How To Find The Best Real Estate Agent
When you’re selling your house, it’s important to find the best real estate agent you can to get you the best possible price. A top real estate agent will have the knowledge, experience and skills to market your properties effectively and close the sale at a great price.
It’s simple to understand why you need a top real estate agent to represent you, however finding the best one for you is not so simple. In this article, we show you how you can find the best real estate agent for you, your house and your area.
Where To Find Top Agents
Find the best real estate agent in your area or near you is key when selling your house. Local knowledge is very important, so even a top agent who is not familiar with where you live won’t perform as well as a local agent.
An agent in your area will understand the local market conditions and know how to talk the area up to potential buyers.
Here are some of the best ways to find real estate agents near where you live.
Real Estate Agent Comparison Services
Use an online real estate agent search services that will let you easily find and compare agents in your area.
Top 3 Real Estate Agents does the search for you and suggests a shortlist of top agents. It’s a fast and easy way to find multiple top agents so you can easily compare them and find the best one for you.
It’s always good idea to make a shortlist of 2 to 3 agents to compare – Top 3 Real Estate Agents makes this process as easy as possible.
Asking Friends Or Family
If you know anyone who has sold their house recently and had a good experience, this could be a good way to find a suitable agent. They may also be able to help you decide on an agent you’ve found online if they have dealt with them before.
Be aware that agents are usually specialised – an agent may be out of their element just one or two suburbs over from their usual sales area. Make sure your agent has a sales history very close to your area – bonus points if they’ve sold in the same street.
Attend Open Homes
Even if you’re not looking to buy, you can visit a few open homes to meet agents in your area and get an idea of what they’re like when talking to potential buyers. This is also another good way to assess agents that you find through an online search.
Make sure that the agent hasn’t given all the work to their support staff, and is physically there greeting prospective buyers.
Questions To Ask Real Estate Agents
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of agents to a shortlist of two or three, you should interview them to get a feel for their communication skills, how easily you could work together and how experienced they are.
Here are the most important questions to ask.
How Long Have You Been A Real Estate Agent?
Everyone needs to start somewhere, but when it comes to getting the best price for your house, experience is important.
How Well Do You Know The Area?
It’s very important the agent knows the area well so they can highlight its most appealing features when talking to buyers. Agents aren’t just selling your house – they’re selling the area as well.
How Will You Market My House?
A top agent should have good ideas on how to market your house and how to get the best results, with a focus on what makes your property special. You want to be confident the agent can come up with a comprehensive plan covering the most important channels including online and print.
What Would You Do To Add Value To My Home?
A good agent should be able to suggest areas of improvement to your home to help increase the asking price. The best agents will find areas that can be improved at relatively low cost or effort for a big impact on value.
Improvements include renovations, repairs and even property styling for photography and for open homes.
What Is A Comparative Market Analysis?
A comparative market analysis (CMA) is something your potential agent should have done before meeting with you. It’s a complicated term but actually a pretty simple concept, it means looking at comparable listings and sales in your area to work out your house’s value.
- Listings in your area: Active listings show the agent the competition in the area, pending listings (listings under contract where the sale is not yet complete) show the direction of the market, while sold listings provide actual sales data.
- Comparable sales data: This comes from recently sold listings – agents will look at properties similar to yours to give them a good idea what your house might sell for.
A top agent will have this data prepared when they meet you and will be able to properly explain what it means and answer any questions you may have.
Remember, finding the best real estate agent is the most important step in getting a great sales price for you home. Request quotes now to start your selling journey now.