So, you’ve finally made the decision to sell your home and you’re ready to hire a realtor. Now what? Well, that’s easy, right? Just hire the first realtor you come across in your area… Wrong!
Hiring the right Orlando realtor is crucial when listing your house for sale and it could save you a ton of headaches and thousands of dollars. There are currently over 8,000 active real estate agents in Orlando and choosing the right agent to list your home can be confusing especially when all the ones that you’ve spoken with have convincingly promised you the world… or at least that they will sell your home super fast for top dollar. Interviewing an Orlando realtor the right way will ensure that you get an outstanding real estate professional.
So which one should you believe? The answer’s easy… none of them. Anyone can tell you anything so it’s up to you to find the truth. When interviewing a real estate agent, you have to ask the right questions. Here is a list of questions that you should ask a real estate agent in the interview. These answers to these questions will help you to determine which realtor to choose.
1- Do you work as a realtor full-time or do you also have another job?
This is an easy one. If the agent tells you that they only work in real estate part-time, then you say “have a nice day…Next!” and move on to the next candidate. If they only work as a realtor part-time it means that not only are they not able to make enough money selling houses, but that selling your house won’t be a top priority.
2-How many listings do you currently have and how many are under contract?
This will tell you how hard of a worker the agent is and what’s the average time it takes to get a house under contract. If the agent only has a few listings or if they have listings that are several months old with no contract, then this is a sign of a somewhat lazy agent. You want an agent that is a go-getter and someone who is determined to get the job done ASAP.
3- How many houses have they sold in the past 6 months? How many in the past year? How many were they not able to sell and why?
Getting a clear picture of the realtor’s recent track record will give you a very good indication of what you can expect if they list your house.
4- Do you have some references from past clients that I can call and ask about you?
This is one of the best ways to find out how this agent will treat you moving forward. If they have no references to present to you then something’s wrong. This most likely means that they haven’t had very many happy clients.
5- Do you have a staff or an assistant or are you a one-man show?
A great real estate agent will always have a support staff or an assistant at the very least. There are a million details that a real estate agent has to deal with on a day-to-day basis and if they have to handle every tedious detail on their own, then they aren’t good at managing their time. Or they have too much time o their hands. Neither of these scenarios is a good one.
6- What kind of systems do you use for organizing and following up with your leads, clients, potential buyers, etc.
To be a successful agent in this day and age, you have to have systems in place so that things are organized and run streamlined and smoothly. Following up with clients, potential buyers, title companies, etc is a huge part of being a great realtor.
7- How will you market my house other than putting it o the MLS?
The majority of Orlando realtors list the house on the MLS and…that’s about it. There are soo many effective ways to market a house such as video marketing, social media marketing, blogging, target marketing, etc. all these techniques can be used to effectively sell houses. An outstanding realtor will constantly test new ways to market their listings and their houses will typically sell the fastest.
If you ask these questions when interviewing a realtor, then you will know what they’re about by the answers that they give you. Also, don’t interview just one agent, you should interview at least 3 agents and puck the one that you feel the most comfortable with.
