How to choose the right realtor

Making the choice of the right realtor to work with is one of the most important choices to make when you are looking to sell your house in the Vancouver area. It is worthy of note that the market moves quite fast in this area and there are a number of factors to put into consideration when you are trying to ascertain if the agent you chose is the best for you in terms of your needs. There are a number of questions you will need to ask an agent before you engage them. These questions will be based on Strategy, Results and experience.

Strategy. 

How do you intend marketing the house? Selling your house requires more than just placing a sign on your lawn and having it listed. You need to find out the main marketing strategy that they intend to adopt in order to give your building the much-needed exposure in the real estate market of Vancouver.

How do you intend to have my property promoted?

Aside from online strategies for promotion, an agent who is market savvy should easily have a good network of other agents in international and local markets as well as a database of would-be buyers that they could reach out to when they want to market your home. They should also be able to have your home advertised in certain print media like newspapers and certain real estate publications depending on the property type. An approach that is proactive rather than passive is needed in order to sell the property quickly at just the right price.

What is the site used in marketing the property?

Simply making use of an agent’s website will not give your give your property all the exposure it requires to be at an advantage over other buyers. You certainly need your property to be advertised on more than one national, local and international web platforms so as to make sure that as many people as possible get to see your property listed.

Do you make use of a professional photographer or a home stager?

Statistics indicate the houses that are staged professionally and photographed tend to sell off quicker and for more cash than houses that are not. Professional quality and staging photography certainly assist you in placing your property’s best side forward for the world to see, it also helps to highlight the layout, spaces as well as space.

Do you update the client regularly?

It is the responsibility of your agent to inform you in advance about how often they would have your updated about the outcomes they are delivering per time in the form of email and phone inquiries, open house visitors as well as showings. At least once per week is good enough for an agent to keep you updated and inform you about how things are progressing per time. It is worthy of note that offers in this industry are time sensitive and as such decisions have to be taken rather quickly.

What is the market share of your organization have in this regard?

While your main concern should be as regards the rapport with your agent as well as experience, the brand recognition should also help you in the improvement of your property’s exposure. For instance, certain notable agents are known to sell more houses for higher rates when compared with some other brokerages. They usually advertise both offline and online.

Do you have a team to assist in carrying out the transactions?

Some agents are known to work as components of a team while some others work on an independent basis. However, it should be noted that every agent should be licensed via a brokerage and their work ought to be monitored by the broker who is managing in their office. What this means is that even the single agents usually have the resource and support of a brokerage that is established backing them in every single step of the way as regards their transaction.

Experience

How long have you been in the business of selling real estate?

Despite the fact that this may not really be the most important thing as far as evaluating the competence of an agent is concerned, you certainly do not want to be too confident that they have some measure of experience as well as result to support the pitch they have for your business.

What is the number of listings you have now?

In the event that the agent does not have any current listings, you need to know if it is because all the listings have been sold off. You also need to know the last active listing, especially as regards the results. You also may need to find out what was the percentage of the asking price that the building later sold off for.

Find out the average listing price to price of sale percentage

In this scenario, the greater the number, the better it is. If for instance, you would be agent gets to sell their listing at a price that is close to or even more than the asking price, then it is a good pointer to the fact they are quite good in negotiating. These numbers are sure to be higher in the event that the market is moving quite quickly and in high demand.

Outputs

What is the successful track record?

You will also need to know what exact percentage of the agent’s listings will sell while it is listed with them. Also, you need to find out the average days on the market for the houses they have listed. More often than not, homes that priced properly will tend to sell in a very short time frame under the right market conditions. In the event that agent’s listings may not be selling or taking too much time, it may well mean that the pricing may be off.

How many homes have you sold in this neighbourhood? Some sellers prefer that their agent has experience selling properties in their specific neighbourhood. While it’s not necessary for an agent to have sold a house on your street for them to have the skills they need to sell your home, it does make sense for their sales experience to include nearby neighbourhoods So that they could have a good grasp of the market within your area. For instance, an agent that comes from Fraser Valley may not be quite as conversant with the Shaughnessy or Kitsilano areas of Vancouver as an agent who operates majorly in Vancouver.

How much do you collect a commission?

This may appear to be a case where the lower the commission that is charged the better it is. However, this may not be true. A number of agents actually offer you commission rates which are lower for the services they offer but may then reduce the quality they offer. You need to ask yourself what exactly means more to you- having more money in your pocket at the end of the day or you hope to pay the lowest amount of commission. More often than not, full commission agents tend to produce results of greater quality as a result of their extensive marketing inputs as well as wider contact network.

Conclusion

Making the choice of the right realtor is heavily dependent upon a number of factors. If you are able to decipher these questions listed above, you should be on the way to making good decisions based on your desired needs.