The Interview

The Interview By Theresa Grant Real Estate columnist If, at some point you decide to list your house for sale, you may choose to enlist the guidance and expertise of a realtor. If so, it is important to not only choose the right one for you but also know how to. Many people know at least one, and in some cases a person may know several real estate agents so it may just be a matter of choosing which one they will pick to represent them in their transaction. It is the people that really don’t know any realtors to speak of that need to follow another process. That is the good old fashioned interview process. Deciding on a realtor to handle your transaction is very important because it is often the biggest transaction of your life involving a great deal of money, and many moving parts – no pun intended. One of the best ways to go about this is to use the same method that you might use if you were hiring a contractor to do some work for you. Most people subscribe to the three-quote theory. They have three different people or companies come in, do an assessment and provide a quote on the work to be done. The same is advised when hiring a relator to list and sell your home. No different than a contractor, you would want to know how much experience that person has in the type of work you’re looking to have done. You would also want to see examples of work that the contractor has done previously so you can determine if that contractor would be a good fit for what you are looking to have done. You definitely want to make sure the person you are going to hire will do the work at the price you want to pay. Keeping in mind, all things are negotiable. Some people are not aware that you can negotiate a commission price with the realtor. That is one reason that you want to interview more than one realtor. It is never up to the realtor to choose the listing price of a home, that is strictly up to the home owner. That being said, a realtor is there to provide information that will help you determine the best asking price for your home. Some advice on finding a realtor would be to call three different brokerages. You can google real estate brokerages in your area. Set appointments for three agents, one from each brokerage, to come and visit you at your home. They will do some background work prior to arriving so they have a package to present to you upon arrival. Remember, you are in the driver’s seat here. You can formulate some important questions to ask each agent. Allow the agents to present their materials to you. Don’t feel awkward to come right out and ask each agent why they think you should hire them. After all this is a real job interview. They are asking you to hire them for this task, it is only fair that you should ask, why you? At the end of the process, you should have a pretty good idea of who fits the bill to you your liking, and who you feel most comfortable with. Remember, you are forging a relationship here, you want to make it a good one.