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Agent Name |
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Office Phone |
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Cell Phone |
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Email Address |
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Personal Website |
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Office Name |
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Address, City, State, Zip |
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Office Website |
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What is your real estate license number? |
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Number of years licensed? |
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How Long have you worked in residential real
estate sales?
Is this your full-time job? |
Newer agents tend to have more time for you. If
you go with a less-experienced agent, be sure
s/he has access to a competent, more experienced
mentor. Talk to the competent mentor to confirm.
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What designations do you hold? |
Designations like GRI and CRS require agents to
take additional, specialized classes. |
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Tell me about your real estate experience. |
Let the agent talk. If s/he neglects to cover
any of the questions below, ask them.
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What separates you from your competition? |
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How long have you worked in real estate in my
neighborhood? |
You want someone who knows and understands your
neighborhood. |
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How many houses in my neighborhood are on the
market now? |
Know your market. Go to all of the open houses
in your area, get the list prices, and compare
them with your house |
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What is the average number of days that houses
in my neighborhood are on the market?
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You want this number to be as low as possible.
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What percentage of your listings and your
company’s sold in the last 12 months?
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You want a high ratio of closed sales for your
area. |
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What was the average amount of time it took to
sell those listings? |
Compare the number you get from one agent to
the numbers you get from others you interview to
get an indication of how well the company and
the agent sells homes. |
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What was the average sales price? |
You’re looking for a price that is close to what
you believe your home is worth. Keep in mind,
however, that homeowners often believe their
homes are worth more than they really are. |
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What is your average List Price-to-Sales
Price Ratio? What is your company’s? |
Competent agents and brokerage houses keep stats
on their performance. You want your listing
agent to be skilled in negotiating sales prices
that are very close to the original list prices.
You want the final sales prices of homes the
agent has sold to be close to the initial asking
prices to know how skilled your agent is at
pricing homes and marketing them.
In other words, you want your listing
agent’s and his/her brokerage’s ratio to be very
close to 100%. A significant difference between
original list prices and actual sales prices
means you should take a careful look at the list
price your agent wants to attach to your house
(it may be too high). |
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How many homes do you have in escrow at the
moment? |
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How many of those homes are foreclosures? How
long did it take you to sell them? |
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How many of your home sales fell out of escrow
this year? Last year? Why? |
The last thing you want in a buyer’s market is
to open escrow and then have your house fall out
of it. If your house falls out of escrow, your
house will be viewed as damaged goods by
potential buyers, and you will be lucky to get a
full-price or close-to-full price offer again. |
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When we open escrow, I may want to close at a
title company of my choice rather than one
affiliated with your brokerage company. Is that
a problem? |
Agents have “affiliated” home inspectors,
mortgage brokers, title companies, etc.
“Affiliated” could mean that the agent or the
brokerage gets compensated when you use one of
their affiliates. You may be paying a premium
for the service or get a discount, so ask
questions. |
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What kind of support and supervision does your
brokerage office provide to you? |
Look for answers like mentoring programs,
in-house support staff, access to a real estate
attorney, etc. |
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How will you sell my house? |
Let your agent talk. If s/he neglects to cover
any of the questions below, ask them.
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Where will you advertise my house and how often? |
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On what websites will you list my house? |
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Will you take interior and exterior photographs
of my house and post them on the internet and
MLS? Virtual tour? |
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Will you do a comparative market analysis? |
Get copies of the comps. |
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Will you create a marketing flyer? |
Tell your agent you want to approve it and the
MLS listing. It is good to double check the
info. No one knows your house better than you.
Be sure to get a copy of the flyer. |
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Will you list my house on the MLS? |
Be sure to have your Agent send you an
electronic link to your MLS listing |
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How frequently will you hold Broker’s Caravans
and Open Houses? |
A Broker’s Caravan is like an open house for
agents and realtors. In Los Angeles, these are
usually held on Tuesdays from 11:00 am to
2:00pm. Real estate professionals view your
house during this time so they can decide which
buyers they want to show it to. |
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What else will you do to sell my house? |
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How will you arrive at a price for my house? |
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What do you think my house is worth? |
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I would like to review the Agency Disclosure,
Listing Agreement, and Seller
Disclosures while I am deciding to hire you
or not. |
Good real estate agents will make these
available to you well before deciding to sign
them. |
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What is the length of your listing contract? |
Remember to share your foreclosure status.
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If I am unhappy with our arrangement, can I
cancel the listing agreement? How? Has anyone
ever cancelled a listing agreement with you?
Why? |
Note the reasons you can cancel in writing in
the contract. |
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What is the total sales commission I will have
to pay? |
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I am facing foreclosure and have no equity in my
house. Will you reduce your commission? |
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Will you accept a lower commission if I do some
of the work you would normally do, such as
providing photography, producing flyers, or
handling open houses? |
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If you accept a lower commission, what effect
will that have on the commission to the buyer’s
agent? What affect will that have on selling my
house quickly? |
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Will you represent me exclusively or will you
also represent the buyer? |
Have your agent describe the agency relationship
to you and the rights of you and the buyer. |
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How will you keep me informed about the progress
of my transaction and how frequently?
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Please provide me with three recent references I
can call with questions about working with you. |
Make sure the references you get are not
relatives and close friends of the agent you’re
interviewing.
Ask references if they would work with the agent
again and if they were pleased with the
communication style, follow-up and work ethic of
the agent. |
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What else should I be asking you? |
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If you are selling your existing house and
buying a another one
at the same time, ask these questions: |
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Do you have experience with simultaneous
buying/selling transactions? |
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Do you have any leads on reasonably priced
bridge loans? |
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