t always met. These questions will give you an indication of how well they’re going to be able to help you sell. Ask them about their average days on market over the last 12 months. That will tell you, on average, how fast they’re listing, which will also tell you how quickly they’ll be able to sell your house. What is their list-price-to-sales-price ratio? Essentially, how close to the seller’s list price to do their homes actually sell for? However, this doesn’t always give you an indication of how close their sales prices was to the original list price. Agents sometimes make promises about price during the listing presentation that are unrealistic, so they have to reduce the price to get it to sell. Usually, that will extend how long the house is on the market, since reduced price listings take longer to sell “These questions will give you an indication of how well they’re going to be able to help you sell.” In addition to those two things, you might also consider asking if they work by themselves or if they’re a part of a team. An individual agent has to do everything by themselves, and there are a lot of moving parts to a real estate transaction. They’ll be overworked, and it will inevitably affect their availability, response time, and management of the transaction. Having a support staff takes a lot off an agent’s plate and allows them to focus on what they do best: buying and selling homes and staying up-to-date on the market. If you have any questions or are looking to buy or sell a home, feel free to reach out to me.