8 Questions To Ask Your Real Estate Agent in New England

 

If you’re going the traditional route, then finding a real estate agent — one that’s good at what they do and one that you can trust — is perhaps the most critical part of the home selling process. After all, the real estate agent is going to do most of the work. They’ll list your home, offer staging advice, show your home, negotiate with buyers, and handle the paperwork — the more adept they are, the better. But how do you know? Here are 8 questions to ask your real estate agent in New England before you hire them. 

Note: Want to skip the headache of selling your home the traditional way? How about we buy your home instead for cash? Give us a call at (781) 208-7362 to get your fair cash offer!

1. Are you a full time agent? 

You might be surprised to learn that there are over 2 million active real estate agents in the U.S. That’s a lot. But of course not all of those real estate agents are successful — many of them, in fact, are part time or only do a couple of transactions per year. 

Naturally, you want to work with an experienced real estate investor. And asking if the agent is full-time or part-time is a good way to gauge their level of experience, as well as the time and energy they’ll be able to devote to helping you sell your house. 

2. Do you have referrals from past clients? 

If a real estate agent is legit, then they should be more than happy to refer you to some of their past clients for recommendations. And we highly recommend asking them to do so. Regardless of what’s true, most real estate agents will tell you that they have a successful track record… but the only way to know whether that’s true or not is to speak with people they’ve worked with in the past.Were those clients happy with their experience? What did they like? What didn’t they like? That’ll give you a ton of useful information. 

3. How long have you been a real estate agent in New England?

How long someone has been a real estate agent isn’t a sure-fire way of determining the quality of service that they’ll provide — some new agents work overtime for their clients while some old agents do the bare minimum. But it is a helpful marker. So we recommend asking them how long they’ve been working as a real estate agent in New England before hiring them. You can ask follow-up questions based on their answers.

4. How much do you charge? 

A real estate agent that’s got nothing to hide — one that’s trustworthy — won’t be shy about sharing their rates. They’ll be honest and straightforward about how much commission they expect to make off the sale of your home, and they should even be willing to negotiate with you. If the agent doesn’t give you a straight answer when you ask this question, it might be best to look elsewhere — you don’t have time for dishonesty. 

5. Do you work with a team? 

To be clear, there are awesome real estate agents that work with a team… and there are awesome real estate agents that fly solo.So this question isn’t going to directly tell you whether or not you should work with the agent, but it will give you an idea of how they work and what you should expect throughout the process. 

6. What’s your marketing plan? 

The marketing phase of the home selling process is critical — how an agent markets your home will determine (at least partly) how much interest you get from buyers, how many offers you receive, and even how much you sell for. 

So ask the agent what their marketing plan looks like.

7. How do you determine selling price? 

Every agent approaches pricing a home a little differently. Once they’ve run comps and determined the true value of your home, they can either A) price your home a bit higher to help you get as much as possible or B) price your home a little lower to help it sell more quickly. 

The agent should price your home in a way that makes sense for what you need and not just for what they need. So ask them this question to determine their process and to make sure they have your best interest at heart. 

8. Will you also represent the buyer? 

From an agent’s perspective, representing the seller and the buyer for a transaction is advantageous — because then they don’t have to split the commission with another agent. 

Obviously, though, that can cause a conflict of interest and the agent might be thinking more of closing the deal than they are about helping your or the buyer. So it’s probably best if they only represent you in the transaction. 

Final Thoughts

Finding a trustworthy real estate agent with lots of experience is easier said than done. 

But by asking the above questions, you’ll get a really good idea of whether or not you want to work with a real estate agent. 

Pay attention to their answers, ask follow-up questions, and make a decision. 

And if you want to skip the headache of finding an agent altogether, give us a call at (781) 208-7362 and we can make you a fair cash offer on your home!

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Who is Old Harbor Properties?

We are local New England residents that focus on buying properties off-market (with no commissions) for cash. We are not “flippers” or “investors” looking to pay pennies on the dollar. We are local Sox fans with families and we focus on buying rental properties. This allows us to make fair market value offers based on comparable sales and needed repairs. If you want to sell the property where you’re currently living, give us a call at (781) 208-7362 we can make you a fair cash offer, buy as-is, and close in as little as two weeks!