Find best agent to sell your home

I want to list the house and then sit back have the agent/company do the work. The house will be listed for more than $400,000. A:

The Internet is great for so many things but at times you just can’t get the right information or the information you need. What you’re running into are companies that have made a fortune generating “leads” for real estate agents and brokers. You’re being driven to their page by search engine optimization or perhaps ads that have been purchased targeting you. It’s not a great way to pick an agent.

Here’s how to start: Drive around and look at who is listing homes similar to yours in your neighborhood. Call some of these companies on the phone and either ask for the agents who have listed the properties or ask to speak to the managing broker. You can discuss with the managing broker which specific agents have the highest number of sales for your neighborhood. At least that way you’ll be talking to someone who is active in your neighborhood. Your zip code may be far too large to get you the right person.

You should also know that by having the “top” performing person, that person could be someone with few actual sales but seriously high sales prices. Would you want a person that has done 100 sales in the $400,000 price range or the person that has done 10 sales in the $4 million range? They both might show up as having the same performance but the first one might know your market far better than the upper-end market real estate agent.

You also can find out if smaller companies are successful in your neighborhood. Just because the agency is small on a national scale doesn’t mean that they might not be right for you and your neighborhood. It’s possible that there is one particular brokerage house that has done quite well in your neighborhood and is well known for its listings there. If so, you might want to find out who works your area and talk to them. (Again, drive around and jot down the names of companies and agents who currently are listing property in your neighbor-

hood.)

Once you interview several agents, you can ask them to come over and see what they have to say about your home, the neighborhood and the market. You can ask them to prepare a comparative market analysis (CMA) and to give a recommendation as to what they would think the listing price should be for your home.

Once you have all that information, you can make a smarter decision and choose an agent who is a good fit.

As for using a discount broker, we don’t think that one will be a good choice for you. You said you want to sit back and have the listing broker do all the work. With that said, most discount brokers will have you do some of the work. They may list the home and have you show it, or charge you for each item you have them do.

It seems to us that you are looking for a full-service company to help you sell your home. Good luck.

Ilyce Glink is the creator of an 18-part webinar and ebook series called “The Intentional Investor: How to be wildly successful in real estate,” as well as the author of many books on real estate.

(c) 2015 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.