For their part, agents often rely on open houses more as a way to meet potential customers than as a way to sell a particular home.
Once you identify a few potential agents, meet and interview them in person to assess their qualifications and to see how well you connect before hiring them, authorities stress. Ask for references, and check them.
Questions For and About Your Agent
Questions to ask friends or colleagues who recommend a real estate agent:
• How satisfied were you with the agent?
• Did you feel the representation was good?
• Did the agent keep you informed at each step of the process?
• Was the agent accessible and reliable?
• Was the agent helpful? In what ways?
• How well does the agent know various neighborhoods?
• What mistakes did the agent make?
• In what area did the agent lack knowledge?
Questions to ask potential real estate agents:
• Are you willing to communicate in my preferred way (phone or e-mail or both)?
• How long have you been in the business?
• How many transactions do you handle annually?
• How much time do you expect to spend with me and working on my behalf?
• What advanced training do you have? What professional awards have you won?
• Can you provide references?
Sellers can also ask:
• What advertising mediums will be used to sell the house?
• How often will open houses be held? Does the house always have to be ready for showing?
• Will the home be listed on the Internet? Will that include photos?
• How many homes have you sold in my neighborhood?
• How much do you think my home is worth and how did you come up with that number?
• How will you help me prepare my home for sale?
Buyers can also ask:
• How well do you know the area?
• Will you show me properties beyond those listed by your firm?
• Which inspectors, appraisers or mortgage bankers will you refer me to?
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Find out each potential agent's specific plan for getting your home seen by prospective buyers, recommended Rodney Rice, co-founder and co-chief executive of ServiceMagic, a Colorado-based online company that connects homeowners to service professionals.
Buyers and sellers should ask candidates what types of properties they specialize in, suggested O'Hara. She explained that if the agent's strength is high-end homes on the west side of town and you're looking for moderate-priced homes on the east side, the match might be a poor one.
Additionally, ask the agents about their education and experience and whether they work part time or full time, O'Hara said. But she cautioned that intangible factors matter, too, and that a new agent who "has a lot of drive" or a part-time agent who seems very accessible may be the best choice.
Do some background checking on agents you are considering hiring, said Dorcas Helfant, past president of the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors and principal broker at Coldwell Banker Professional in Virginia Beach. She recommends calling your state licensing agency to find out whether any complaints have been filed against a particular agent. Also, you can check the status of agents who belong to the National Association of Realtors with the local Realtor organization and learn whether they are in good standing, meaning they have adhered to the organization's code of ethics and standards of conduct, she said.
Once you narrow down your pool of candidates to a qualified few, the choice is more personality-based than scientific, said Helfant. Posell and Greenstein found that to be true after their initial bad experience with the agent who wasn't licensed in Maryland. When they started another housing search in 2003, they met with an agent who came highly recommended and knew the Silver Spring neighborhoods where they wanted to buy.
But even better, said Posell, she was "matter of fact and no nonsense. . . . Her approach worked for us."
