Selling My Home or Condo | Which Realtor do I hire?
Which Realtor do I hire?
Believe it or not, not all Realtors are created equal. Here is a list of questions and concerns you should look for in a listing agent to sell your home.
- Is the Realtor a full time agent? – Full time agents are here for you full time, 7 days a week. If someone is trying to see your home and your realtor is at a full time job during the day then how can they answer the phone from another agent or call off the sign. Customer service including other agents is a must in this business. Agents and customer will move on if they can’t get a hold of someone to answer their questions or setup a showing.
- Do they have a team so there is no downtime? – While your home is for sale, it should be available to show 7 days a week. If your realtor goes on vacation, sick or has a scheduling conflict doesn’t mean that it should’nt be shown. Teams allow for showings at any time. If the listing realtor is not available then a team member or assistant can show the property.
- Are they an experienced agent or a new agent? – Experienced agents have years of experience in sales and most have been through additional training other than just a real estate license to service their customers (see e-Pro designation below). They have also learned what kind of marketing works and what does not work as well as a large database of customers and leads as part of their marketing plan to sell your home.
- Are they familiar with the area your home is in? – Familiarity with your neighborhood is a must inlcuding home sales in the area, trends, days on market for the area, whats changing, etc…
- Do they have a website to market your home? – There are numerous realtors out there that do not even have a website. While internet marketing is the norm now, this is a requirement to get the most exposure for your home. If they do have a website, is it search engine optimized, meaning do they come up in google, bing and yahoo on the 1st or 2nd page?
- Do they have a marketing plan that is more than the default plan that all agents have? – There are what I call default marketing plans that every realtor gets just by joining their local board of realtors as well as the Florida Realtors association and the National Assocaiton of Realtors. These marketing tools arre available to each and every Realtor to use no matter what size company your with which is what most realtors have on their listing presentation. Larger companies do NOT mean better marketing. What sellers need to look for is over and above marketing plans. Over 90% of buyers start their search on the internet so look for extensive internet marketing and not just the default ones that everyone has access to. The list below shows just some of the items that most realtors do NOT do as part of their marketing plan, but Dale Palmer & Associates does. I would be happy to go over the entire list in our complete listing presentation. Contact Us.
- Did you know we can put 35 pictures of your home in our MLS? – Pictures and videos get showings, the more the better especially for todays internet advertising.
- Did you know that we can attach a video of your home in our MLS?
- Did you know that GOOGLE owns YouTube? – Creating a YouTube video of your home gets your home exposed more in google search results. Other products that realtors use do not get indexed by google and will not show up.
- Do they have a YouTube channel to promote your home and is visited. – Ask to see their YouTube channel and look at the number of visitors they have had.
- Do they do press releases for your home or condo? – These get distributed through real estate news organizations all over the world.
- Do they put your home or condo for sale on the front page of their website?
- Do they allow other realtors to advertise your home or condo for sale? (Explanation in statement below this section)
- Look for differences in marketing. Expanded internet marketing is required in todays market – According to NAR (National Association of Realtors) 88% of buyers start their search on the internet. So where should your realtor be advertising?
- Do they allow other realtors to advertise your home or condo? – This is something that has bothered me for years. Why don’t listing agents allow other realtors to advertise their listings? Some probably just want to try and get both sides of the deal. There is a flag in MLS that says “OK to Advertise” yes or no. Basically it allows other realtors to advertise my companies listings. My job is to sell your property within your time frame you require so why wouldn’t I allow other realtors to advertise the listing as much as possible to help bring in a buyer for your home. Why not have all realtors working and advertising to sell your home. Most realtors do NOT allow this. Ask them. Sellers should look for this in realtors marketing plans.
- Hire a REALTOR. – Did you know there is a difference between a REALTOR and a real estate agent? A REALTOR is a member of the local board of realtors and is backed by legal funds, processes and is held to a higher standard of work ethics. REALTOR is a registered trademark, meaning your a member of the local board, Florida Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.
- Hire a REALTOR with the e-Pro designation – Realtors that have the e-Pro designation means they have been through additional training for marketing your home on the internet. e-Pro means they are a real estate marketing pro and earned that from the National Association of Realtors. For more information on this designation, please click here. Dale Palmer earned his e-Pro designation in 2011.