Hiring a Halifax Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home

Is interviewing a real estate agent such a daunting task?

Not really!

Yet, most people don’t even think twice about it, because once the idea of selling their home pops up in their minds, the first agent who they get exposed to, either through a marketing drop in their mail, via a ‘For Sale’ sign in someone’s yard, or even an open house, the vast majority of home sellers will hire that one particular agent on the spot!

According to the “Highlights From the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers” by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 72% of home sellers contacted only one real estate agent before deciding on the ‘right agent’ they like sell their home through.

The big question here is…. how does one avoid choosing the wrong real estate agent for the job?

Either you interview a real estate agent and decide to hire him right there and then; or you opt to interview a couple of real estate agents. Whichever route you, as a Halifax home seller decide to take, make sure you have prepared at least a handful of questions, which should quickly determine whether your decision to hire that real estate agent was the good one (or not)!

Personally, I always recommend my home sellers to interview 3 local agents before choosing a real estate agent, as this will give them a much better feel for suggested marketing price, as well as see which agent’s personality is perhaps a better match to theirs!

Let’s hope this list of 10 questions on “How To Interview A Real Estate Agent When Selling Your Halifax Home” will come in very handy for you.

Question #1: How long have you been a real estate agent?

As much as enthusiasm and passion a beginning real estate agent might bring to the table, when it is time for contract negotiation, it will be the (negotiation) experience of the agent which will bring the deal to a successful close!

The more contracts a real estate agent has written over the years, the more experience he will have in detecting, avoiding, preparing, anticipating potential pitfalls! As any experienced Halifax real estate agent can attest to, there’s no such thing a ‘simple contract’ – every contract is unique and will require a customized legal frame work, making sure the terms and conditions of the deal are ironclad!

Question #2: How many real estate transactions did you close last year?

This might perhaps be seen as a rude or inappropriate question to ask if it were asked in any other field than real estate.

Real estate agents are always talking amongst one another about production numbers, as it’s an integrate part of their business models, annual goals, and getting more business!

Whereas the abstract figure won’t necessarily tell you a lot (other than give you a rough idea how much commission the agent made), it does give you an idea of how active the real estate agent is.

It might be tempting to look at the total number and use it as the sole measuring stick on how successful the agent was, but one needs to put it into perspective:

The real estate agent who sold the lower number of properties over the past 12 months might not immediately be your first choice, neither should the agent who sold 50 properties in a particular year.

And why might that be?

During a listing presentation, some real estate agents may tell you as the homeowner what you’d like to hear, as they’re hoping to get the listing and price you lower over the next few weeks or months. You’d be surprised at how often this happens.

Real Estate agents who give the highest listing price, do get a lot of business from home sellers, who don’t necessarily know any better, until it’s too late and the property has been exposed to the market for way too long! The overpriced properties you see lingering about for months on end, and plenty of expired listings are proof of that.

In other words, the ratio of houses the agent eventually sells versus the (overpriced) properties that he or she still has on the books (which is called the sales-to-listing ratio) will be an important number to watch.

Question #3: Is being a real estate agent your full-time job?

There is this misconception that being a real estate agent must be such an easy job, which lets you sleep in long, go home early and pay golf every day, AND is making you bundles of money in no time!

Wouldn’t that be nice?!

So, if you interview a real estate agent who’s been around for a while, you will more than likely hear something completely different!

While one might initially be going through training and learning the ropes on a part-time basis, providing a professional service to your clients does require a full-time real estate agent.

How is the part-time real estate agent going to handle all the incoming viewing requests, specific property enquiries by home buyers or property valuations for home sellers if he’s too busy working another job?

Nevermind what might all happen if there’s talk of writing an offer at the ‘wrong time’ for this part-time agent?! Time constraint? Availability?

Imagine as a Halifax home seller to be losing such an interested home buyer because the (part-time) agent’s agenda can’t accommodate!

Needless to say, hiring a part-time real estate agent is not advisable!

Question #4: How often can we expect feedback from you?

Perhaps the line of questioning ought to go in the direction of who will be providing the feedback!

Is the real estate agent working on his own, together with a personal assistant or is there an entire team behind the scene?

And more importantly, who will end up being the person you, as the Halifax home seller, will get all the feedback from? The listing agent? The buyer agent? Their assistant?

It’s only normal for a home seller wanting to know what the home buyers have been saying about their property during the viewings over the course of the week. Most well-oiled teams have this part covered with a feedback system to make sure the home seller gets properly AND timely informed about the buyer feedback!

Not only before the property is sold, but also during and afterwards, it’s vital for the real estate agent to keep the home seller in the loop of where they stand in the process: is a home inspection due or is the bank appraisal taking place soon? Plus, will the agent be present during those activities as well?

Each of those events, as small or big as they may be, requires feedback to the home seller. This is where a professional real estate agent (and/or team) stands out from the crowd! It’s my belief there’s no such thing as too much feedback!

Question #5: How do you normally communicate with your clients?

Depending on how the real estate agent responds to the previous question, you’ll lead right into this one.

Once you’ve established the frequency or timing of the feedback, you need to figure out which communication medium your agent uses with other clients.

When you interview a real estate agent, you need to make sure to inform the real estate agent of your preferred method of communication!

Some people are stuck on a personal phone call following every showing appointment, others might be too busy and rather prefer you to send them a text message or email them a summary of what happened during the viewing.

Which ever real estate agent you choose, it’s worth remembering that he or she is in control of the sale of your most expensive asset.

Question #6: Can you provide us with a recent list of client references?

There are pretty much two options you could go with:

(1) ask the real estate agent for a list of recent client references, which is something he’ll more than likely have written out on a personal testimonial page on his website.

(2) maybe a better option would be to request the details of the last few homes he or she sold and consequently contact those people yourself. It might take a little bit more time and effort, but the feedback you’ll get from these previous clients will more than likely be quite informative.

Question #7: How did you determine the asking price of our home?

Here, you have a couple of popular ways to arrive at the market value:

(1) There’s the so-called price per square foot calculation, which (personally speaking) has too many flaws to really be used in residential real estate.

(2) The most commonly used method (as well as the best one) is the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), which allows the agent to look at the recently sold properties in your immediate vicinity, as well as the current properties for sale, all within a similar size, look and price range, in order to arrive at a fair market value!

As you interview a Halifax real estate agent, nothing stops you from asking him to show you some proof regarding the CMA’s conclusions.

Question #8: Will you personally be taking pictures of our home?

How often have you browsed a property online and come across some incredibly bad pictures?

What was the real estate agent thinking? And how did the seller approve that marketing material?

This makes you stop and think who could have possibly have taken those unprofessional photos?

Whereas there are real estate agents who have particular good photography skills and appropriate equipment to present your home at its best, the majority of real estate agents don’t.

The importance of having great photos as part of your marketing cannot be stressed enough!

Bottom line: unless this real estate agent is a pro at taking real estate photos himself, don’t even entertain the option! Get a professional photographer to showcase your home.

Question #9: Which advertising tools will you be using to market our home?

Marketing should be happening all over. Your property needs to get exposed to as many potential home buyers as possible!

As a quick reminder, 90% of the home buyers start their home search online!

Why would an agent not want to be in front of that audience?!

The internet is where all the researching and reading up happens, months before the home buyer even contacts the agent!

Through the real estate agent’s online activities across many social network platforms, his personal website, and an active blogging calendar, chances are very good that the home buyers will keep running into that agent’s content and your home too!

Question #10: Do you provide any additional services?

Sometimes it’s nice to know whether the real estate agent can offer you something different from the other agents!

Any experienced real estate agent will immediately suggest helping out with the presentation of your home: from the cleaning & decluttering, to some of the needed repairs to the house, to getting that garden up-to-date, with extra attention pruning the shrubs & trimming the lawn!

Provided that the agent has been working in the local area for many years, he’ll be able to set you up with a list of vendors as well, ranging from local handymen, lawyers, moving companies, to name but a few.

Keep in mind that the agents have your best interest at heart and don’t mean anything personal or hurtful if they point out potential negatives throughout the house.

The real estate agent’s advice shouldn’t be taken lightly, as it’ll be in his interest as well to have a more desirable AND saleable product to present to their buyers!

Other Helpful Home Seller Interview Resources:

Again, as a Halifax home seller, please make sure to do your homework prior to hiring your real estate agent! Going through this exercise of asking all these interview questions might seem a bit much, don’t forget you only have one chance to make a first impression when you’re putting your property on the market! It better be a good one – home buyers will not be too forgiven if you change strategy, price, or real estate agent mid-way the home selling process!