24 Questions to Ask a Real Estate Agent Before You Hire One

How long do you usually work with buyers, from first viewing to closing?

It’s unlikely you will find what you’re looking for in a few days. If you have a long list of specifications, it could take even longer. The time from starting your home search to closing on a house could be several months. While there are no guidelines on how long it should take to buy a home, a good agent can move the process along faster.

They’ll know which neighborhoods have the features you want and could guide you to areas you didn’t initially consider. Their negotiating skills will help you win over other buyers and close the deal faster. Unless you live in an extremely difficult market, be wary of agents who answer this question with “six months or longer.”

What’s happening in this area, and how could that impact home prices?

Communities change over time as new businesses come in, schools are built, and demographics shift. A good agent keeps tabs on the local community and will know if a neighborhood is skewing more family-friendly or would be better suited for a retired couple. Whether it’s a walkability score or good schools, they can point you to the neighborhood that suits your lifestyle.

Have you completed many foreclosure or short-sale transactions?

Buyers who are looking for deals often focus on short sales or foreclosures. But, the process of buying a distressed property is much more complicated than buying a house from a traditional seller. And since they’re often sold as-is, your risks are higher.

If you’re considering including bank-owned properties in your home search, look for an agent who has closed complex deals in the past.

How do you help buyers stand out?

In competitive markets, it’s not enough to just put in an offer. Buyers often write offer letters, introducing themselves and explaining why they love the seller’s home (note that this practice is banned in certain states due to potential fair housing violations). They may also offer to waive an inspection or other contingencies to sweeten the deal.

Ask your agent what they recommend and how they’ve helped other buyers stand out from the crowd.

Questions to ask after you’ve selected your agent

How did you arrive at this listing price?

Market data should underlie any listing price, not just an agent’s gut feeling. Good agents prepare a comparative market analysis, or CMA, to show their clients. A CMA takes the sales data for your neighborhood, analyzing list-to-price ratio, market trends, and comparable sales to arrive at a list price for your house.

If you’re curious about what your home might be worth today, you can get a ballpark figure using HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator. The online tool pulls information from multiple sources to create a real-time estimate based on current market trends. It’s not a CMA, but it can be a good starting point if you are considering finding a top agent to sell your house.

How can I increase the selling price? Do I need to make repairs or hire a stager?

Want to get top dollar for your house? A few small tweaks, and a few hundred dollars of repairs, could increase your list price. If your home has oddly shaped rooms, a stager could highlight their uses and distract from any flaws. Ask your agent if there are any small things you could do to increase your selling price.

What can I do to get this house ready for showings?

Selling a home can sometimes be a full-time job for sellers, too, Fleishman says.

Start getting rid of clutter now. Ask what the agent believes should go — the pile of children’s toys, the wall full of family photographs, the bed from a room that will be staged as an office — and get a head start on packing for the move.

What pitfalls or mistakes should I avoid in this process?

With thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars on the line, you want an agent who will be honest with you.

Try to remove your emotions from the equation — yes, you love the space mural you painted on your kid’s bedroom wall, but if your listing agent suggests painting over it to widen your target market, listen to them.

Ask them to point out any potential pitfalls with selling or buying. If you’re buying using FHA financing and sellers in your market prefer other financing options, you want to know.

Work with agents who sell homes fast and get you the best price

The wrong pricing or marketing strategy from an unqualified real estate agent can put thousands of dollars on the line. They could cost you sleepless nights worrying about a sale falling through or add stressful days filled with concerns you won’t net a profit.

The right real estate agent won’t let your home sit on the market and lose value. HomeLight analyzes over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs. Our data shows that the top 5% of real estate agents across the U.S. sell homes for up to 10% more than the average real estate agent.

We’ll use average days on market data to compare real estate agents on how fast they’ve sold homes like yours and find a top real estate agent near you who can save you time and money. The Agent Finder service is 100% free. Agents don’t pay us to be listed, so you get the best match.

In closing – 2 minutes might make all the difference

It takes just two minutes to match you with the best real estate agents, who you can then interview before coming to a hiring decision. When you enlist a top agent, you’ll have an expert to seamlessly guide you through the home buying or selling journey, right up to the moment you close the deal!

Header Image Source: (Mikes Photos/ Pexels)