We're going to talk about one of the biggest questions that's on the minds of buyers and sellers since the Ottawa market got red hot. And that is, Do I even need a real estate agent, an agent can either cost you or save you 10s of 1000s of dollars. And the truth is, not all real estate agents are the same. So if you do choose an agent to help you buy or sell your home, there are some important things that you should know first. So today, we're going to go through the 10 things that you should know before hiring an agent.
Hiring a real estate agent is just like any hiring process with you sitting on the boss's side of the table, it is critical you make the right decision of who is going to handle possibly the biggest financial decision of your life. And like I said, picking the right agent is one of those critical decisions that can either cost you or save you 10s of 1000s of dollars. There are some specific questions that you need to ask. And some agents may prefer that you don't ask these questions, because the knowledge you'll gain from these answers will give you a very good idea of what to expect from that agent. And let's face it, in real estates, like in life, not all things are created equal.
So here are the top 10 questions to ask before hiring an agent.
1. What makes you different? And why should I list with you? Today's market is a lot hotter and a lot more competitive than it was a decade ago when I got into real estate. So it makes all the difference. The real estate market has never been more competitive. So you need to know, what marketing plans and programs this agent have that are going to make your home stand out from the rest. What things can this agent offer you that's going to get your home sold in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassle? And for the most amount of money?
2. What are this agent's track record and reputation in the marketplace? It may seem like Everywhere you look you see agents boasting about number one for this or that or quoting how many homes they've sold. And you're thinking, Who cares how many homes they sold? I just want them to get the most amount of money from my home. But the truth is, it's because you want the most amount of money for your home that you want to be asking how many homes that they've actually sold, I'm sure you will agree that success in real estate is selling homes. So one agent is selling a lot of homes while another agent is only selling a handful. You want to ask yourself, why is one agent selling so much more than the other? What are they doing differently? You may be surprised to know that many agents sell fewer than 10 homes a year. If we pull up the actual stats for Ottawa agents, you'll see that 53% of agents sell 10 homes or less a year. This volume makes it difficult for them to do full impact marketing on your home because they can't raise the money it takes to afford the advertising and special programs to give your home a high profile. Also at this low level, they probably can't afford to hire an assistant, which means that they're running around trying to do all the components of the job themselves, which means service will suffer. You may be surprised to know that agents like me who sell over 100 homes a year are actually in the top 0.6 percentile of Realtors in Ottawa.
3. What is your marketing plan for my home? How much money does this agent spend in marketing as opposed to other agents that you're interviewing? And what mediums do they use? Are they able to talk about the effectiveness of one media versus the other? If you really want to surprise them? Ask how many buyers and sellers that they have in their Facebook pixel or in their Google remarketing campaigns, the top agents understand that you got to do more than just run homes for sale ads. You need to be constantly running ads and taking the information of all the potential buyers in the area. That way when you do have a home for sale, you can target directly those people in the marketplace. So they see that ad everywhere they go on the internet.
4. What have you sold in my area? Most agents when they come to your house are going to give you a list of comparable homes that have sold in the area. But you should also be asking which of these homes have you sold? or what have you sold in the area?
5. Who controls your marketing? Is it you or your broker? If this agent doesn't control their own marketing, then your home may not only be competing for advertising against their listings but all the listings from this agents brokerage
6. On average, when your listing sell, how close is that selling price to the asking price? All this information can be found with the Real Estate Board. So you should be asking this agent to show you how their numbers compared to the market average their performance and this measurement will help you predict how much money you will actually get for your home.
If you take a look at my team stats, you'll see that we sell our homes actually 62% faster than the average for 7.25% more than the average, which ends up being $38,000 more in our sellers pocket than the average agent. And for you buyers out there who think they can actually save money from buying a home for themselves. You'll notice that for our buyers, we save on average $18,000 per home.
7. On average, how long does it take your listing to sell? This measure will help you predict not only how fast your home will sell, but how much money you're going to get from it.
As you can see from this graph, the days or weeks on market will have a significant impact on how much your home will actually sell for. These numbers are a percentage of the asking price. So in week one, the average home sells for 111% of the asking price. Whereas in week eight, it will sell for on average for 96% or 95%. In week nine.
8. How many buyers are you currently working with? Obviously, the more buyers they're working with, the better chance that you have of selling your home, the better chance the agent has of creating an auction-like atmosphere and creating that demand for your home. Ask them about their system for attracting buyers, and how they qualify them and categorize them based on the timeline to move an area and type of home they're looking for. For example, we currently have over 5,000 buyers in our database right now 2,300 of those are looking to buy in the next 3 to 6 months. If we're looking at a specific subcategory, like say townhomes and Barrhaven, for example, we have exactly 42 buyers in our database right now looking for this type of home.
9. Do you have a reference list of clients that I can contact? Ask for a list of clients who have a similar home to you that they've helped sell already, you can also check Google and Facebook reviews and see what people are saying about them.
10. What happens if I'm not happy with the job you're doing to sell my home? Can I cancel the contract? Or am I stuck to working with you? Be very wary of agents that want to lock you into a long listing contract. These are often the agents that will promise you an unreasonable price and lock you into that contract trying to get you to do price reduction after price reduction to get your home sold. There are also agents who will try to charge you penalties for canceling early or try to charge you for some of the marketing they've done, such as photos or videos.
Now take your time to evaluate the agent's answer to each of these 10 questions and this should help you figure out who will do the best job for you.
